In a normal year, I would have slept through most of this weekend, after flying home from Las Vegas on Friday night as Virtuoso Travel Week normally wraps up.  This year, I only had to walk from my office to the living room, so the journey wasn’t quite as exhausting.

There is no doubt that attending this event, and connecting with all our contacts via video-conferencing was not as good as being there in person, but we all really did try to make the best of the situation, and I do feel that I learned as much as I have in other years, definitely making it a worthwhile effort.

I thought some of the trends being discussed at Virtuoso Travel Week might be of interest to our readers, so here’s summary of a week’s worth of meetings:

When can we travel again?

• There are lots of opinions on this, and only those possessing a time-machine know for sure, but consensus is that travel will start to ramp back up later this year, and through the first half of next year. 
• Vaccines are at the center of a recovery, and it is hoped they will be available by the end of the year.  The other pillars of a return to normalcy are rapid (and accurate) testing, treatment options and contact tracing.  These tools to combat the virus may be available before a proven vaccine. 
• Gloria Guevera, the President of the WTTC (World Travel & Tourism Council) addressed us and spoke optimistically about the things we can learn from those countries that have had the best outcomes to date in managing covid. 

Where are People Most Interested in Going Next?

• There are some interesting data points here that I am still digesting.  As you would expect, people are planning domestic travel, but the top-five destinations are not quite the same as they were pre-covid.  They are: California, Hawaii, Alaska, Washington and Montana.  Nobody could tell me why, but I’m guessing there is a strong focus on National Parks that is driving this.
• For cruising, there is a parallel trend:  Alaska and Canada/New England are selling very briskly for 2021 right now.  We are also seeing strong interest in the Rocky Mountaineer Luxury Train Trip (also in Canada).
• Internationally, there are also some new trends.  South Africa has overtaken Italy as the place most people are booking to.  Italy fell to second place followed by Australia, France, and Japan. 
• For cruising, we are seeing European River Cruises continuing to be very popular for next year, as well as Egypt (Nile River) and Southern Africa (Zambezi River).

How will it be different?

• Even if we get a vaccine, and other countermeasures in place in short order, it will still take some time to get them fully deployed, so we can count on some differences in the way we travel.  Some changes may remain permanent.  For example…
• Muster Drills:  For the cruise ships that have returned to service in Europe, they are doing the safety chat on TV, and then asking people to report to their muster stations within a specific time period.  This practice may outlive the pandemic.
• Cruise sales overall are down 6% for 2021 over where they would normally be this many months in advance.  However, small-ship ocean cruises, and river cruises are MORE fully booked out than they would normally be for 2021.  Part of this is undoubtedly due to rebooking of 2020 cancelled cruises, but there is another trend at work here too.  It seems that people aren’t all the worried about catching covid.  Their fear is getting stuck on a ship somewhere with no way to get ashore to get home.  This doesn’t happen on river ships and is much less likely on a small ocean vessel.
• Masks will be part of our reality when we fly for some time yet.
• Buffets on board ships are not available now, and there is some question as to whether they’ll return or not.  Buffets are not really consistent with a luxury experience, so while they may eventually return to the mega-ships, it is an open question as to whether river ships and small ocean vessels will return to buffets once all this nonsense is over.
• Reduced capacity on both ships and in hotels until further notice.
• Bubble-Travel.  This is a trend we’re seeing amongst land-tour operators.  Extended families or groups of two or three families are getting their very own group when doing land tours.  These groups are normally 8 – 12 people, and some land tour operators are making this a very attractive way to get out there again while minimizing the risk.  I’ll write more about this next week.

Finally, Gloria Guevara (President, WTTC) reinforced for us the importance of the tourism industry both in the United States and abroad.  Travel and tourism is responsible for about 1 in 10 jobs globally, so the spin-off effects of having shut the industry down are devastating.  Some governments around the world have recognized this fact, and attempted to put mitigating factors in place, but there is no doubt there are a lot of people hurting both at home and in those countries we like to visit. 

Over-tourism (a very real problem) has given way to under-tourism this year, as the whole industry has simply ground to a halt.  Hopefully, as we emerge from the pandemic we can return to travel in a thoughtful and sustainable way.

