Short-term rentals are a popular form of accommodation for travelers, as they have the opportunity to stay somewhere wonderful for a short amount of time, without having to worry about the expense of a hotel. However, its not always that easy to find the perfect rental, especially in a competitive market. In this article, well talk about some tips to help you find an apartment when youre traveling the world.

Write down your necessities The first thing youll want to do when looking at short-term rentals is to write down the necessities that you need. For example, youll most likely want a place that is already furnished, with all the essentials already provided. You might also need a place that is close to public transport, or a particular school, etc. Make a list, and keep it with you when you are searching for locations, it will definitely help.

Check out the different locations The next step is to look at the various suburbs and neighborhoods in the town/city you wish to stay. You want to be somewhere safe, with friendly neighbors and plenty of shops close by. Try taking out a map, and search for the most popular areas. This way, you know where to start searching. Visiting Canada? Check out Furnished Apartments Toronto here.

Set yourself a reasonable budget If youre traveling, chances are youre probably looking for somewhere affordable. Before you get too ahead of yourself, try setting yourself a reasonable budget that you know you can afford. If youre working abroad, try and estimate how much you earn each month, so that you can set aside money for your bills. Groceries and rent should always come first, but dont be afraid to save a little money for yourself on the side.

Check out the place and make an impression It would be best if you always visited a site in person before making any decisions, as you want to make sure that it is right for you. It also gives you the opportunity to stand out amongst other competitors, as you can speak directly with the real estate agent or landlord. Make sure you keep any rental references with you when you visit, as it makes you look organized and respectable.

Understand you wont be able to have everything Lastly, its important not to set your standards too high for a short-term apartment, as it is unlikely that you will find absolutely everything you desire. A place, close to transport, with a bath, fully-furnished and affordable is just too good to be true. As long as you are safe, happy, and have the necessities, thats really all that matters, as you wont be there for a very long time.

While it might seem a bit daunting at first, its important to remember not to give up. Youll find the perfect place eventually so that you can relax, enjoy your stay, and then move on and get ready for your next destination! Good luck, and remember youve got this!

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Tips on Finding a Rental While You're Traveling the World - Breaking Travel News

LISBON Britain's decision to persist with a quarantine regime for travellers from Portugal, which has hit the tourism-dependant country hard, is not supported by facts, its foreign minister said on Friday.

Portugal initially won praise for its quick response to the pandemic but a steady count of several hundred new cases per day in and around Lisbon in the past two months has worried authorities at home and abroad.

It was this month left off an initial list of more than 50 countries Britain considered safe enough for travel without coronavirus-related restrictions, and left off again when London updated the list on Friday, adding more countries including Estonia and Slovakia.

Portugal regretted a decision "that is neither substantiated nor backed by the facts," Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva tweeted.

The need for holidaymakers returning to Britain from Portugal to quarantine for 14 days has particularly affected the southern Algarve region, popular among Britons for its sandy beaches and golf courses.

Other European nations including Ireland, Belgium and Finland have also imposed travel restrictions on Portugal.

Spain, meanwhile, has stayed on the UK safe list, despite a sharp increase in new cases.

(Reporting by Catarina Demony, Editing by Ingrid Melander and John Stonestreet)

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Portugal Says Exclusion From UK's Safe Travel List 'Not Backed by Facts' - The New York Times

Over the last few decades, the outdoor gear industry made innovation after innovation in product designs. Jackets are now waterproof yet surprisingly breathable, tents are so impressively lightweight one might mistake the aluminum poles for bird bones. But you still can't buy a plus-size hiking backpack.

"When I think about it too much, I get really angry about it," Jenny Bruso, the self-described queer, fat, femme writer and hiker behind the popular Instagram account Unlikely Hikers told Business Insider.

That's why backpack maker Gregory's announcement that they're releasing the industry's first line of plus-size backpacks in Spring 2021 is such big news. Finally, hikers and travelers will have size-inclusive backpacks that reflect the diversity of their bodies. And Bruso, whose frustrations with the industry is a driving force behind her activism within it, is partnering with Gregory to develop the line. The release will include more than 20 different plus-size packs across the day hiking, multi-day backpacking, hydration and lifestyle categories.

"We didn't want to do a partial launch that was like one or two products in black and grey," Gregory Marketing Manager Lindsey Malone said about the robustness of their launch line. "We wanted to do it right if we were going to do it."

The result of that determination to get it right led Gregory to its partnership with Bruso. Bruso has been an outspoken activist for inclusivity and body liberation within the outdoor world since she herself first got into hiking eight years ago and didn't see people like heror really anyone outside of the white, thin, straight, cis categoryrepresented in the industry or on the trails in the pacific northwest where she lives. She started Unlikely Hikers for "everyone who doesn't see themselves represented or invited to the table." Gregory's team didn't want to assume they'd know what would work for plus-size hikersthey wanted real, unfiltered feedback from hikers themselves, and they saw Bruso as the perfect person to help them make their product line more genuinely inclusive.

"There was no hesitation, I was so thrilled about it," Bruso said of Gregory's offer for the paid partnership. Bruso, her partner, and hikers in the Unlikely Hikers group hikes that Bruso leads have tested current Gregory products and provided Gregory with feedback on fit, function, and even colors, which Gregory is using to develop prototypes.

Malone sees this project as an answer to a problem that Gregory, along with many other retailers in the outdoor industry, put a band-aid on for years: their backpacks weren't size-inclusive, but some retailers make hip-belt extenders that increase the size ranges of their existing products.

After years of not offering actually size-inclusive products, Malone says Gregory, a brand that prides itself on being fit experts, wants this launch to be a thorough answer to the industry's size inclusivity shortcomings. According to Gregory, the new line includes "wider shoulder harness angles, extended shoulder harness lengths, and a much larger hip belt fit." They wanted to develop a line of well-researched products for experienced and entry-level hikers alike, in multiple colors, and at different price points.

"There are going to be options and it's going to continue to grow," Malone said.

But beyond just size inclusivity, this product line is a much-needed step towards finally recognizing and championing diversity in the outdoor industry, which has historical issues with representation.

"One thing I noticed pretty early on is there was just a very narrow definition of who was outdoorsy, and it was perpetrated by social media and advertising," Bruso said.

Edith Bernier, author of blog The Plus Size Backpacker which launched in 2013, refers to the prevailing image within the outdoor and travel world "the Insta Babes," by which she means the type of conventionally attractive, white influencers who post highly produced photos of themselves doing yoga poses on top of mountains during sunsets with captions about feeling "aligned."

"It's a very white, thin world. And privileged," Bernier said. That was even more true when she first started blogging in 2013, but even as the hiking and travel world has become more diverse in real life, many people still don't see themselves represented.

Beyond the discouragement from participation in the outdoor and travel world that comes from lack of representation, the lack of actually inclusive gear presents logistical problems that can be even more exclusionary.

"It could be quite discouraging to try to see yourself on Machu Picchu when you look at all the things you have to get that fit your body," Bernier said. When she first went to buy a backpacking pack for her global travels, Bernier went to MEC, a Canadian outfitters store similar to REI. "I tried maybe 20 backpacks that day and finally settled for one. That was the only one that fit my body back then."

Bruso says not having gear that fits tells plus-size hikers they're not wanted. "Not having the gear you need to do the thing you need to do sends a message that you're not being considered, that maybe they really don't want you out on the trail."

Hiking and travel gear is also expensive. And it can be even more expensive for plus-size folks because of what Bernier calls the "fat tax."

"Everything becomes more expensive when you're a bigger person."

To combat that discriminatory expense, Gregory will be pricing their new line of plus-size packs at the exact same price point as their current line of products.

Bruso first coined the term "unlikely hiker" when referring to herself as such in a blog post chronicling her early years of becoming an outdoors person eight years ago.

The term is catchy, tongue-in-cheek, a reclamation, and beautifully open-ended. Many people were quick to adopt the description for themselves, demonstrating that diverse hikers have been out on the trails, even if the industry didn't recognize them, and they wanted to be represented. Suddenly Bruso's blog of one became a community of thousands.

Unlikely Hikers is now much more than an incredibly successful Instagram page. It's also an in-person hiking meetup with monthly events in Portland, Oregon, and pop-ups in other areas of the country (though COVID-19 has put those on hiatus); it's a podcast; and it's a community for anyone who wants to support body liberation, anti-racism, and diversity in the outdoors.

Bernier's blog has turned into a book deal. Her guide to combatting fat-phobia will be out this September.

Beyond Bernier and Bruso's successful efforts, there are tons of communities and organizations creating space for diversity within the outdoor world. There's Outdoor Afro, a network that inspires Black folks to connect outdoors. Fat Girls Hiking promotes body positivity in the outdoors. All these communities are proof that the outdoor world is much more diverse than the industry recognizes.

"The brands are behind," Bruso says. "It is 2020 and I see plus-size people on the trail. I'm hiking with them all the time. I'm on the trail all the time."

Malone recognizes the role that Gregory plays in that and is working hard to create more inclusivity through their brand. "We have influence over the photographers we work with, the talent we choose, the ambassadors we choose to work with."

But actually creating a line of backpacks that allow for more people to hit the trails or travel the world is the most direct, tangible way to create real, honest inclusivity, and not just give those concepts lip service.

"It's what we do best," Malone said. "At the end of the day, we build backpacks. Getting to do that in a way that is tangible and helps with diversity and inclusion is the best of all worlds."

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Gregory backpack is releasing the industry's first plus-size backpack - Business Insider - Business Insider

The Travel Medical Service market report highlights the significant growth drivers, opportunities, and challenges that are slated to define the growth trajectory of this business space in the ensuing years.

According to the document, the market is projected to register XX% CAGR over the analysis timeframe (2020-2025) and is slated to witness substantial gains by the end of analysis period.

Request Sample Copy of this Report @ https://www.cuereport.com/request-sample/25117

With the market going up and down amidst the coronavirus outbreak, uncertainty dominates the day. Apart from short-term revenue concerns, some industries are projected to face complications even once the economy emerges from the pandemic.

Request Sample Copy of this Report @ https://www.cuereport.com/request-sample/25117

Almost all the businesses in various sectors have planned their budget to regain profit trajectory for the approaching years. Our assessment of this industry vertical can assist your action plan for managing market uncertainties and help you fabricate robust contingency plans.

