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New York Times Travel Show: American Travelers Resilient In Face of Crises BY KAREN RUBIN Travel professionals at the New York Times Travel Show had somewhat mixed feelings to the US State Department’s new travel advisory and alert system (travel.state.gov) because of the newness and how consumers are processing the information. Some said they appreciated the greater specificity, but others felt that destinations were unfairly tarnished. But they observed with some amazement at the resilience of American travelers to return to destinations that have had some crisis like a natural disaster or terror attack. “When we had those [terror attacks] in London last summer, within 48 hours we were back to normal booking patterns,” said Guy Young, global brand engagement officer of The Travel Corporation. Jennifer Tombaugh, president of Tauck Tours, said the tour operator used to plan for up to 12 months for tourism to recover to an area that suffered from some kind of travel disruptor. Now, it only takes three months for a rebound. “We see, whether it’s been a natural disaster or a terrorism event or just overall economic disruption that all of our guests are rebounding much, much
more quickly than they did in the past,” Tombaugh said. “For better or for worse, there is a resilience about the American traveler that we haven’t seen in a long time,” she said. “I think we’re sort of redefining what uncertainty means, and I’m not quite sure if that word even resonates for people even more. I think they’re saying, ‘The world is crazy. Life is short. Let’s go out and explore.’” But resilience might actually reflect the high degree of confidence that travelers have in travel professionals – the tour operators, cruiselines and travel agents who are there to advise them more accurately when they book, provide more security when they travel and handle emergencies should they arise. Citing robust advance bookings, the panel – reflecting a cross-section of travel entities – were all highly optimistic of strong sales for 2018, coming off a record 2017 for just about every destination, bolstered by a strong global economy. However, the United States, was one of only two destinations showing a downturn, with international arrivals down about 4 to 6 percent –representing a $4.5 billion hit to the economy and loss of some 46,000
Travel professionals bullish on 2018, saying “Americans are resilient”: James Shillinglaw, editor-in-chief of Insider Travel Report, moderates New York Times Travel Show panel with Andrew Stuart, president and CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line; Guy Young, global brand engagement, The Travel Corporation, Jennifer Tombaugh President of Tauck Tours; Alejandro Zozaya, CEO, Apple Leisure Group, and, Ninan Chacko, CEO of Travel Leaders Group © Karen Rubin/ goingplacesfarandnear.com jobs. They said inbound travel was hurt by Trump’s rhetoric, the travel ban, concern about gun violence, and
a general discomfort to visit the US. See page D5
W R I T E R’S C O R N E R
Finding some family history while surfing the ‘Net BY CLAIRE LYNCH My younger sister, Susan, asked me look up some family articles online and with a little luck and lots of perseverance, I found even more than I would have imagined. I hail from Brooklyn so focusing primarily on the old time Brooklyn daily newspapers I typed in the names of my grandparents and great grandparents. Sure enough I found newspapers that went all the way back to 1874. In doing this online research I knew ahead of time that I would be reading many articles about people that didn’t ring any bells with me. I had heard all about my ancestors and knew a lot about where they had lived. So I also knew that certain key words and names would sound familiar but for me they would be dead ends. I had to keep plodding along and eventually I hit pay dirt as they say. In terms of coming across some family history, I had hit the jackpot. I connected my relatives not just by their names including middle names or initials but also by the streets they used to live on. If I came across a name and a place that didn’t ring true, I just kept on scrolling. A few short newspaper clippings
mentioned trips my grandparents had taken to the Jersey shore and to see friends in Virginia. Over the years I had heard about these trips so I knew by the names and places that these particular clippings belonged to me - and my siblings. I hastily printed the articles I wanted to show around and to keep in my family history files. When I used the word “perseverance” before I wasn’t kidding. Sometimes I would sit at my computer, start researching and have some luck. On other days I would start researching and end up going nowhere that interested me. I’d get frustrated but try again another day. I am a “tough customer” in the sense that these family history stories had to be authentic. I couldn’t persuade myself that so and so was related to my dad, for example, or to my mother, or to any of my grandparents on both sides of the family when I knew that some specific detail was off. As much as I wanted to have success, I couldn’t force success. There were some names that were spelled exactly the same as my relatives’ names but due to whatever circumstances I knew that it wasn’t my relative. If I came across a church, a parish, a school, a street, a neighbor-
Friday, February 16, 2018
G O I N G P L A C E S, N E A R & F A R ....
hood or an event that my grandparents, parents, etc. hadn’t been to, I knew that it wasn’t the person or family that I was looking for. So I kept going. I forged ahead and eventually my diligence and perseverance paid off. It was worth it. I ended up finding some birth announcements, some engagement announcements, some wedding announcements and a bridal shower of my aunt’s which said that it was held in the home of her first cousins. It went on to spell out who had attended it and other specific details. When I came across my parents’ wedding day write-up, I was thrilled. It was a 225-word article about my parents’ wedding published later in the day of the actual event. It gave such details as who the maid of honor was (one of my aunts), who the bridesmaids were, who the best man was (my dad’s best friend), who the ushers were and the fact that my mom’s younger brother (her only brother) gave her away at the altar. It described the bride’s white satin gown, her fingertip veil and that she carried a bouquet of gardenias and bouvardia. The maid of honor wore aquamarine marquisette with a matching
headdress and carried roses and bouvardia. The article spelled out where my mom and dad went to school and where they were going on their honeymoon which the article referred to as their “wedding trip.” Some of the terms were a little old fashioned but that was okay with me because I was so happy to see all of the vivid details written up in one cohesive article. Another newspaper story had a large black and white photo of my uncle’s wife in her wedding dress and veil. It was beautiful to see the picture and the write-up gave many details of the wedding that I had either forgotten about or never knew. My mother was in a sorority when she was in high school in Brooklyn and I read about some of her high school sorority meetings and social get-togethers at individuals’ homes. My brothers and sisters and I had heard all about these gatherings from the stories that my mom had told us but again it was fascinating to see many friends’ names written up in one happy story. I was thrilled to read all of these various newspaper stories on a wide range See page D7