For me… I’m looking forward to being back in Vegas in person next August to take in Virtuoso Travel Week 2021 (and the floral scents of the Bellagio!)

Have something to say about this?

Join the conversation on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PamperedCruiser/posts/2771749366440893

If you’re planning a trip, I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley

Under normal circumstances, Las Vegas is probably the last place on earth I would volunteer to be in August.  For those of us who live in the Northern half of the country, summer is the time we strive to be outdoors before the days get short again, and the rain and snow begins.

But every year in the second week of August in Las Vegas, there’s an event compelling enough to get me to the desert (“… but it’s a dry heat!!”).  Virtuoso Travel Week is to luxury travel what Paris Fashion Week is to the haute-couture apparel industry.  Bob and I get to renew our relationships with the powers-that-be at the cruise lines and other travel providers, as well as learn what’s new in the world of luxury leisure travel.

To clear up any misconceptions, we are NOT planning to fly to Vegas and check into the Bellagio with our facemasks and haz-mat suits this year! Virtuoso made the decision a couple of months ago to host the 2020 Travel Week as a virtual event.  I am not under any illusions here – it won’t be near as much fun attending this from our home office as it would to be together with our peers and suppliers sharing laughs in the hallways.

The good news is that my feet won’t be near as swollen this year (a by-product of any trade show), and I have a high level of confidence that there will still be tons of learning opportunities.

The big two questions that everyone wants answers to are:

1. When will be able to travel abroad again, like we used to do?
2. What are the new travel protocols, and precautions going to look like?

Frankly, those are NOT the questions I am looking for answers to.  Here’s why:

1. Anyone who says they know when life will return to normal is a charlatan or delusional. 
2. Each travel provider, whether it be a hotel, air carrier or cruise line has extensive literature and videos on their website for what they are doing to manage covid for however long this is part of our reality.

Instead, I’ll be coming with a different group of questions. 

I want to know about new destinations, properties, or products that might interest our clients.  I want to know what trends are emerging in the industry, and how the pandemic might have changed how and where people will travel.  Next year is already more booked up than any year has been previously at this point, so where is the pent-up demand going to show itself?

In the short term, domestic travel will likely rule the roost.  What domestic products are out there that I might not be as familiar with that our clients (with their new expectations) might be interested in?

There are about 1500 leisure travel suppliers at this virtual event.  Essentially every cruise line and tour operator that you’ve heard of is attending.  There are also a whole bunch you haven’t heard of.  So – what do you want to know?  

• What destinations would you consider travelling to in the next six months?
• What type of experiences would you consider at this time?
• With the shorter-term focus on domestic travel, which destinations in the Lower 48 are of the most interest to you?
• Are there any other questions we can ask on your behalf of the leaders of these travel vendors?

Please reply with your thoughts about these questions on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PamperedCruiser/posts/2765581517057678

If you’re planning a trip, I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley

Back in March when the travel industry first started reacting to the pandemic (seems like a decade ago), we came up with the idea of “Virtual River Cruise”.  In between cancelling our clients’ vacation plans, we started to script out some (contrived) conversations between the two of us at our dining room table discussing a specific port of call, as though we were at that place.  We even went as far as to select specific wines from Budapest and Bratislava – our first virtual stops.

We never published these videos for two reasons:

1. It was a lot of work to get them produced, and the bulk of our day was consumed by cancelling and rebooking our clients.  You’ll be pleased to know that the wine didn’t go to waste, however.
2. We weren’t the only ones with this idea, and the cruise lines themselves had immense marketing and media departments with people who were now looking for things to do.

In reality, the videos we produce (or in this case didn’t produce), are not of the same quality you get from the cruise lines.  In some cases, the videos we take with our iPhones when we travel are better – you get to see exactly what we see, and there is no airbrushing, professional models or extensive editing. 

There is no doubt, however, that the cruise lines’ professionally produced videos are much more slick, and some of them have done a fantastic job of “Virtual Travel” to tide us over until we are able to participate in the authentic experience once again.