The research report offers an extensive analysis of the various market segmentations along with the existing market trends to facilitate better understanding of the revenue projections.

Key inclusions of the Travel Medical Service market report:

Travel Medical Service Market segments covered in the report:

Regional landscape: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East & Africa, South East Asia

Product types: Heavy Medical Mode, Light Medical Model and Comprehensive Health Care

Applications spectrum: Cosmetic Medicine, Disease Treatment and Other

Competitive outlook: The major players covered in Travel Medical Service are:,Manor Medical Center,Icheckworld,L'AVION,Saint Lucia Consulting,Medretreat International,Concord Healthcare Consulting,UCLH,Ctrip International,Hopenoah,Traveler's Medical Service,Global Travel Plus,International Medical Services,Passport Health,World Travel Care,EvergreenHealth,Travel Medicine & Vaccination Centre,GMS (Group Medical Services) ande7 Health

Market segmentation

The Travel Medical Service market is split by Type and by Application. For the period 2020-2025, the growth among segments provides accurate calculations and forecasts for sales by Type and by Application in terms of volume and value. This analysis can help you expand your business by targeting qualified niche markets.

Research Objective:

Why to Select This Report:

Key questions answered in the report:

MAJOR TOC OF THE REPORT:

Chapter 1 Industry Overview

Chapter 2 Production Market Analysis

Chapter 3 Sales Market Analysis

Chapter 4 Consumption Market Analysis

Chapter 5 Production, Sales and Consumption Market Comparison Analysis

Chapter 6 Major Manufacturers Production and Sales Market Comparison Analysis

Chapter 7 Major Product Analysis

Chapter 8 Major Application Analysis

Chapter 9 Industry Chain Analysis

Chapter 10 Global and Regional Market Forecast

Chapter 11 Major Manufacturers Analysis

Chapter 12 New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis

Chapter 13 Conclusions

Chapter 14 Appendix

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Travel Medical Service Market 2020: Applications, Types and Growing Trends in Market, Gross Margin and Market Share 2025 - CueReport

(CNN) The first powered plane flight, performed by the Wright Brothers over the windswept beach of North Carolina's Kitty Hawk in 1903, covered 120 feet. That historic flight would fit entirely in the cargo hold of the Antonov AN-225 Mriya, the world's biggest fully operational plane.

Powered by six turbofan engines and with a wingspan almost the length of a football field, this gentle giant of the skies can carry bigger and heavier cargo than any other plane, and is unique in the world of aviation, as just one was ever built.

A favorite of plane spotters around the world, the AN-225 attracts a crowd whenever it visits an airport during one of its rare -- and often spectacular -- heavy lift jobs.

Onlookers video the AN-225 Mriya from the viewing deck at Perth International airport.

Paul Kane/Getty Images

"It looks magnificent during takeoff and landing and it seems to slowly sail into the air, due to its huge size," said Ilya Grinberg, a Soviet aviation expert and a professor of engineering at Buffalo State University. "It can be easily photographed with any type of camera and it looks very impressive from any angle. I think it is indeed an engineering marvel," he said.

Recently, the plane has been used in the Covid-19 relief effort to transport record loads of protective equipment. But its original mission was very different: born out of the Cold War, the AN-225 was designed to be part of the Soviet space program.

A flying dream

The AN-225 was conceived to carry Soviet space shuttles.

GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images

A new era in space exploration began in April 1981, when the first Space Shuttle launched into orbit from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Its large cargo bay was a design feature pushed by the Pentagon, which used the Shuttle in a handful of classified missions to send military satellites into orbit. The USSR perceived this capability as a threat, and wanted a vehicle that could do the same.

The result was the Buran ("Blizzard" in Russian), a Soviet Shuttle that looked remarkably like its American counterpart, down to the black and white paint job.

But whether it was a straight up clone or simply informed by the laws of aerodynamics, the Buran -- along with its companion rocket, the Energiya -- came with a logistical problem: how to transport the spacecraft from manufacturing facilities around Moscow to the Baikonur Cosmodrome, 1,300 miles away in today's southern Kazakhstan, from which Soviet space missions departed.

The Soviet Union's Buran shuttle looked similar to its US counterpart.

TASS / AFP via Getty Images

Rather than building a new freeway across rivers and mountains, Soviet engineers asked the Antonov Design Bureau in Kiev to create a new transporter plane capable of airlifting the shuttle and its rocket. It would also be used to haul the Buran back to Baikonur whenever it would land at a backup site rather than the Cosmodrome upon returning from orbit.

Antonov based it around an existing model, the AN-124 Ruslan (meaning "Condor"), itself already a very large plane, bigger than the Boeing 747-400.

The overall size was increased significantly, with the goal of doubling the cargo capacity. Among the visible upgrades were an extra pair of engines, bringing the total to six, and a longer landing gear, which increased the wheel count to a whopping 32. A new twin tail with an oversize vertical stabilizer was also added to allow the plane to carry the Buran on its back.

The resulting behemoth, so large that it stuck out of its hangar during the inauguration ceremony, was christened the AN-225 Mriya.

"Mriya is the Ukrainian word for 'dream.' It was the first soviet plane to be christened with a Ukrainian name," said Grinberg.

The AN-225 carrying the Buran space shuttle was the star of the 1989 Paris air show.

aviation-images.com/UIG/Getty Images

The Antonov Design Bureau worked quickly to produce the finished plane in just three and a half years, but it still couldn't keep up with the development of the Buran, so an interim solution was chosen: adapting a fleet of old 3M-T bombers to carry the spacecraft unassembled.

When the AN-225 was finally ready, it was history it couldn't catch up with: both the Buran and the AN-225 first flew in late 1988, a year before the fall of the Berlin Wall, which foreshadowed the collapse of the Soviet Union.

As a result, the Buran program was canceled after just one official mission, and the AN-225 ended up carrying the shuttle piggyback style in only about a dozen test flights.

The duo stole the show when it made an appearance at the 1989 Paris Air Show, but its primary mission had vanished. An outlandish proposal to transform it into a flying hotel, with suites and swimming pools and space for 1,500 guests never turned into reality, and the AN-225 ended up in a hangar where it was stripped for parts and rusted away for seven years.

A new life

How many wheels? The AN-225's landing gear.

Paul Kane/Getty Images

In 2001, the AN-225 was dusted off, thoroughly upgraded with modern equipment and brought back into service.

In the same year it set 124 world records, according to Antonov, including those for carrying capacity, flight altitude with cargo, and lifting record cargo to an altitude.

"This happened on the day of the tragedy of September 11, 2001, and therefore all these records went unnoticed," said Grinberg. "That day, five battle tanks, each weighing 50 tons, served as the control cargo. And they drove into the cargo cabin themselves."

The plane was resurrected because Antonov Airlines, a division of the Antonov company that operates around a dozen heavy transporter planes, was receiving orders on cargo deliveries that were beyond the capabilities of the AN-124, known as the AN-225's "little brother."

"We quickly understood that there was a growing demand for oversize or extremely heavy pieces of cargo," said Vitaliy Shost, senior deputy director of Antonov Airlines. He says that the AN-225 is able to accommodate up to 950 cubic meters of cargo, compared to 750 for the AN-124 and 650 for a Boeing 747.

The AN-225 has set numerous world records.

Simon Cooper/PA Images/Getty Images

Such capacity would allow the AN-225 to carry up to 16 shipping containers or 80 family cars. The cargo hold also has a titanium floor for added strength and its own crane system to load cargo efficiently. The maximum payload is 250 tons -- reached in 2001 when transporting the five battle tanks. The record for the heaviest single piece ever airlifted was achieved by the An-225 in 2009, when a generator was transported from Germany to Armenia. It weighed 187 tons.

The plane set other records such as the longest cargo item in the history of transportation -- two wind turbines measuring 137 feet each, delivered from China to Denmark -- and clinched a Guinness World Records entry by holding an art exhibition of 500 paintings by 120 Ukrainian artists at an altitude of 33,000 feet.

The AN-225 has also transported water turbines, nuclear fuel, construction vehicles, light aircraft and maglev trains. Electric generators are its most common type of cargo.

Crew members in protective suits stand inside an Antonov An-225 Mriya cargo aeroplane during a delivery of protective masks from China.

RONNY HARTMANN/AFP via Getty Images

In April 2020, the AN-225 set yet another record by transporting 100 tons of Covid-19 protective equipment, medicines and tests from Tianjin, China, to Warsaw, Poland (with a refueling stop in Kazakhstan). The landing in Poland was livestreamed to an audience of 80,000, according to Antonov.

"We didn't expect the plane to be involved in this business, because PPE packed in boxes is not the standard type of cargo for the An-225, but due to lack of transport availability our customers requested it," said Shost. "Over two and half months we performed 10 flights from China to different points around the world."

A second one

There's a second, unfinished Antonov An-255 languishing in a Kiev factory.

Vladmir Shtanko/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

The AN-225 flies sparingly. Its high operational cost -- it uses over 20 tons of fuel per hour according to Shost, equal to $6,700 at current prices -- limits it to the most demanding of jobs.

"Last year the plane performed about 20 flights. In 2020 we are already at 10 flights, and we expect 10 more through the end of the year," Shost added.

The fact that the AN-225 is one of a kind, however, adds to its mystique.

"This airplane is our pride and joy, a business card for the Antonov company and Ukraine itself," said Shost. "I first saw it when I was a schoolboy and I was so impressed with it, I couldn't believe it could actually fly. Now I make sure it does."

Antonov is constantly upgrading the AN-225 to keep up with international flight regulations and requirements, and the company says that the plane will be in service for at least another 25 years. That's good news for aviation enthusiasts and plane spotters, who show up in droves at its every appearance.

"This aircraft ranks 10/10 on a spotter's dream list, in my opinion," said Casey Groulx, a Canadian plane spotter who photographed the An-225 when it landed in Toronto in late May to deliver Covid-19 relief equipment.

"It was an absolute dream come true as I had always wanted to see this incredible aircraft. There were a lot of other spotters. It felt very special, to have that feeling of having seen the world's biggest plane."

