CLEAR lovers will lose one benefit of the program in 2025, as the TSA says it will begin requiring them to produce a REAL ID or passport at airport checkin.

The CLEAR program is based on two premises: it takes you to the very front of the checkin line, and its biometric checkin process means you do not have to pull out your ID. But beginning in May, 2025, that second advantage seems about to disappear.

TSA in July announced it already is screening a limited number of randomly selected CLEAR travelers after “security incidents.” There reportedly have been three cases in which travelers managed to get through the CLEAR line without having valid ID, prompting a congressional investigation.

For an annual fee of $189 (plus $60 for up to three family members), CLEAR offers its own lanes at TSA checkpoints in more than 50 airports. Rather than standing in the ever-growing checkin lines, travelers walk up to the CLEAR kiosk, scan their eyes or fingerprints, and then are guided to the very front of the checkin lines, including the Pre-Check line if they are eligible.

While the cost may sound high, many credit cards cover the fee, promotions often are available, and frequent travelers from busy airports find the program to be a great timesaver.

It’s a complicated world out there and travel is getting more difficult. So it’s no surprise that the value of a professional travel advisor is on the rise.

Indeed, a new study from The Travel Institute shows the value of education for travel advisors. Those who are certified earn almost 24.3% more per year then those without any certification—and they book 26.5% more in annual sales, according to the Changing Face of Travel Agents 2023 survey.

When it comes to advanced training, travel advisors who have earned the Destination Specialist or Lifestyle Specialist designation from The Travel Institute have annual incomes averaging 17.8% more than those who have no industry certification, and 6% more than those with other certifications.

Beside formal training, the study noted, travel advisors stay current with what’s happening from supplier communications (87%); trade media (66%); and social media (65%).

A whopping 96% of travel advisors used Facebook, followed by 61% on Instagram; 34% on YouTube; 30% on Linked In; and 18% on TikTok.

Travel Institute president Diane Petras noted that advanced training of travel advisors benefits suppliers as well as clients. “As an industry, we’ve re-earned travelers’ trust in recent years and we need to continue to support quality agent education to ensure we keep it,” she said.

Looking forward, she noted that in 2024 travel advisors are expressing the most interest in courses involving destination knowledge (70%), followed by supplier products (63%).

The Travel Institute provides both free and for-purchase educational options for travel advisors at all levels, including new agent training, certification, specialization and destination courses, free webinars, and an unlimited, and continued learning program through the Premium Access online library.

“Cue the Junkanoo band,” says Carnival Cruise Line. When its new private port opens on Grand Bahama in November, it will be named Celebration Key, the company announced today.

With the opening, Carnival joins a popular trend toward having its own unrestricted access to land after a day at sea. Celebration Key will offer a mile-long white-sand beach, and Bahamian-themed retail, food and beverage options. “Invoking the natural beauty of Grand Bahama, every day at Celebration Key will be a celebration of our guests’ own making with a variety of experiences and something for everyone,” said president Christine Duffy.

With a capacity of 2 million guests a year, Celebration Key will be able to accommodate two Excel-class ships at once. It will be used by at least 10 ships from multiple homeports beginning July 2025.

More details will be released in late September, Carnival said.

Two ships made news this week, as Viking debuted the Viking Aton in Aswan, Egypt, and MSC Meraviglia began its first Bermuda sailing from its New York homeport.

In Egypt, the Viking Aton, like its identical sister ship the Viking Osiris, was specifically built to navigate the Nile. It will carry up to 82 guests in 41 staterooms.

Viking’s Egypt fleet now includes four ships, and one more will be added in each of the next two years.

Viking Aton will sail the 12-day Pharaohs & Pyramids itinerary, which includes 3 days at a first-class hotel in Cairo, a flight to Luxor and an 8-day roundtrip cruise on the Nile River. There are also pre and post extensions, including London, Istanbul, Jerusalem and Petra.

In the United States, meanwhile, MSC Meraviglia sailed from Red Hook, Brooklyn, to Bermuda for the first time. In September and October she will sail north, stopping in Newport, RI; Boston; Portland, ME; New Brunswick, Saint John, Canada; and Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. A back-to-back sailing beginning September 18, 2023, will combine the two, carrying guests south to Bermuda and then north to see the fall foliage.