So, if you are so inclined over the heat of the summer to take a virtual vacation to various places or on certain cruise lines, here are some suggestions:

The Pampered Cruiser:  https://www.youtube.com/thepamperedcruiser

Yep… this is our channel, and this is a shameless plug.  See the caveats above for what you can expect there.  YouTube is not the most intuitive browsing experience, so click on the “Videos” or “Playlists” button if you are looking for something specific.  If Bob and I are anonymous to you, we actually “star” in some of the videos here if you ever wondered what we actually look and sound like.

American Queen Steamboat Company:  https://www.youtube.com/user/AQSCVideo/playlists

Most of us are probably closer to travelling domestically than internationally at this point, so this might be a good place to look.  Click on the playlist for American Queen to get a good feel for what a Mississippi Cruise is like.  One of my best discoveries during this period has been the Columbia/Snake River Cruises on the American Empress.  The scenery and natural beauty in that part of the country rivals Alaska (and unlike Alaska/British Columbia there are cruises on the Columbia this fall).  Both Mississippi and Columbia River cruises are starting up in the next couple of weeks.

Paul Gauguin Cruises:  https://www.youtube.com/user/pgcruises/videos

This channel could be more flashy, but they have a number of short videos if you’d like to see what Tahiti is like on a small ship.  I included this because French Polynesia is currently open to US passport holders, and (little known fact) Tahiti is only 2 hours further on a plane than Hawaii is, but with a fraction as many people.

Seabourn:  https://www.youtube.com/c/theyachtsofseabourn/videos

Seabourn has lots of videos on their ships and experiences, and also on destinations.  They’ve also been adding videos since they suspended operations in the spring called “Bringing Extraordinary Home”.  A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about some deals we’re seeing on Seabourn, and they’ve recently extended those deals to the end of August.  Here’s a link if you missed that post:  https://pamperedcruiser.com/combine-cruise-deals-for-the-best-value/

Viking:  https://viking.tv/index/story/weekly-schedule

If you’re on Viking’s mailing list, then you already know they are a marketing machine without rival.  Since they suspended sailing in the spring, they have been putting a ton of energy into their videos that include the normal promos for their ships and destinations but also many other enrichment topics that you would normally experience on their cruises.  For example, they have “Museum Mondays”, and “Guest Speaker Thursdays”.  If the content is of interest to you, then this is a great place for a virtual vacation.

AMA Waterways:  https://www.youtube.com/c/amawaterways/videos

AMA has several short videos on their site that feature the people that work there showing you around their ships and destinations.  AMA differentiates itself as a “family company” and its people, and that comes through strongly on their channel.

Rocky Mountaineer:  https://www.youtube.com/c/rmountaineertrain/videos

If you haven’t heard of this train journey, you might want to check out their YouTube channel.  We quite often add this on to Alaskan Cruises for our clients, because it is quickly becoming one of the world’s “must-do” train trips.  It is a luxury trip over the continental divide through the Canadian Rockies, and features some of the most stunning scenery in the world.

People are beginning to travel again, but for many of us a virtual vacation might be the best we can do for a while.  So have some fun with this – pick a destination or a cruise line, pour a glass of wine (or your preferred choice of beverage), and explore your next destination virtually.

It’s certainly not as good as travelling in person, but also way better than watching the news.

Have something to say about this?

Join the conversation on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PamperedCruiser/posts/2756819494600547

If you’re planning a trip, I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley

Another week, and more headlines dominated by an international pandemic, and our ineffectiveness at taming it.  For most of us, this provokes fear, anger, anxiety, or depression (or perhaps all those things).

Yet there are indications of progress if you look for them, and you can choose to feel hope.

One of the things that has made me a committed life-long traveller is that by leaving home, and exploring other parts of the world, I get to learn about different cultures and their people.  Unfortunately, our media only references the rest of the world anecdotally – something I learned first-hand when I have lived abroad. 

This is a shame – particularly now.  If we were willing, there is much to be learned from other countries as they fight the common enemy known as covid-19.  The reason I am hopeful is that Europe (as well as a number of other jurisdictions that have managed the pandemic well) are returning to a new normal as it relates to travel and tourism.