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The AN-225: How the Cold War created the world's largest airplane - CNN

privacy features include an area set aside for a private beach and another for private office as well as personalized classes and exclusive dining experiences

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico (PRWEB) July 23, 2020

For travelers who want extra social distancing and privacy and to get away for a longer time, Velas Resorts in Mexico is making it easier, and adding more perks and value. Its all part of the new Velas Resorts Home to Grand Extended Stay Program.

Available at the resort collections Grand Velas properties in Los Cabos, Riviera Maya, and Riviera Nayarit, privacy features include:

In addition, guests receive a 10% discount on the rate and value-added perks. All company resorts have all received the global safety stamp of approval from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) due to state-of-the-art safety and cleanliness protocols detailed in a 15-page Stay Safe with Velas program.

This new program makes it easier and adds an additional element of safety for travelers to holiday, said Eduardo Vela Ruiz, founder and president of Velas Resorts. From an extended honeymoon for a couple to a multi-generational family or group of close friends looking to relocate for several weeks, its almost like having your own home at the beach.

From private airport transportation and a welcome bottle of champagne to free massages, suite upgrade, photo session, private beach dinner, personal yoga, cooking or Pilates class, and more, guests will be made to feel super special. Personalized gastronomy by international chefs and dedicated attention to detail by a 24-hr Personal Concierge are also included. In addition, at Grand Velas Los Cabos there is a one-hour sail aboard the hotels yacht, and at Grand Velas Riviera Maya a car is available to visit the destination highlights. Kids up to 12 years old are free when staying in the same suite as an adult and a 10% discount on the rate is also applied.

For travel through December 18th, the Home to Grand program is applicable for couples staying a minimum of 14 nights or there is a 10-night minimum for groups of 5 suites or more. Nightly rates start at $381 per adult based on double occupancy (Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit). In addition to Home to Grand program, rate includes luxury accommodations, a la carte gourmet meals at a variety of specialty restaurants, premium branded beverages, 24-hour in-suite service, taxes, gratuity and more. Blackout dates apply. For reservations or more information, call 1-888-407-4869, email reservations@velasresorts.com or visit https://home-to-grand.velasresorts.com/.

About Velas ResortsVelas Resorts in Riviera Maya, Puerto Vallarta, Riviera Nayarit, and Los Cabos have earned 56 AAA Diamonds, including the prestigious Five Diamond Award. Other esteemed international awards for services and facilities include Virtuosos Best Family Program, Forbes Travel Guide Five Star Award for spa, and TripAdvisors Hall of Fame, among others. Offering unparalleled all-inclusive experiences, properties include Grand Velas in Los Cabos, with dramatic ocean views and unique spaces infusing every area of the resort; Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit, which enjoys a long stretch of pristine beach and a dramatic backdrop of the Sierra Madre mountains; and Grand Velas Riviera Maya, offering a sophisticated resort experience in the Caribbean with jungle and beach settings. In Puerto Vallarta, Casa Velas is a boutique adults-only hotel and beach club located on the Marina Vallarta Golf Course, and Velas Vallarta, a family-friendly all suites resort and spa located on Banderas Bay. Mar del Cabo, a boutique hotel on Mexicos Baja Peninsula, opened in December 2018 as its only European Plan offering. Eduardo Vela Ruiz, founder and president of Velas Resorts, operates Velas Resorts with brother Juan Vela, vice president of Velas Resorts, by his side. Explore tips, recipes, lifestyle and travel trends, and the latest news about Velas Resorts on the digital mag: http://www.velasmagazine.com.

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New Home to Grand Extended Stay Program, More Privacy, Services, and Perks from Velas Resorts in Mexico - PR Web

How will travel change in the post-pandemic world? As we all know, travel has been severely impacted by COVID-19 and the social distancing and stay-at-home orders implemented. We have all been wondering what our new travel normal will be like. In part one of this article, we looked at how hotel stays and air travel will be affected and changed in the post-pandemic world. For this part, let us look at how cruising and road trips will change in the post-pandemic world.

Cruises are known for their distressing environmental effects and notorious skirting of labor laws. Therefore, we can expect big changes in the cruise industry in the post-pandemic world. This will give them the chance to review how they have been operating and implement positive changes. The environmental impact cruises have on the earth is severe. One of the transitions that cruise lines who operate in the United States market will make is working towards launching electric cruise ships that have zero emissions. This change is less to do with the pandemic, but having halted voyages and looking at how they operate, cruise ships need to change the way they sail to better our environment.

In direct regards to the COVID-19 outbreak, cruise lines need to up their game when it comes to germ spreading on board. Ever heard the phrase floating petri dish? Sadly, it is not far off given the small living quarters and shared amenities that one finds when they sail on a cruise. As cruise ships figure out the best way for them to stop the spread of disease in order to safely offer voyages again, the first thing they are doing is limiting the number of people on board and eliminating buffet-style dining. It is unclear what else will change following the pandemic, so as of now, travelers with underlying health conditions are being encouraged by the CDC to stay away from traveling on cruise ships.

How will travel change in the post-pandemic world? No more cruise ships?

Not wanting to rent a room in a hotel or fly on a plane will lead many people to take road trips and stay close to home. Being in ones own car will provide comfort and no exposure to more germs. As mentioned in part one, Airbnb and private rentals are likely to be more popular so as people being taking road trips, they may travel several hours away. And rent a private home, as opposed to staying in a hotel. This allows for a longer trip via safer means. Specifically trips to national parks and outdoor areas are likely to be most visited because the open-air decreases the likelihood of COVID-19 transmission. It allows people to space out, not jammed together in one room.

As driving becomes the primary method of travel, rest stops may change in the post-pandemic world, as well. Oftentimes they are small and compact so they will need to rescue contact by involving more drive-thru options. Also have individual restrooms that open to the outside, rather than several that are solely accessed indoors.

It is not only the travel industry but also the individual travelers responsibility to do what they can to reduce germ transmissions and prevent the spread. Hand washing and hand sanitizing have always been something that is encouraged. Now more than ever people really need to be sure they wash their hands for a full 20 seconds every time they enter a new place or leave the bathroom. Hand sanitizing after interacting with another person is also something to make a habit.

And of course, wearing a mask. A mask has shown to prevent the spread of droplets that carry illnesses. While it is incredibly uncomfortable and irksome, masks play a large role in curbing the spread of COVID-19. As we move into the post-pandemic world, wearing masks will continue to be expected when traveling.

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How will travel change in the post-pandemic world? Part Two: Cruising and Road Trips - Gildshire Magazines

United Nations, July 23

World leaders will submit pre-recorded video statements for the United Nations General Assembly session in September, the 193-member organisation has decided, as heads of state and government will not be physically attending the annual gathering due to the coronavirus pandemic and the high-level session goes virtual for the first time in the UNs 75-year history.

The landmark 75th session of the UN General Assembly will begin on September 15. The General Debate is held at the beginning of each session of the General Assembly and usually runs for over a week when leaders and ministers from the 193 UN member states address the world from the iconic lectern in the General Assembly hall.

The General Assembly adopted a decision on Wednesday that each Member State, observer State and the European Union can submit a pre-recorded statement of its Head of State, Vice-President, Crown Prince or Princess, Head of Government, Minister or Vice-Minister, which will be played in the General Assembly Hall during the general debate of the Assembly at its seventy-fifth session, the high-level meeting to commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the United Nations and the high-level meetings...after introduction by their representative who is physically present in the Assembly Hall.

While taking the decision, the General Assembly noted with concern the situation regarding the coronavirus pandemic and the limitations recommended on meetings within the United Nations premises as precautionary measures aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19.

The new format will mean that it will be for the first time in the world organisations 75-year history that global leaders will not gather here for the high-level week that annually brings thousands of diplomats, government officials, civil society members and media persons from around the world to New York City.

Telecommuting arrangements have been in place at the UN headquarters here since mid-March as coronavirus spread rapidly across New York, making the state the epicentre of the pandemic in the US.

The UN headquarters began its first phase of re-opening on July 20, under which no more than 400 people will be allowed to be present at the premises on any given day, in order to minimise the risk of exposure to the virus and to allow for physical distancing. Those present in the premises will have to follow strict social distancing guidelines.

The UN has said that given the evolving nature of the situation and the many remaining uncertainties regarding COVID-19, the transition from one phase to another may not be linear and at any time could revert to a previous phase.

In phase 2, the UNHQ occupancy will gradually increase from 10 to 40 per cent, while phase 3 or the new normal is being designed and will draw on lessons learned from the earlier phases.

The General Assembly meeting to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the United Nations will take place on September 21 and the Declaration will be formally adopted at the meeting. The General Debate of the 75th session of the Assembly will commence from September 22.

Along with the General Debate and 75th anniversary commemoration, key sessions will also be held virtually at the UN, the Assembly decided.

The summit on bio-diversity will be held on September 30, meeting of the General Assembly on the 25th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women on October 1 and the meeting to commemorate and promote the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons on October 2.

Member states will submit their pre-recorded video statements for these meetings as well. Each country would be encouraged to observe the time limit of 15 minutes in the General Debate that would include remarks in the Assembly Hall to introduce the pre-recorded video and the video itself.

General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande told member states that with a view to limit the footprint and the number of people into the UN building, physical access and presence will be limited to one or, if the situation allows, two delegates in the General Assembly hall.

Further, he said member states are encouraged to move all side events to virtual platforms to limit the footprint and number of people in the UN building.

Addressing a virtual press conference in June, Muhammad-Bande had said that world leaders cannot come to New York for the annual UN General Assembly session in September because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

World leaders cannot come to New York because they cannot come as single individuals. A president doesnt travel alone. We dont expect therefore to have presidents here, Muhammad-Bande had said.

The General Assembly session had particular significance this year as it would have commemorated 75 years of the existence of the United Nations and would have seen tremendous participation from leaders of the 193 member states to mark the anniversary. PTI

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For 1st time in 75 years, world leaders wont travel to NY for UNGA as session goes virtual - The Tribune India

As Walt Disney World reopens, here are some new health and safety measures you may see. USA TODAY

Walt Disney World may have reopened to the public this month, but that doesn't mean every attraction at the Florida theme park came back from a nearly four-month shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

To be sure, not all of the ongoing closures are related to the coronavirus. Some attractions were simply scheduled to close permanently, while others are shut down for refurbishment. New attractions that were scheduled to open have been delayed.