Las Vegas—The rich are getting richer, they say. That’s great news for the travel industry, especially for travel advisors and suppliers who focus on the luxury end.

It was a happy crowd at the Virtuoso Travel Week conference last week, where the association’s target clientele of high-net-worth travelers, those with over $1 million in assets, grew even faster than expected in every market in the world.

“We expect 16 million new high-net-worths to be created in a five-year period between 2021 and 2026,” Virtuoso executive vice president David Kolner said.

Indeed, even as travel advisors across the spectrum report record sales, Virtuoso’s sales in the first half of 2023 are up 69% over 2019, with the hotel and cruise segments more than doubling, up 173% and 122% respectively. Hotel bookings rose 20%.

It’s no wonder that 87% of respondents to a Virtuoso member survey in July reported feeling optimistic about their business, and just 12% were neutral or unsure.

Going forward, things are continuing to trend up. Bookings are up 44% from last year and more than 100% from 2019. Future cruise sales are 44% higher than they were in 2022 and more than double (up 106%) in 2019.

For fall and the festive season this year, sales and bookings are up—and “it’s not just higher prices, it’s actually more bookings on file,” Kolner said.

Hot tickets in the luxury sector include private planes and yachts, and next-level stimulation and engagement (like scientific expeditions in Antarctica). Wellness is important to this group; 94% incorporate self-care into their trip. Iceland has emerged as a wellness destination, as has Thailand.

Bookings for the remainder of 2023 remain ahead of every previous year, though the Caribbean is beginning to show some softening of rates, said VP of global public relations Misty Belles. On the Virtuoso website, there’s been a 50% increase in the number of consumers looking for an advisor since pre-pandemic years.

High-net-worth travelers are “going from one private experience to another,” Belles said, spending between $10,000 and $50,000 per trip, most notably for culinary travel. More than half (57%) of luxury travelers agreed that “creating a travel experience that best fits my expectations is more important than price.”

If you are looking for benchmarks for your own business, Virtuoso reported sales are up 47% year over year for the fall season, September 1 to December 15, and bookings are up 36%. The most popular foreign destinations for Americans are Italy, France, the UK, and Mexico.

For the holiday season, December 15 to January 7, sales and bookings both are up 17% with top non-US destinations being Mexico, France, Costa Rica, and Anguilla.

Meanwhile, the San Domenico Palace, Taormina, A Four Seasons Hotel/Italy, was named “The Best of the Best” hotel, and the Peninsula Istanbul Hotel was named the “Best New Hotel.” Tauck was named best tour operator and Emirates best airline. Christy Menzies of Menzies Luxe Retreats, an independent affiliate of Brownell Travel, in Darien, CT, was named Virtuoso’s Rising Star.

Happy Anniversary Virtuoso

For Virtuoso, Travel Week was its 35^th annual event. The first, in 1989, brought 174 attendees to the Brazilian Court in Palm Beach, FL for two days of learning and bonding.

This year’s conference attracted 5,000 attendees to Las Vegas, including 80 new members and 170 new suppliers, nearly 70% of them from countries outside the United States, said SVP of sales and partnerships Cory Hagopian.

After a wildfire spread quickly across Maui last week, the Hawai’ian island is left with a recovery effort that could last several months.

At the time of publication, the wildfire is said to have taken the lives of 106 people in the affected areas. Though, efforts are still ongoing. The approach of Hurricane Dora, and the subsequent high winds, are thought to be the primary reason it spread so quickly across the highly visited island.

Last week, the Hawai’i Tourism Authority (HTA) asked all visitors to leave the island of Maui to help facilitate a rescue and recovery, and for the safety of visitors.

Now, the HTA is telling all visitors booked on a trip to Maui to reschedule their bookings for as far out as months, possibly several months.

“In the weeks ahead, the collective resources and attention of the federal, state and county government, the West Maui community, and the travel industry must be focused on the recovery of residents who were forced to evacuate their homes and businesses.”, said the HTA in a statement.

It’s a great year for travel to Argentina—and the combination of American wanderlust and intrepid travelers headed to Antarctica is helping lift passenger numbers and load factors to new records.