Perhaps the best illustration of this point is that AMA Waterways is resuming river cruising in Europe in August.  The reason this stands out to me, is that AMA is an American Company.  It is true, there will be very few Americans on board, as those coming from the US are still required to quarantine in Europe for 14 days, but the Europeans, Canadians, Aussies and Kiwis will be sailing.

As a general rule, the regulatory agencies in Europe are more stringent than ours, so you can imagine there are some new conditions for sailing there:

• Daily temperature checks
• Public health officer on every sailing
• Maximum 100 guests aboard the ship
• Crew to wear masks at all times.  Guests asked to wear them when moving through the ship.
• Seating dining and Room service, as opposed to “drop-in” dining.
• Plexiglas dividers in lounge
• No recirculation of air in staterooms or public areas.
• Reduced group sizes, and social distancing for shore excursions.

It won’t be the same as it was before covid, but these few compromises will not diminish the experience of a river cruise. 

CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association) has been mostly missing in action since this whole situation began six months ago, and it appears as though the individual cruise lines have become impatient waiting for either CLIA or the CDC to provide any guidance for the resumption of operations. 

This is GOOD news.  The cruise lines are looking at guidelines imposed in other jurisdictions (such as Europe), and working with epidemiologists and medical experts to redefine the cruising experience so it provides maximum safety and is still an enjoyable experience.  The individual cruise lines provide more details on each of their websites, but here are some of the steps being taken:

• Reduced capacity – Fewer people on the ship, and restrictions on the number of people at a time in restaurants, entertainment venues, fitness centers, and elevators.
• New embarkation procedures – Assigned times for boarding, temperatures checks, and health questionnaires prior to boarding.
• Enhanced cleaning protocols – Luggage will be disinfected prior to boarding.  More frequent disinfection of high touch areas with medical grade disinfectants.  Even more hand sanitizing stations.
• Social distancing and facial covering guidelines.  Masks will be provided and required for guests and crew in spaces where social distancing is not possible (tenders, elevators, etc.).
• Health monitoring throughout a cruise.  Temperature checks and medical screening.
• Medical Resources – New testing equipment and quarantine facilities on ships with separate air filtration systems.
• Dining – Self-serve options eliminated.

Finally, while we tend to think that the only way out of this is for a widely available, effective vaccine, it is important to remember that countries that have done the best through this emergency (Iceland and South Korea come to mind), have done it through wide-spread testing and contact tracing. 

There is some positive news on the testing front:

The Germans are opening walk-in testing centers at Frankfurt and Munich Airports.  This will enable users to submit to a test and receive the certified results within a few hours, and thereby foregoing any quarantine requirements.

So… will life return to “normal” in the coming days or weeks?  NO.

We will however, adapt to a new normal that will allow travel and tourism again.  The signs of this are already evident in those countries and jurisdictions that more aggressively managed the Corona virus at the outset. 

Reason for hope, indeed.

Have something to say about this?

Join the conversation on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PamperedCruiser/posts/2750531978562632

If you’re planning a trip, I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley

Recovering from a pandemic must be a marketing professional’s dream. 

There are a million different promotions out there, all trying to attract people to travel again. 

For those of us in the trenches, it seems like a full-time job to keep track of who is marketing what, and identifying companies that are actually sending out value-added offers rather than just generating noise.

While sorting through all of this in the past few weeks, I’ve discovered another dimension:  how multiple or varying offers from the same company combine.

I went looking to see if there was a secret password or a decoder ring that would allow me to figure this all out.  Alas, the only path through all these offers is to simply cross-check one against the other and look through the fine print for exclusions and/or combinability.

Sound confusing?  Yes, it really is.

However, the effort is worth it. 

Specifically, I found some interesting opportunities with Seabourn that expire at the end of July, with multiple offers that have turned out to be combinable. 

Here are two cruises that really stood out in terms of the value:

Alaska – May 28, 2021 ($3499 per person)

Juneau to Vancouver (7 nights), with Glacier Bay and Misty Fjords.