Disney World reopened on July 11 with a variety of changes aimed at protecting visitors and stemming the spread of coronavirus. Visitors and employees must undergo a temperature screening on arrival. Both are required to wear face masks, except when eating or drinking. Social distancing is enforced throughout the park, and hand hygiene is encouraged.

Some events, like parades and fireworks, have not returned to avoid creating crowds.

No eating and walking: Universal Orlando, Disney World tightening face mask requirements, closing loopholes

Disney's theme parks lost $1 billion in income during the first three months of the year, the company reported in May.

"Like so many other companies andindustries, the pandemic has hit us hard," Disney ExecutiveChairman Bob Iger said as the company issuedits quarterlyfinancial results.

Walt Disney, who grew up in the railroad town of Marceline, Missouri, was a train guy. The Walt Disney World Railroad encircles the park with four restored narrow-gauge steam trains built from 1916 to 1928. The railroad is currently closed for refurbishment.

Three Disney World attractions will not be coming back, according to the company.Primeval Whirl and Rivers of Light were part of the Animal Kingdom. Stitch's Great Escape will not return at the Magic Kingdom. The closures were not related to the pandemic.

The Mary Poppins attraction at Epcot's British Pavilion is postponed, while an overhaul of Spaceship Earth, one of Disney World's most recognizable landmarks, will be delayed. The project was scheduled to begin in May. It will be the fourth update to Spaceship Earth since Epcot opened in 1982.

Disney World's water parks,Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon, have not reopened, with no date set for them to resume, according to the company.

No park hopping for now: Disney to roll out new reservation system when parks reopen

Disneyland was scheduled to reopen on July 17, but a surge in coronavirus cases in California has put that on hold. A new reopening date has not yet been announced.

Depending on when the park reopens, four attractions may remain closed for refurbishment: Gadget's Go Coaster, Snow White's Scary Adventures, King Arthur Carousel and Haunted Mansion. In the Disney California Adventure Park, the Red Car Trolley is also closed for refurbishment.

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These Disney World attractions didn't reopen when the park did. Here's what we know - USA TODAY

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump appears to be living in an alternate reality when it comes to the COVID-19 threat.

Over the weekend, he clung to the misguided notion that the virus will just "disappear" even as his top science experts and GOP allies bluntly say otherwise.

Trump also continued to wrongly insist that anyone who wants a coronavirus test is getting one, made the head-scratching suggestion that the virus is under control when infections are surging to fresh daily highs and lodged false accusations against the nation's top infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

The statements came in a week of distorted truth. Trump referred repeatedly to his "ban" on travel from China that wasn't so and issued a scattered indictment of Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden.

A look at his rhetoric and how they compare with the facts:

TRUMP vs. FAUCI

TRUMP: "Dr. Fauci at the beginning said, 'This will pass. Don't worry about it. This will pass.' He was wrong." - interview aired on "Fox News Sunday."

THE FACTS: Trump is overstating it. While Fauci said in January and February that Americans need not panic about a virus threat at the time, he also said the situation was "evolving" and that public health officials were taking the threat seriously.

"Right now the risk is still low, but this could change, I've said that many times," Fauci told NBC on Feb. 29. He allowed that if there are growing cases of community spread, it could become a "major outbreak."

"When you start to see community spread, this could change and force you to become much more attentive to doing things that would protect you from spread," Fauci said.

Fauci never claimed the virus would just "pass" or disappear.

___

TRUMP: "Dr. Fauci told me not to ban China, it would be a big mistake. I did it over and above his recommendation." - Fox interview.

THE FACTS: That's incorrect. While Fauci expressed some initial reservations about travel restrictions on China, he supported the decision by the time it was made.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who was coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force at the time and announced the travel restrictions, said Trump made the decision in late January after accepting the "uniform recommendation of the career public health officials here at HHS."

While the World Health Organization did advise against the overuse of travel restrictions, Azar told reporters in February that his department's career health officials had made a "considered recommendation, which I and the president adopted" in a bid to slow spread of the virus.

___

TRUMP: "I will be right eventually. You know I said, 'It's going to disappear.' I'll say it again. It's going to disappear, and I'll be right." - Fox interview.

TRUMP: "We'll put out the flames. ... It's going to be under control." - Fox interview.

THE FACTS: "The virus is not going to disappear," according to Fauci.

The number of confirmed cases in the U.S. per day has risen over the past month, hitting over 70,000 this past week, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University. That is higher even than what the country experienced from mid-April through early May, when deaths sharply rose.

Fauci has warned that the increase across the South and West "puts the entire country at risk" and that new infections could reach 100,000 a day if people don't start listening to guidance from public health authorities to wear a mask and practice social distancing.

Arizona, California, Florida and Texas have recently been forced to shut down bars and businesses as virus cases surge. The U.S. currently has more than 3.7 million known cases and many more undetected.

In February, Trump asserted coronavirus cases were going "very substantially down, not up," and told Fox Business it will be fine because "in April, supposedly, it dies with the hotter weather."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, visiting a hospital Wednesday in Kentucky, acknowledged that some of those early predictions were too rosy. "The straight talk here that everyone needs to understand: This is not going away," he said.

Fauci says there "certainly" will be coronavirus infections in the fall and winter.

___

PETER NAVARRO, White House trade adviser: "When Fauci was telling the White House Coronavirus Task Force that there was only anecdotal evidence in support of hydroxychloroquine to fight the virus, I confronted him with scientific studies providing evidence of safety and efficacy. A recent Detroit hospital study showed a 50% reduction in the mortality rate when the medicine is used in early treatment." - op-ed published Wednesday in USA Today.

THE FACTS: Navarro cherry-picks a study widely criticized as flawed and ignores multiple studies finding hydroxychloroquine doesn't help.

Numerous rigorous tests of hydroxychloroquine, including a large one from Britain and one led by the National Institutes of Health, concluded that the anti-malaria drug was ineffective for treating hospitalized coronavirus patients. Fauci leads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH.

The Food and Drug Administration also has warned the drug should only be used for the coronavirus in hospitals and research settings because of the risk of serious heart rhythm problems and other safety issues.

The Henry Ford Health System study that Navarro refers to was an observational look back at how various patients fared. It was not a rigorous test where similar patients are randomly assigned to get the drug or not and where each group is compared later on how they did.

In the study, some people with heart or certain other conditions were not given the drugs, which can cause heart rhythm problems, so those patients were fundamentally different from the group they were compared with. Researchers said they adjusted statistically for some differences, but the many variables make it tough to reach firm conclusions.

Some patients also received other treatments such as steroids and the antiviral drug remdesivir, further clouding any ability to tell whether hydroxychloroquine helped.

The White House said Navarro was not authorized to challenge Fauci with the op-ed and should not have done it. But his points largely reflect ones Trump and others in the White House have made themselves.

___

MORE ON VIRUS THREAT

TRUMP, on what happened after he restricted travel from China: "Nancy Pelosi was dancing on the streets of Chinatown in San Francisco a month later, and even later than that, and others, too." - Rose Garden remarks Tuesday.

THE FACTS: No she wasn't. This is Trump's frequent and fanciful account of the House speaker's visit to San Francisco's Chinatown on Feb. 24. That day, she visited shops and strolled the streets to counter the hostility some people in the district were encountering over a virus that emanated from China.

On that day, Pelosi said the public should be vigilant about the virus but the city took precautions and "we should come to Chinatown." Local TV news tracked her visit;. She wasn't seen dancing and did not call for a "street fair," as Trump at times has put it. Community spread of the coronavirus had not yet been reported.

As FactCheck.org pointed out, the same day Pelosi went to Chinatown, Trump tweeted: The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health (Organization) have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me! The CDC is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Two days later, Trump asserted that only 15 people in the U.S. were infected and that number would go down "close to zero." Instead the numbers exploded. More than 3.6 million Americans have had COVID-19.

Trump has accused Pelosi of being "responsible for many deaths" because of the Chinatown visit. He has denied responsibility for any of the deaths sweeping the country as he has persistently minimized the threat, pushed for reopening and refused to take mask-wearing seriously.

___

TESTING

TRUMP: "We go out into parking lots and everything, everybody gets a test." - Fox interview.

THE FACTS: He's repeating the false notion that anybody who wants a COVID-19 test can get one.

Americans are being confronted with long lines at testing sites. People often are disqualified if they are not showing symptoms and, if they are tested, they sometimes are forced to wait many days for results.

Julie Khani, president of the American Clinical Laboratory Association, which represents LabCorp, Quest Diagnostics and other labs, has made clear that "the anticipated demand for COVID-19 testing over the coming weeks will likely exceed members' testing capacities." This past week the group encouraged members to give priority to "those most in need, especially hospitalized and symptomatic patients."

Many governors and local officials say they cannot meet the demand.

"Testing has been a challenge everywhere," says Utah Republican Gov. Gary Herbert.

Around Seattle, for instance, a new wave of patients is showing up at emergency departments, said nurse Mike Hastings.

"What's really frustrating from my side of it is when a patient comes into the emergency department, and is not really having symptoms of COVID, but they feel like they need that testing," said Hastings, who is president of the Emergency Nurses Association. "Sometimes we're not able to test them because we don't have enough test supplies, so we're only testing a certain set of patients."

___

TRUMP: "Cases are up, because we have the best testing in the world and we have the most testing." - Fox interview.

THE FACTS: It's not true that infections are high only because the U.S. diagnostic testing has increased. Trump's own top public health officials have shot down this line of thinking. Infections are rising because people are infecting each other more than they were when most everyone was hunkered down.

Increased testing does contribute to the higher numbers, but there's more to it. Testing in fact has uncovered a worrisome trend: The percentage of tests coming back positive for the virus is on the rise across nearly the entire country.

That's a clear demonstration that sickness is spreading and that the U.S. testing system is falling short.

"A high rate of positive tests indicates a government is only testing the sickest patients who seek out medical attention and is not casting a wide enough net," says the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, a primary source of updated information on the pandemic.