That’s all good news for Aerolineas Argentinas, the national flag carrier and local Delta Airlines partner, which has seen record numbers for 2023 and into 2024. To keep the momentum going, the airline is ramping up new promotions for the fall shoulder season and planning a new route to an airport in downtown Buenos Aires.

“We want to promote Argentina as a destination for US passengers, to give people a taste of our beautiful country and the opportunity to know Argentina in the low season,” says Marcelo Bottini, regional director for North and Central America, the Caribbean, Oceania and Asia.

From August 15 through December 10, travelers can fly to Buenos Aires from Miami for $571 or from NY for $651.

Hopefully, before the promotion ends they also will be able to fly direct to Aeroparque Jorge Newberry (AEP), which is just 10 or 15 minutes from downtown. For now, all flights are to Ezeiza Ministro Pistorini International Airport (EZE), which is on the outskirts of the city. But Aerolineas plans to fly three flights a day to AEP on Airbus 330 jets, hopefully beginning this month. “We’re just waiting for final approval from IATA, which we expect any time,” Bottini said.

Aerolineas Argentinas has been having a strong year so far, with international bookings up 52% year-over-year, record numbers of visitors in July, and its highest ever load factors for the winter season of 2023. It also flew 300 charter flights to Ushuaia, the launching point for Antarctic cruises and “a very high-demand destination.”

While most visitors come for a week or more, Argentina is a great destination for a long weekend with an international flair, Bottini says. From art museums to cafes to local markets, “you have everything—and for $10 you can get a very good wine or a very good steak. It’s a great value.”

Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) today took delivery of Norwegian Viva, the second of six planned Prima class ships and the 19th ship in its growing fleet–and invited travel advisors to take part in the festivities.

“As part of our Partner’s First philosophy familiarizations trips, inaugurals and seminars are handled in multiple ways at Norwegian Cruise Line,” a spokesperson told TRO. “We highly encourage travel advisors to express interest via their local or national sales managers. Additionally, we host contests, webinars and giveaways on our Partners First Facebook Page where there can be an opportunity to win a trip.”

Like its sister, Norwegian Prima, which debuted in 2022, the 3,100-guest Viva sports a three-story speedway and an Indulge Food Hall, at which guests can order from 11 food-truck-style stations. It also has Ocean Boulevard, the wrap-around boardwalk, but its Concourse outdoor sculpture garden will have different art, and its Metropolitan Bar will add a 52-foot piece designed by contemporary British digital artist Dominic Harris.

Viva also will have a new show, Tim Burton’s Tony Award-nominated Beetlejuice, and a different game show, Press Your Luck.

Following her maiden voyage on August 10, 2023, Norwegian Viva will sail the Mediterranean and the Greek Isles. After the official christening in Miami on November 28, the ship will homeport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, from December 2023 through March 2024, with calls to Tortola, British Virgin Islands; St. John’s, Antigua; Bridgetown, Barbados; Castries, St. Lucia; Philipsburg, St. Maarten; and St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.

What’s a country to do when photos of it going up in flames have been featured on front-pages? Turn to the travel trade, of course.

The Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO) is doing just that. It is gearing up its marketing efforts and rolling out a series of fam trips, in hopes of bringing tourists back to Rhodes.

The GNTO today announced it will invite travel partners and press to see the island’s tourist attractions and recovery efforts for themselves. It also will run co-advertising programs with tour operators and airlines in 18 countries, and work with other local groups to spread the word of the island’s recovery. The exact details were not yet released.

Almost 20,000 visitors fled 667 raging wildfires that tore across the island for two weeks in July. “It’s raining cancellations,” Panagiotis Tokouzis, vice president of the Greek Tourism Confederation, said last week.

But the state of emergency was lifted on July 26, and the fires were declared under control on July 27. Airlines have resumed flights and tour operators are again offering trips to most resorts, though some in the southeast remain closed.

Even as union issues roil the airports in Europe, United Airlines has reached an agreement in principle with its pilots to up their pay by as much as 40% over the next four years.

The agreement, which still needs to be ratified by the 16,000 pilots in the union, is worth an estimated $10 billion, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) said. In addition to pay raises, it includes provisions related to improved quality of work-life, job security, work rules, retirement and benefits.

And indeed, it’s a good job market for pilots. As of September 2022, the industry was reportedly short about 8,000 pilots—a number expected to swell short about 8,000 pilots, and the number could swell to 30,000 by 2025. United also has plans to hire more than 7,000 aircraft mechanics.