What makes this combination of deals stand out:

• Sensational Suite Sale means you get a Veranda Suite for the price of an Ocean View room.  Remember all staterooms on Seabourn are suites.
• Shipboard credit of $250 per guest
• Air Credit of $750 per guest
• 300 internet minutes
• Virtuoso Voyage with a host on board, and exclusive events, PLUS an additional $150 per person on board credit.
• Our agency has a group on this sailings to get you an additional $125 per person on board credit (if you’re keeping track, that brings your total OBCs to $525 per person).
• 10% off if you pay in full at the time of booking.
• They have also adjusted their cancellation policy to account for the COVID-19 situation.  You can cancel your trip with no penalty up to 30 days in advance of sailing.

With all these combined offers layering on top of each other, you can go to Alaska on a luxury small ship for what you normally pay to go on one of the mega-ships. 

If you’d rather not fly to Alaska for just one week, here are some common (and highly recommended) add-ons available for this cruise:

• 6-day extension to Denali National Park (Includes a ride on Alaska’s famed domed rail car, and a flight-seeing tour over Denali)
• 7-day cruise (to make it a 2-week cruise) visiting Ketchikan, Sitka, Glacier Bay, Icy Strait Point, and Haines.
• Rocky Mountaineer (Luxury Rail journey through the Canadian Rockies between Vancouver and Calgary).

Baltics & Russia – July 10, 2021 ($4699 per person)

Stockholm to Copenhagen (7 nights) including 2 nights in St. Petersburg, Russia.

What makes this combination of deals stand out:

• Sensational Suite Sale means you get a Veranda Suite for the price of an Ocean View
• 300 internet minutes
• Virtuoso Voyage with a host on board, and exclusive events, PLUS an additional $150 per person on board credit. 
• Our agency has a group on this sailing to get you an additional $125 per person on board credit (bringing your total OBCs to $275 per person).
• 10% off if you pay in full at the time of booking.
• They have also adjusted their cancellation policy to account for the COVID-19 situation.  You can cancel your trip with no penalty up to 30 days in advance of sailing.

Here are some common add-ons for a Baltic cruise:

• Stay on the ship for an additional 2 weeks, and sail up the coast of Norway
• 10-day post-cruise extension: UNESCO Imperial Heritage of Europe (Copenhagen/Berlin/Dresden/Vienna/Budapest)

If you’re unfamiliar, here’s a little background on Seabourn.  The first time we went on Seabourn, it became very clear, very quickly, that this wasn’t like other cruise ships we’d been on.  It was really our first small ship experience, and once you get hooked, it’s hard to go back:

• All suites.  All the staterooms on Seabourn are in fact suites that are 300 square feet or larger.  The in-suite bathrooms all have a full soaker tub, and double sinks, with granite counter tops.  It’s nicer than our bathroom at home!
• Small Ship.  There is a huge difference sailing with only 450 guests as opposed to 4500 guests.  Besides the added service and intimacy, there are also logistic issues – like NOT having to line up to embark and disembark.
• All inclusive.  It’s nice to have everything in the price, but it also changes the culture on board the ship.  When you order a glass of wine, they’re not asking for your key card, they just bring your wine (and top it up regularly).  This is different than other cruise lines where SOME passengers have beverages included.
• Great value.  Given that the best-priced suite on Seabourn is larger (and better appointed) than the highest cabin category on the premium lines, the value per dollar is quite evident.
• Thomas Keller Grill.  I’ve never eaten at the French Laundry in San Jose, or Per Se in NYC.  Perhaps because I’ve never gotten around to it, or perhaps because paying $350 each, and waiting 6 months for a table reservation is a bit beyond me.  I’d rather experience Thomas Keller’s food on a Seabourn ship, where it’s included in the fare.
• Ventures by Seabourn.  I like the option to be able to do some expedition offerings right off a luxury ship.  These active options are particularly good if you’re going back to place you’ve already been.  It is also much less spartan than many expedition ships.

If neither of these cruises stand out for you, there are other options as well, where multiple offers overlap and combine like the examples given above.

You’ll want to get in touch soon if one of these cruises interests you – these prices expire on July 31^st.

Have something to say about this?

Join the conversation on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PamperedCruiser/posts/2744268392522324

If you’re planning a trip, I’d love to help!  Click here to get in touch today.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bradley