___

TRUMP: "No country has ever done what we've done in terms of testing. We are the envy of the world. They call and they say the most incredible job anybody's done is our job on testing, because we're going to very shortly be up to 50 million tests. You look at other countries; they don't even do tests. ... They don't go around have massive areas of testing, and we do." - Fox interview.

THE FACTS: U.S. testing is not the envy of the world, nor is the U.S. the only country that does mass testing.

U.S. testing on a per capita basis lags other countries that have done a far better job of controlling their outbreaks. State, local and federal officials are warning of the consequences of testing bottlenecks, including tests rendered useless because results come too late.

China has used batch testing, mixing samples and testing them together, as part of a recent campaign to test all 11 million residents of Wuhan. It's an approach that top U.S. health officials believe could be used to boost U.S. screening, though it's not clear when pooled testing could become available for wide-scale screenings at U.S. schools and businesses.

"We are nowhere near being able to rein in this virus with the amount of testing we have available at the moment," said Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University who previously served as Baltimore's health commissioner.

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said test results in parts of the U.S. take as long as a week, which is "too long."

"You do the testing to find out who's carrying the virus and then quickly get them isolated so they don't spread it around," he said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "And it's very hard to make that work when there's a long delay built in."

___

DEATH RATES

TRUMP: "I think we have one of the lowest mortality rates in the world." - Fox interview.

CHRIS WALLACE, host of "Fox News Sunday": "That's not true, sir."

TRUMP: "Number one, low mortality rate." - Fox interview.

THE FACTS: Trump's claim is wholly unsupported.

An accurate death rate is impossible to know. Every country tests and counts people differently, and some are unreliable in reporting cases. Without knowing the true number of people who become infected, it cannot be determined what portion of them die.

Using a count kept by Johns Hopkins University, you can compare the number of recorded deaths with the number of reported cases. That count shows the U.S. experiencing more deaths as a percentage of cases than most other countries now being hit hard with the pandemic. The statistics look better for the U.S. when the list is expanded to include European countries that were slammed early on by the virus but now appear to have it under control. Even then, the U.S. is not shown to be among the best in avoiding death.

Such calculations, though, do not provide a reliable measurement of actual death rates because of the variations in testing and reporting, and the Johns Hopkins tally is not meant to be such a measure.

The only way to tell how many cases have gone uncounted, and therefore what percentage of infected people have died from the disease, is to do another kind of test comprehensively, of people's blood, to find how many people bear immune system antibodies to the virus. Globally, that is only being done in select places.

___

TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS

TRUMP: "If you remember, I was the one that did the European Union very early." - Fox interview.

THE FACTS: U.S. health officials actually believe Trump was late in restricting travel from parts of Europe.

While Trump imposed travel restrictions on China in late January, he didn't follow up with many European countries until mid-March. Those delayed travel alerts as well as limited testing contributed to the jump in U.S. cases starting in late February, according to Dr. Anne Schuchat, the No. 2 official at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We clearly didn't recognize the full importations that were happening," Schuchat told The Associated Press in May.

___

TRUMP: "We would've had thousands of people additionally die if we let people come in from heavily infected China. But we stopped it. We did a travel ban in January. ... By closing up, we saved millions, potentially millions of lives." - Rose Garden remarks

THE FACTS: He didn't ban travel from China. He restricted it. Dozens of countries took similar steps to control travel from hot spots before or around the same time the U.S. did.

The U.S. restrictions that took effect Feb. 2 continued to allow travel to the U.S. from China's Hong Kong and Macao territories over the past five months. The Associated Press reported that more than 8,000 Chinese and foreign nationals based in those territories entered the U.S. in the first three months after the travel restrictions were imposed.

Additionally, more than 27,000 Americans returned from mainland China in the first month after the restrictions took effect. U.S. officials lost track of more than 1,600 of them who were supposed to be monitored for virus exposure.

Few doubt that the heavy death toll from COVID-19 would be even heavier if world travel had not been constricted globally. But Trump has no scientific basis to claim that his action alone saved "millions" or even "hundreds of thousands" of lives, as he has put it.

___

TRUMP, on Biden: "He opposed my very strict travel ban on Chinese nationals to stop the spread of the China virus. He was totally against it. 'Xenophobic,' he called me. 'Xenophobic.' A month later, he admitted I was right." - Rose Garden.

THE FACTS: No, Biden did not come out against the travel restrictions on China. He said little about them at the time. In April, his campaign said he supported travel restrictions if "guided by medical experts."

Biden did say Trump has a record of xenophobia, a comment made during an Iowa campaign event when the restrictions were announced. Biden said Trump was "fear-mongering" against foreigners and the Democrat took issue with Trump's references to the "China virus" as an example. He did not address the travel steps.

Trump has claimed that Biden realized he was right after all about restricting travel from China and wrote him a "letter of apology." This didn't happen, either.

___

POLICE

TRUMP: "Biden wants to defund the police." - Fox interview.

THE FACTS: To be clear, Biden has not joined the call of protesters who demanded "defund the police" after George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis. He's proposed more money for police, conditioned to improvements in their practices.

"I don't support defunding the police," Biden said last month in a CBS interview. But he said he would support tying federal aid to police based on whether "they meet certain basic standards of decency, honorableness and, in fact, are able to demonstrate they can protect the community, everybody in the community."

Biden's criminal justice agenda, released long before he became the Democrats' presumptive presidential nominee, proposes more federal money for "training that is needed to avert tragic, unjustifiable deaths" and hiring more officers to ensure that departments are racially and ethnically reflective of the populations they serve.

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AP FACT CHECK: Trump's alternate reality on COVID-19 threat - KWTX

Travel Bag Market is systematic exploration that delivers key statistics on the market status of the development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status. The report has included strong players and analyses their limitations and strong points of the well-known players through SWOT analysis. This Report covers growing trends that are linked with major opportunities for the expansion of the Travel Bag industry.

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Do you want any other requirement or customize the report, Do Inquiry Here: https://www.globalmarketers.biz/report/life-sciences/global-travel-bag-market-report-2020-by-key-players,-types,-applications,-countries,-market-size,-forecast-to-2026-(based-on-2020-covid-19-worldwide-spread)/155811#inquiry_before_buying

This research report represents a 360-degree overview of the competitive landscape of the Travel Bag Market. Furthermore, it offers enormous statistics relating to current trends, technological advancements, tools, and methodologies.

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It concludes by throwing light on the recent developments that took place in the Travel Bag market and their influence on the future growth of this market.

Table of Content & Report Detail @ https://www.globalmarketers.biz/report/life-sciences/global-travel-bag-market-report-2020-by-key-players,-types,-applications,-countries,-market-size,-forecast-to-2026-(based-on-2020-covid-19-worldwide-spread)/155811#table_of_contents

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Global Travel Bag Market Report Explores Share, Development By Companies Outlook, Growth Prospects And 2026 Key Opportunities Forecast - Cole of Duty

The sun rises slowly above the horizon of the African savanna. Against its glowing light can be seen the silhouettes of an elephant family rambling through the grassland on their quest for the nearest waterhole. Impalas and zebras make their way through the wilderness, the birds chirp and it can be sensed that the day is going to be a hot one.

This scene in the Sabi Sand Game Reserve in Mpumalanga, one of the best-known safari regions of South Africa, seems very real. But, in fact, the tourists who are enjoying it are not sitting in jeeps, but at home watching it on their smartphones and tablets. The safari itself is really taking place, however, and, as in real life, every trip is different, adding to the pleasure of such virtual experiences.

In the Kenyan game reserve Ol Pejeta you can go on a virtual safari with rangers.

Since the coronavirus pandemic broke out, the tourism industry has collapsed across all the countries in Africa. National parks and hotels are empty and there is no trace of tourists, as they are all stuck at home.

But several African tourism associations have come up with the idea of supplying avid travelers with digital impressions of the continent during the pandemic. Virtual tourism is on the rise.

Safaris at home

Safaris in Kenya, strolls through the Namib desert in Namibia, paragliding in South Africa or standing on the edge of the Victoria Falls at the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe: All of these experiences can now be enjoyed at home by virtual tourists like Juan Santiago.

Santiago, who hails from the Spanish capital, Madrid, has already visited Kenya a couple of times at this time of year to watch the migration of wildebeest in the Maasai Mara game reserve, a phenomenon that has often been called one of the Wonders of the World.

But this year, things are different. Instead of going to Kenya, Santiago is paying a virtual visit to the Nairobi National Park. "If the safari is led well, you have the atmosphere of the Nairobi National Park at home. Everything happens in real time," he says. "Even if my family tours Kenya without me after the coronavirus pandemic, this technology lets me accompany them virtually."

Conventional safaris are important for earning foreign currencies, especially in eastern and southern Africa.

Read more:Protecting South African wildlife from poaching during the coronavirus pandemic

A chance to survive

Kenya has already lost more than $750 million (656 million) in revenue from tourism since the first case of COVID-19 in the country. That is why, in June, the tourism authority there initiated a live-stream drive as part of its #TheMagicAwaits campaign. It is meant to give the world a taste of what awaits in Kenya when the country is open to visitors once more, says Betty Radier, the managing director of the Kenya Tourism Board.

"People are online and looking for places they could travel to. That is a great opportunity for us to present ourselves live as a destination," she told DW. Sixteen different destinations in Kenya are being live-streamed.

A taste of things to come

This concept is also working in South Africa. The tourism authority in Cape Town, for example, has launched the campaign We Are Worth Waiting For. It is offering ways to enjoy the city virtually, including tours on Robben Island, with its former prison, and Table Mountain.

The managing director of Cape Town Tourism, Enver Duminy, describes it as a long-distance love affair.

"What we have done using technology during COVID-19 is to use social media and campaigns to remind tourists of why they fell in love with the destination in the first place," Duminy told DW. "We give images of what you are longing for, of what you experienced the last time you were here. And hopefully we can connect and continue that love affair when you visit us. Technology is more of an enabler that allows us to transit in space and time."

"Virtual tourism is a great opportunity for seeing whether you want to visit a particular destination for real," says Gerald Ferreira, the founder of the Virtual Reality Company in South Africa. "People can also try out what adventure tourism is like before they try something like bungee jumping, for example."