With United coming on board, the major US carriers, with the notable exception of Southwest Airlines (LUV), have reached tentative agreements. American Airlines (AAL) pilots will vote on their preliminary agreement later this month; the airline has said it will match its peers if their offers are higher. Delta Air Lines, earlier this year, agreed to increase wages by 34% over three years.

But the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, last month, asked to be released from federal mediation, and 99% of its pilots in May voted to authorize a strike.

Even as travelers debate whether or not it’s okay to lean your seat back, United Airlines is rolling out a new generation of first-class seats designed to recline—and also charge your phone with a Qi wireless charger in the armrest, and provide more privacy from your neighbor thanks to a large privacy screen.

The new vegan leather seats come with 13-inch seatback screens and 18-inch tray tables, plus AC and USB-C outlets in each seat, so passengers can charge three devices at once. The new 11×19-inch privacy screens are not retractable, however, making it hard for fearful fliers to grab their spouse’s arm.

United is in the midst of a fleet renewal, adding more than 90 new planes this year and 140 by the end of next. The new seats will debut on about 200 Boeing 737s and the new Airbus A321neo, beginning later this month and through 2025.

“This new United First seat is designed around the modern traveler—more charging options, bigger spaces for devices, food, drinks and personal items and extra privacy,” United’s Managing Director of Identity, Product and Loyalty Mark Muren said in a statement. “As we evolve the onboard experience, we’re upending old industry norms and anticipating future needs to accommodate the new ways people live and travel.”

Delta and JetBlue also are refreshing their planes’ interiors.

The first Crystal ship to sail since the company’s relaunch has successfully completed its sea trials and is on schedule for its inaugural cruise from Marseille, scheduled for July 31.

Crystal Serenity is in the final stages of a refurbishment undertaken after the company was acquired by A&K Travel Group, parent of Abercrombie & Kent, last year.

Crystal promises updated and larger suites “with artisanal finishes, refreshed specialty dining venues and cutting-edge onboard wellness, including the completely renovated and renamed Aurōra Spa,” a collaboration with Tillberg Design of Sweden.

There also is a new pickleball court and “re-energized entertainment and events—but what hasn’t changed is the exceptional service and one of the industry’s best staff-to-guest ratios,” the company said.

Also onboard is UMI UMA, the only dining experience by Michelin-Star Chef Master Chef Nobuyuki (Nobu) at sea.

After the July 31st cruise, Crystal Serenity will spend the rest of the summer in the Mediterranean. Then it will reposition to North America in September, where it will sail Canadian and Caribbean itineraries for the remainder of 2023 before hosting the 2024 World Cruise.

For those still smarting from the costs of Crystal’s bankruptcy in 2022, the company last week extended its plan to compensate guests and travel advisors. Originally offering credit only to guests booked on its two ocean ships, it now has been extended to Crystal’s expedition ship and its five river ships. To be eligible, guests must apply directly for the credit by August 1; applications filed by travel advisors will result in a delay of the verification process. They must hold a verified claim in the Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors process in the Crystal Cruises LLC case.
Travel advisors may be eligible to claim lost commissions if they are named in the customer’s claim and registered with the new Crystal brand.

The trend toward upgrading private islands has come to MSC Cruises, which last week advised guests and travel advisors that its Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve in the Bahamas will be closed from April 7 to May 22, 2024 “in order to make necessary guest experience enhancements and support the island’s future growth plans.”

The closing will result in program shifts for MSC Seashore, MSC Seascape, MSC Divina, and MSC Meraviglia, including everything from the addition of new ports of call to cancellation of some itineraries. Some itineraries will stop in Nassau, Freeport in The Bahamas, or Isla Roatan in Honduras instead of Ocean Cay.

Guests on the impacted cruises have until July 31 to decide whether to stay with their existing reservation, move to another sailing without penalty, or cancel for a full refund.

Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve opened in December 2019, but closed during the Covid shutdown from mid-March until summer 2021. One of the most beautiful of the private islands, its focus is not on thrills but rather on luxury and calm, including eight beaches, a spa, private cabanas, and an onsite kids program at the family-friendly Seakers Family Cove.