Read more:Faraway peaks and unreachable cities virtual travel is all that's possible for the time being

Rapid growth

According to figures from the UN's World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), 74% of African governments were not allowing tourists into their countries at the start of June. Before the pandemic broke out, Africa was the fastest-growing tourism region. In 2018, some 67 million tourists visited the continent, bringing $38 billion in revenue. In 2019, the number of tourists increased by 4.2%, according to preliminary figures. And Africa could have reckoned with an increase of 3-4% in 2020.

But then, COVID-19 arrived on the scene. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) puts the number of jobs lost in Africa's tourism sector alone at almost 8 million. This has made seeking alternatives imperative.

But can virtual tourism replace real travel? Or could it even cause long-term damage to the tourism industry, with potential travelers staying away, content with visiting Africa virtually?

Read more:How COVID-19 is destroying Africa's tourism industry

Itchy feet syndrome

Patrick Karangwa, a computer scientist from Rwanda, does not think it will. He offers virtual tours through the capital, Kigali.

"I don't see myself as competing with traditional tourism, but as a partner," he told DW. "I create an additional layer of information that encourages people to travel to places. It is really an advantage for travel businesses, hotels, restaurants and the industry in general."

Enver Duminy in Cape Town is also banking on people's continued wanderlust. "Virtual reality allows more immersive experiences, even though at this stage it does not allow you to touch and taste and smell. It only allows you to see. I think it is in our DNA; we need to connect, to see, to touch, to hug."

In a few weeks' time, the first package tourists from Europe are due in Rwanda again. Tanzania, known for its lax approach to the coronavirus crisis, is already welcoming tourists, and Namibia has reopened its national parks. Kenya will allow tourists in from August 1 and South Africa's tourism industry hopes to be able to open for business from September 2020 whether that will really be the case, however, remains uncertain, as cases of coronavirus infection are currently rising. Countries like Uganda will probably have to wait a bit longer.

Read more:Corona-hit tourism in Kenya leaves elephant conservation 'staring at an uncertain future'

Animal welfare benefits

Juan Santiago in Madrid is not worried by this. Since the pandemic started, he has already taken a virtual look at the famous archaeological finds and collections in the Nairobi National Museum.

Even if he likes to travel in these countries in person, he believes in the future of virtual tourism. "One day, we will all be able to see the giraffes in Nairobi from all over the world; you'll go to work at 8 o'clock and watch the giraffes on live screens in the office," he says. "That will be good for nature conservation because nature fans like me would then donate for these giraffes, rhinoceroses or elephants."

Anyone who already has itchy feet can only hope that trips to Africa will soon be possible again. But for those who are content with virtual travel as well the world is already open.

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Virtual tourism in Africa takes off amid the coronavirus pandemic - DW (English)

At this point in the summer and the pandemic the desire to escape to a place far away might be overwhelming. Even with so many borders closed, podcasts can transport you elsewhere, making them a good alternative to real, out-of-the-house travel. Heres a collection of immersive audio experiences that are almost as immersive as exploring the great wide world out there.

If a place on a map could give a TED Talk, what would it sound like? Thats what the host Saleem Reshamwala seeks to find out in each episode of TEDs latest podcast, Pindrop. Join him on his global expedition for surprising, hyperlocal stories like a deep dive into the radio station in Bangkok that serves as the surrounding areas emergency hotline, notice board and lost and found. Or meet the Mexico City-based masked vigilante protecting his fellow citizens from traffic accidents. Stop by a hardware store in Mantua Township, N.J. where paleontologists are at work excavating dinosaur bones and protecting the land from development. The show is a different kind of travel podcast it introduces people around the world who are creatively working to make their communities better.

This NPR podcast promises to take you places, and since it debuted in 2017, that is exactly what it delivers. Each episode shows listeners how the same subject is perceived in different places around the world, like a cultural kaleidoscope of current events. Take one of the controversies du jour in the United States over some peoples refusal to wear face masks. In the From Niqab to N95 episode, the host Gregory Warner dives into how that debate is playing out in France, where, before the coronavirus made masks a public health necessity, the discussion over covering ones face in public was highly politicized and tinged with Islamophobia.

From the studio that makes the multilingual immigrant narrative fiction podcast, Mija, comes yet another beautiful podcast that presents fiction and nonfiction stories from across the world. Ochenta Stories is a globally crowdsourced show that cobbles together dispatches from a planet in quarantine each episode is a different audio makers answer to this question: What do you want to hear after this pandemic is over? And those who enjoy immersion language-learning will love how each story is retold in each episode, but in another language. Listeners meet an 11-year-old in Asheville, N.C., envisioning her first day back to school (told in English and Spanish); a Londoner fantasizing about the feeling of getting lost in a crowd again (told in English and French); and a couple in Milan who cant believe how much quarantine time is spent washing ones own dishes (Italian and English).

After several months of staring at your own four walls, you might start to feel as if you need to get away to the most remote place in the world, fast. Enter Extremities, a podcast that takes you on an odyssey to some of the most distant reaches on Earth. Season 1 is a six-episode journey to Pitcairn Island, a dot in the South Pacific Ocean between Chile and Australia; season 2 goes to the Svalbard archipelago between continental Norway and the North Pole; and the most recent season chronicles a sojourn to the South Atlantic island of St. Helena. Travel with the host Sam Denby to learn the histories and local legends of each territory and even have dinner with residents, all through your earbuds.

Most of us will never climb the worlds highest mountains. But if youre curious as to how youd go about it if you could, consider this show, an audio diary hosted by a married couple as they travel to and through Nepal and the Himalayas. In 16 episodes, Jason Moore and Anne Dorthe bring you along on every step and bump of their adventure, which unfolded in 2014; join them on their hikes and as they visit Kathmandu and Tibetan Buddhist villages. With both tribulations and transcendent moments, Moore and Dorthe grant you access to a trip of a lifetime.

Join The New York Times Podcast Club on Facebook for more suggestions and discussions about all things audio.

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Travel The World With Your Ears - The New York Times

Travel Mobility Scooter Market is systematic exploration that delivers key statistics on the market status of the development trends, competitive landscape analysis, and key regions development status. The report has included strong players and analyses their limitations and strong points of the well-known players through SWOT analysis. This Report covers growing trends that are linked with major opportunities for the expansion of the Travel Mobility Scooter industry.

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Afikim Electric VehiclesInvacareVan Os MedicalTGA MobilityDrive MedicalQuingoKymcoRoma MedicalElectric MobilityVermeirenHoveround CorpAmigo MobilitySunrise MedicalPride MobilityGolden Technologies

The Geographical Analysis Covers the Following Regions

The recent outbreak of the COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease) Provide extra commentary on the newest scenario, an economic slowdown on the overall industry. In addition to this, the report also includes the development of the Travel Mobility Scooter market in the major regions across the world.

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Global Travel Mobility Scooter Market Segmentation: By Types

ResidentialCommercial

Global Travel Mobility Scooter Market Segmentation: By Applications

Class 2 ScooterClass 3 Scooter

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This research report represents a 360-degree overview of the competitive landscape of the Travel Mobility Scooter Market. Furthermore, it offers enormous statistics relating to current trends, technological advancements, tools, and methodologies.

Global Travel Mobility Scooter Market Research Report 2020

Chapter 1 About the Travel Mobility Scooter Industry

Chapter 2 World Market Competition Landscape

Chapter 3 World Travel Mobility Scooter Market share

Chapter 4 Supply Chain Analysis

Chapter 5 Company Profiles

Chapter 6 Globalization & Trade

Chapter 7 Distributors and Customers

Chapter 8 Import, Export, Consumption and Consumption Value by Major Countries

Chapter 9 World Travel Mobility Scooter Market Forecast through 2026

Chapter 10 Key success factors and Market Overview

It concludes by throwing light on the recent developments that took place in the Travel Mobility Scooter market and their influence on the future growth of this market.

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Global Travel Mobility Scooter Market 2020 Growth Rate, Gross Margin, Competitive Situation and Trends, Forecast To 2026 - Jewish Life News

Experiential Travels Market research is an intelligence report with meticulous efforts undertaken to study the right and valuable information. The data which has been looked upon is done considering both, the existing top players and the upcoming competitors. Business strategies of the key players and the new entering market industries are studied in detail. Well explained SWOT analysis, revenue share and contact information are shared in this report analysis.

Experiential Travels Market is growing at a High CAGR during the forecast period 2020-2026. The increasing interest of the individuals in this industry is that the major reason for the expansion of this market.

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Top Key Players Profiled in This Report:

Expedia, Priceline, TripAdvisor, Ctrip.Com, Hostelworld, Hotel Urbano, CheapOair.Com, MakeMyTrip, Hays Travel, Airbnb, Yatra Online, Tuniu, Booking, TCS World Travel, Heritage Tours, Gray & Co, Mountain Lodges of Peru, Classic Journeys, Asia Transpacific Journeys, Journeys Within, Backroads

The key questions answered in this report:

Various factors are responsible for the markets growth trajectory, which are studied at length in the report. In addition, the report lists down the restraints that are posing threat to the global Experiential Travels market. It also gauges the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, threat from new entrants and product substitute, and the degree of competition prevailing in the market. The influence of the latest government guidelines is also analyzed in detail in the report. It studies the Experiential Travels markets trajectory between forecast periods.

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Table of Contents:

Global Experiential Travels Market Research Report

Chapter 1 Experiential Travels Market Overview

Chapter 2 Global Economic Impact on Industry

Chapter 3 Global Market Competition by Manufacturers

Chapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by Region

Chapter 5 Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions

Chapter 6 Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type

Chapter 7 Global Market Analysis by Application

Chapter 8 Manufacturing Cost Analysis

Chapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers

Chapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders

Chapter 11 Market Effect Factors Analysis

Chapter 12 Global Experiential Travels Market Forecast

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Experiential Travels Market will touch a new level in upcoming year with Top Key Players like Expedia, Priceline, TripAdvisor, Ctrip.Com, Hostelworld ...

There are some terms that we have all become familiar with over the past few months, from flattening the curve to social distancing. And those in the hospitality industry, or anyone browsing the internet in search of a staycation, may have come across new terms used to denote safety and hygiene, namely the Bureau Veritas Safeguard label.

Earlier this year, news broke that Jumeirah Al Naseem in Dubai became first hotel in the world to receive the label, and a number of other properties in the UAE have followed suit, including Kempinski Mall of the Emirates and Rove Hotels.

What is it?

Bureau Veritas is an international company that specialises in testing, inspection and certification. And, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has launched the Safeguard label to provide reassurance to partners, customers and employees that the entities carrying the label have undergone checks and audits of the preventive measures in place.

Marcel Hochar, senior vice president Middle East and central Asia at Bureau Veritas, says: We recognised that companies and administrations around the world were looking to restart their activities and operate safely.

To restart, these organisations must demonstrate that they have implemented a series of safety and sanitary measures, covering hygiene, cleaning, maintenance and regulatory inspections, to protect and reassure their clients, employees, suppliers, students or users. Bureau Veritas launched the Safeguard label to be able to support in adapting to the new normal.

While commonly held in the hospitality industry, the label can also be issued to banks, shops, restaurants, corporate buildings, industrial sites, construction sites, public buildings, schools, airports and malls.

How does a property get it?

In order to receive it, the preventive measures a property has put in place have to undergo checks and audits. Hochar says the checklists have been developed in collaboration with health and safety specialists.

The audit covers four main categories: facilities, hygiene and cleaning, people, and process.

Under these categories, there are nine subcategories, which are cleaning, employee protection, equipment, knowledge, training, management, personal hygiene, PPE and social distancing.

Remote and/or field audits are done to check that the protective measures are implemented efficiently. If there are non-conformities identified, the client is expected to implement corrective actions in seven days, or it does not get the label.

The company has not disclosed the fee required for the label. Once received, the tag is valid for six months, taking into consideration the evolution of the sanitary situation, regulations and requirements. After six months, the property has to be reassessed.

The UAE has been a leading hub for the Bureau Veritas Safeguard label. In fact, at the time of publishing, 48 properties in the country had received it, while 53 more were undergoing the audit process.

Hotels in the UAE, such as JA Resorts and Hotels, have also sought safety verification from the World Travel and Tourism Council.

In June, Ras Al Khaimah became the first city in the world to be certified as safe by Bureau Veritas and the first emirate to receive the WTTC Safe Travels stamp.

Meanwhile, many individual hotel chains have launched new health and safety precautions and programmes to address Covid-19, such as Hiltons CleanStay, Accor's All Safe label and Marriotts Commitment to Clean initiative.

Updated: July 19, 2020 03:11 PM

Link:

Staying in a Bureau Veritas certified hotel? What it means when a property receives the Safeguard label - The National

Another interesting feature about this marvel is that it resembles a mini forest, and has already made its entry to the Guinness World Records as the largest cashew tree in the world, and it has not stopped growing. The limbs of the tree, around the size of 70 regular cashew trees, further spread to out an incredible 50 m from the central trunk. Thereby, making it look like a never-ending tree if you trail under its branches and want to see where it ends.

Where do you find this attraction?

Located in a park next to a beach in Brazil, it is a major draw for tourists from far and wide. While enjoying a stroll inside the sprawling canopy, you might feel like walking in a lush, green forest, whereas, you are in fact walking within one giant single tree. The tree covers areas, which is almost the size of two football fields, and its record enormous size is believed to be the result of two different genetic mutations.

Although Brazil is already famous in the tourist circuit for its spectacular beaches and party scenes, you should visit this spot and see it up close and personal. Mark our words, you wont be disappointed.

Apart from this, the cashew nut tree is surrounded by an equal or greater area of land that is dedicated to souvenir shops, selling all kinds of cashew-themed souvenirs.

Important tip: Once there, dont forget to get the cashew-flavored cachaca, which is a Brazilian sugarcane-based alcohol.

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Worlds largest cashew tree is almost the size of two football fields! See pics - Happytrips

Though there has not been any official announcement yet regarding this, a senior official at Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation (RTDC) said, We have not decided as yet. We are keen to start, but there are travel advisories for non-essential travel. Resumption of scheduled commercial flights is a big factor given the fact that the majority of travellers in the train are from foreign countries. Also, it all depends on which direction the COVID-19 moves,

RTDC operates Palace on Wheels in joint collaboration with Indian Railways. The train, which reflects the beauty of the country, is one of the biggest tourist draws in India, and is quite popular among foreigners and NRIs. These people take up around 90 percent of the seats of the train. The train has 84 berths and it takes 8 days to complete the journey.

The Palace on Wheels passes through some of the prominent royal heritages of Rajasthan, snaking through deserts and wildfires and bird sanctuaries along with the historic monument of love, the Taj Mahal in Agra.

However, this year, the journey wont be taking place. Given the pandemic situation, people are apprehensive about travelling anywhere. The train was cancelled in March and April too due to the outbreak of the virus. So, the railways did not cancel or refund for the trips already booked, but rebooked again, which does not look possible till December.

Excerpt from:

Indias luxurious train, Palace on Wheels, probably wont run this year due to COVID-19 - Happytrips

Sabre, a public company on the Nasdaq, has been helping the U.S. government carry out surveillance ... [+] on suspect travellers since 2001. (Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg)

American border patrol already has significant surveillance powers and collects vast amounts of data on who is flying into and out of the country. But the U.S. has another tool to watch over travellers across the world thanks to a little-known but influential Texan business called Sabre. As the biggest of three companies that store the vast majority of the worlds travel informationfrom airline seats to hotel bookings Sabre has been called on to hand over that travellers data and, on at least one occasion, do real-time tracking of a suspect. And, say former employees, the same powerful trove of information could be used to help monitor the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

To understand how Sabre, which is publicly traded on NASDAQ with a $2 billion plus market cap, came to control such a vast trove of data, you have to go back to the mid-1950s, the very beginnings of what would become the booming - though currently beleaguered - travel industry. In American Airlines offices, bookings staff would take calls sitting at large round tables mounted by a Byzantine-looking contraption: a huge lazy Susan, full of cubbyholes. In each were filed index cards, little records of every separate travel booking, the whole system designed to keep track of who had booked what seat for when. Thanks to predictable human error, it led to inaccurate records, over- and under-booked flights, and peeved travellers who were hoping to explore the world at their leisure in the postwar era of American expansionism and openness.

To make the system more efficient and accurate, American turned to the nascent computer industry, calling on IBM and MIT scientists to build the industrys first passenger name record, a vast database of travel bookings that could be updated and tracked at far greater efficiency. American Airlines dubbed the system the Semi-Automated Business Research Environment and Sabre was born, going live on two IBM mainframes in 1964.

The system worked so well that Sabre would later become its own company and expand to cover other airlines. It would grow further, becoming even more vital to the industry by tracking not just airline bookings but almost anything to do with travel, from the hotel to the rental car. Anyone whos ever booked a holiday will likely have been facilitated by the Texan companys technology. It processes well over a third of all air travel bookings in the world, amounting to more than $260 billion worth of global travel spend annually. Its vast too, with 9,000 employees today (though workers are being laid off and Sabres value has dipped thanks to the severe damage wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic).

Its the biggest of just three players who dominate the hidden connecting tissue of the travel market - known in the industry as global distribution systems - the other two being Madrid-based Amadeus and the British Travelport. Together they sit on huge networks and databases full of information on the worlds travel plans: itineraries, fares, reservations, connecting flights and ticket costs are all there, as are crew schedules and other logistical information.

They have [built] up humongous databases, says Gloria Guevara, former CEO of Sabres Mexican business, now chief executive of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). She recalls that when she was at Sabre, between 1995 and 2010, it had one of the top two largest privately-owned databases in the world. They could tell you where [a traveller] came from and the flight that they were on, where they were sitting. Sabre maintains those records, adds Jim Menge, another former Sabre VP from 1994 to 2004.

Publicly, Sabres entanglement with the U.S. government has been apparent for some time. Former CEOs have given testimony to Congressional panels and made it onto presidential committees. Then theres the secret side of the relationship. Stretching back to at least the 2001 September 11 terror attacks, the government has, on numerous occasions, secretly asked the company to actively spy on suspects movements, in both major and minor criminal cases.

For years, the government has asked telecom giants and banks to help track individuals worldwide, whether through tapping calls or sharing the location of bank withdrawals. But with Sabre, it has a particularly powerful snooping option. With financial institutions or the telecoms industry, the government has to go to each separate bank or operator and serve an order on them. It could take a similar approach with the travel industry, asking each airline, hotel and booking agent. But with Sabre, or one of its two chief competitors, it can serve one order to cover all bases. Thats one explanation as to why the company played a role in assisting the U.S. in tracking the movements of the 9/11 hijackers after the attacks on the Twin Towers, as Guevara and Menge tell Forbes. (Sabre didnt respond to requests for comment).

In that case, the government came knocking only after the atrocity had occurred. But, as detailed in one international cybercrime investigation, Sabre can be compelled to proactively watch and report on a persons whereabouts as soon as they start travelling. In an order from December 2019, feds asked Sabre to provide the FBI with real-time updates on the travel activities of a hacking suspect, an Indian fugitive called Deepanshu Kher. Sabre was told to provide complete and contemporaneous real time account activity information of the traveler [Kher] on a weekly basis for six months. Sabre would provide any travel orders, transactions or reservations for the suspect.

Theres little information about Khers case; an indictment from November 2019 simply notes he was charged with attacking the computer hosting a website of an unnamed San Diego company, causing more than $5,000 in damage. Now under home arrest, Kher was apprehended in January and has pleaded not guilty to one charge of intentional damage to a protected computer. (His legal counsel didnt respond to requests for comment. The Justice Department declined to comment.)

The order is one of at least four where Sabre agreed to provide such traveller information. In 2015, the FBI was hunting down Aleksei Yurievich Burkov, whom investigators believed was running Cardplanet, a $20 million bazaar for buying and selling stolen credit card data. To track him down, the U.S. government told not just Sabre, but also the U.K.-based, New York Stock Exchange-listed Travelport to provide records on the Russian. Thats according to a brief note on the court docket (a list of events in the course of a court case) for the Burkov case. Further details are under seal. Burkov was extradited from Israel in November 2019 and pleaded guilty to charges of fraud, identity theft, computer intrusion, wire fraud and money laundering in January.

The latest order on Sabre also notes the company had previously complied with three similar orders to assist in effectuating arrest warrants: two in the Western District of Washington in 2017 and 2019, another in the Northern District of California in 2016. Again, the documents remain under seal.

Legal experts tell Forbes that not only does the Kher order appear unprecedented and disturbing in showing how secretive the snooping operations have been, it is also legally questionable, due to its application of a 1789 law known as the All Writs Act. The law allows the U.S. to force third parties into providing assistance to execute a prior order of the court. Many will remember the Act from its most infamous case in 2016, when the government tried to have Apple unlock an iPhone of the shooter in the San Bernardino terror incident of 2015. In that case Apple fought the government, which eventually stopped chasing the Cupertino company after a hacker found a way onto the iPhone.

Marc Zwillinger, who represented Apple in that case, warns the order threatens to turn Sabre into an agent of law enforcement. It struck me as unusual and excessive I'd be concerned that the government will now use this as a matter of course every time they want to track a fugitive, says Zwillinger, whose past clients also include Yahoo.

The San Bernardino terror attack on December 4, 2015, led to an FBI tussle with Apple over the ... [+] application of an old law called the All Writs Act to force the tech company into helping gain access to the shooter's iPhone. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

He says that if it wants to leverage the All Writs Act, the government has to show a third party is necessary and close enough to the matter at hand. With Sabre, given there were other ways of getting the information on Khers travel, such as records of him entering the U.S. via Customs and Border Protection databases, that necessity was questionable.

There are also questions on the reasonableness of the burden on Sabre, another requirement for All Writs Act orders, he adds. In one particular order, it might not be that burdensome, but once you start to get some volume here, then it really turns Sabre into a sort of government agent every time they want to find a fugitive.

Sabres valuable database could soon go from hunting fugitives to stopping an invisible virus. The same data tap thats been turned on by the FBI could prove a boon for the U.S. government in surveilling the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, providing a constant and accurate record of the movements of global populations. It would be possible, for instance, to see how many people flew to New York from Wuhan, and through which airports they travelled. They can say here's how many people are travelling from China, whether it's nonstop via Japan, via Taiwan, Hawaii, Guam, you know, all of these secondary points back to the US, says Menge.

Sabre hasnt revealed any such plans. Such secrecy only means more questions about how deep Sabre and the U.S. governments ties go and how often the All Writs Act has forced it into becoming an arm of Americas globe-spanning intelligence operations.

No one really knows just how often or widely the government has used the All Writs Act to force companies into surveillance, says Riana Pfefferkorn, associate director of surveillance and cybersecurity at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society. As long as the government can get away with secret orders to companies that don't fight back, and judges continue to sign off on the orders the government drafts for them, we won't know.

READ MORE: Inside Americas Secretive $2 Billion Research Hub Collecting Fingerprints From Facebook, Hacking Smartwatches And Fighting Covid-19

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The FBI Is Secretly Using A $2 Billion Travel Company As A Global Surveillance Tool - Forbes

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TCS World Travel, the worlds leading operator of private jet expeditions, today announced a new type of all-inclusive personalized itinerarya curated trip for families and friends to travel together by private charter plane. Whether guests want to travel within the United States or venture farther afield, TCS leverages its 25 years of unparalleled knowledge, access and service to handle every aspect of the trip, including chartering an aircraft that is the right size for the group and managing all on-the-ground details to create the ultimate customized vacation. The trips can also be arranged using guests own aircraft.

To help fuel travelers imaginations, TCS Luxury Custom Travel consultants have developed a collection of 11 tailored itineraries for families and friends to explore the best of North Americas majestic landscapes and great outdoors by private charter planes. The destinations include U.S. National Parks, Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, the Southwestern U.S, Islands off the East Coast, Hawaii, Western mountain ranges, unique American art destinations, Mexico, the Caribbean and the wilds of Canada. TCS can also create trips to almost any destination in North America from guests hometown private airports.

Celebrating the spirit of adventure and wide-open spaces far from crowds, TCSs 11 new trips are custom itineraries that comprise every detailfrom activities inspired by guests personal interests and private dining experiences to private access to attractions. Every aspect of the trip is managed by TCSs Luxury Custom Travel consultants, enabling guests to relax and be fully present throughout their journey. TCS can also create trips to any of the individual destinations featured in the itineraries if that is something a guest would prefer, and arrange exclusive access and bespoke experiences such as behind-the-scenes tours, private cruises and after-hours visits.

Trips can be arranged for any group size, but are best suited for intimate groups of four to 12 people, and can also include a tour leader to travel with the group and handle everything along the way. In addition, TCS is prioritizing the health and safety of guests by developing a thorough return-to-travel plan, following evolving best health and wellbeing practices, for its journeys. Guests can consult with TCS physicians and TCS is working with its transportation partners, luxury hotel partners and on-the-ground associates to help ensure that they also adhere to high hygiene standards.

For flexibility, convenience and safety, theres never been a more advantageous time to travel privately, said TCS World Travel President Shelley Cline. Our guests are telling us that they are ready to start booking travel. More than 80 percent of those we surveyed said they would be traveling with family and close friends in the near future, as well as staying closer to home. We can provide the best U.S. and North American vacations, from remote Alaskan wilderness to islands in Maine. We are excited to help travelers pivot from dreaming to exploring this summer and fall.

TCS is also offering new flexible transfer terms to ensure guests can book with maximum flexibility. With the TCS Flexibility Promise, guests have the ability to postpone one of these booked trips without any cost or to apply the credit to a new destination, up to 15 days before they are due to depart.

New 2020 Private Charter Plane Itineraries

Each inspired itinerary transports guests via private charter plane on any date of their choosing. The itineraries can be customized to guests travel interests, specifications and group size. The price quoted is based on the accommodations and activities listed, and is inclusive of all transportation throughout the trip, hotels, daily activities, top-of-the-line guides and gratuities. The majority of the trips are priced based on private jet flights departing Los Angeles International Airport, but can be adjusted to depart from a home airport. The trips are priced starting at $29,900 per person, double occupancy.

The Alaskan Wilderness by Private AirGirdwood Finger Lake Kachemak Bay Anchorage10 days Explore the wondrous nature and raw beauty of the Alaskan wilderness in luxurious remote lodges. Learn from experts as you beachcomb along the coastline, take part in nature walks, and observe Alaskas wildlife in its natural habitat.

Uncharted Pacific Northwest by Private JetSeattle San Juan Islands, Wash. Gold Beach, Ore. Seneca, Ore.11 days Discover the best of the Pacific Northwestwine, local delicacies from the land and sea, and contrasting landscapes as you travel to stunning, secluded areas of Washington and Oregon for unique and bespoke experiences, including a private yacht cruise in the San Juan Islands.

U.S. National Parks by Private JetJackson Hole Grand Teton Yellowstone Moab Arches Canyonlands Bryce Canyon Zion Grand Canyon Amangiri10 days Experience the best of the western U.S national parks on a fully tailored journey. Explore eight of these stunning protected lands while hiking, horseback riding, rafting and canyoneering.

Uncharted Hawaii by Private Jet Kauai Maui Lanai Big Island of Hawaii13 days Experience Hawaii like never before with exclusive access to remote corners of the islands. Enjoy a perfect balance of adventure and relaxation as you discover the dramatic landscapes of Kauai, the secluded beauty of Lanai and the volcanic splendor of the Big Island.

Uncharted Southwestern U.S. by Private JetPalm Springs, Calif. Joshua Tree, Calif. Sedona, Ariz. Santa Fe, N.M. Austin, Texas11 days Explore the rugged beauty of the mystical American Southwest. From Palm Springs to Joshua Tree, Red Rock Country to Pueblo-style Santa Fe, explore the stark desert landscapes and rich Native American cultures of this truly wild region.

Mountains of the American West by Private Jet Wasatch Mountain Range, Utah Lake Powell, Ariz. San Juan Mountains, Colo.10 days Travel to three must-see destinations of the American West on a fully tailored journey. Enjoy immersive nature activities, expert local guides, and exclusive access to some of the most spectacular sights of the United States.

Uncharted U.S. Islands by Private Jet Bar Harbor, Maine Nantucket, Mass. Bluffton, S.C. Key West, Fla.12 days Delve into the diverse culture and rich history found along the eastern coast of the U.S., from Maine to Florida. Enjoy the beauty of U.S. islands as you experience small coastal towns, national parks and daily local life.

U.S Art by Private JetNew York City, NY Washington D.C Bentonville, Ark. Marfa, Texas Santa Fe, N.M. San Francisco12 daysImmerse yourself in the artistic capitals of the U.S. From the world-renown galleries of New York and San Francisco to the artist meccas of the Southwest, enjoy exclusive access and private tours.

Uncharted Mexico by Private Jet Mrida Oaxaca San Miguel de Allende Punta Mita13 days Travel through four distinct regions of Mexico, exploring various cultures and climates. Enjoy private tours of cities and archaeological sites, discover the natural beauty of southern Mexico, and learn about colonial history throughout the country

Canada by Private Jet: From the Rockies to the PacificBanff Okanagan Valley Nimmo Bay11 daysExplore the diversity of our neighbor to the north. Take in jaw-dropping views of the Canadian Rockies, discover Canadas wine country in Okanagan Valley, and spot wildlife while unwinding in the serenity of Nimmo Bay.

The Uncharted Caribbean by Private Jet trip will be unveiled in late July.

For more information please call TCS Luxury Custom Travel at 206-995-8655, email at lctinquiries@tcsworldtravel.com or visit TCSWorldTravel.com.

About TCS World Travel

TCS World Travel leads the industry in private jet journeys with the experience and knowledge built from developing hundreds of trips for 25 years. The company excels at providing unparalleled local access and exclusive activities tailored to any travel style. Circle the globe or take a dive deep into a region on a luxury private jet expedition or embark on a luxury custom journey by private charter plane created especially for you to any destination in the world. For more information, visit http://www.tcsworldtravel.com or find TCS World Travel on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Read more:

TCS World Travel Introduces New All-Inclusive Personalized Trips by Private Charter Planes - Business Wire