Travel is My Life; Work and Pleasure

Its not funny, you can find tickets from Europe to USA travelling via London Heathrow starting at 340 Euro but taxes and fuel are an extra 400-500 Euro, who are they kidding?

Is this the future of travel?

Everyone in the industry is talking about the end of the paper ticket era, is that true, will June 1st be the cut over day? Are all the airlines ready… I am not sure?!

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) began an important countdown - 7 days to 100% e-ticketing. “In7 days the paper ticket gets put in a museum. On June 1, 2008 we will achieve 100% electronic ticketing,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General and CEO.
IATA began the drive to 100% e-ticketing as part of its Simplifying the Business programme in June 2004 with the dual goals of making travel and shipping more convenient and more cost efficient. “E-ticketing is the flagship project of Simplifying the Business. While a paper ticket costs US$10 to process, e-ticketing reduces that cost to US$1. The industry will save over US$3 billion each year by offering the passenger a better service. There is no better win-win proposition,” said Bisignani.When the programme began in June 2004, only 18% of tickets issued globally were e-tickets. Today e-ticketing penetration is over 93%. “It is an incredible industry success story. When we began over 28 million paper tickets were issued each month. We have reduced that number to less than 3 million,” said Bisignani.

Challenges remain. E-ticketing penetration in Africa is only 83% and has reached 84% in Middle East North Africa (MENA). The real concern is Russia and CIS, which is at 54% due to a late start while the government changed legislation to allow for e-tickets.

Consumers can anticipate more convenient travel in an electronic world. 100% ET eliminates lost tickets, makes itinerary changes easy and enables a wide array of self-service options. Having said that, on a daily basis we as travel agents face issues with complicated tickets and combination of airlines where airlines are losing booking references and airlines are not honoring other carrier’s tickets.

I look forward to the new era, its not going to be an easy period for travel agents, though it will take travel another step further which I am sure travelers will benefit.

The “evolution” of the paper tickets; trust me; 1 week to go and nothing much has changed…

All being used today - and we are 1 week to shut down.

I have backpacked for many years, and hoping to do so many more years to come.

Trekking is a great experience, I trekked Everest Base Camp & Kala Patar 4 times (5545 m), India Northern part many more, and even reached Mt Kilimanjaro Auhuru Peak (5895m) a couple of years ago.

Being an Israeli soldier I walked up to Jerusalem as part of the Oath of Allegiance ceremony. But I have never thought of backpacking and trekking up the amazing trail of Jerusalem, I bet it’s an amazing super psychological feeling, no matter which religion you are from; it’s like back in the old days.

During my visit to Latrun last week, en route Jerusalem, my eye has caught this cool, nonchalant new way of trekking - the semi new and semi old style of walking up to Jerusalem - the donkey style…

May more come and join the route, connecting to their roots.

Israel 60 years of Independence & Jerusalem 40 years of Unification ;

I have spent the day in the Old City of Jerusalem, working with the Pacific Princess Cruise shore excursion department, operated by Patra Travel Israel.

Words cannot express the beauty of the city of Jerusalem; it’s the 60 years to Israel’s independence & 40 years celebrations of unification of city of Jerusalem. The flags, the colors, the 3500 honored guests of President Shimon Peres and the world leaders among them President Bush and Prime Minister Blair, all attending the Conference: “Facing Tomorrow”.

I was lucky to bring with me a small tiny camera and capture amazing moments;

The Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (the burial place of Jesus), and an amazing guide Mr Tzachi, who guided a group of Patra into the Old City who brought with him a “Shofar”, acting the same way as the worldwide known; Rabbi Goren at the same place at the liberation and unification of Jerusalem in 1967; “Baruch ata Hashem, menachem tsion u-voneh Yerushalayim. [Translation: Blessed are thou, who comforts Zion and builds Jerusalem]”

I am proud of Mr Tzachi ! He represents the values I was raised on.

Traveling in and out from the USA is becoming unbearable, as travelers go through excessive security checks. The US TSA (Transportation Security Administration) has tightened the security measures to an extreme level, to such extent that travelers in many cases feel they are prisoners rather than tourists.

Basically it has become a nightmare to fly in or out of the USA. Travelers are subject to long queues of:

Cavity search, biometric data, full body pad-down, body screening, remove shows & belts, dog sniffing, computer hard drive swap and copy, and now the new regulation known as: “SSSS”, which is marked on your check in ticket randomly. However, random or not, all Middle East passport holders are automatically SSSS marked, though, TSA squad will put in plain words: “Random Check…” - it sounds more as racism and discrimination rather than random.

The new GE CTX 9000 DSi - Explosive Detection System will “Puff” air at you detecting explosive signs. Moreover, the new machine actually screens you totally.

I have not once heard a client say, it’s on the verge of invasion of privacy; they see my whole body naked.

I have come across the Ryanair website comment on security check ups; no words are needed; is this the future of airport security…

Not all travel is related to business or leisure; today is the Jewish Holocaust Remembrance Day, in Hebrew: “Yom HaShoah ve Hagvura” - Holocaust day and bravery. Lets all travel in time; in order not to forget how the Nazi Germany has murdered six million Jews in a systematic, state protected and state sponsored campaign of prosecution and extermination now known as: The Holocaust.

Let us all remember and never forget, not only what the Nazis have done, but also what the others did not do.

Learn more about the Holocaust: http://www.aish.com/holocaust/default.asp

Yad Vashem Museum Jerusalem; www.yadvashem.org

March of the Living; www.motl.org

You all have to watch the reality of the Jews in the 1940’s inorder not to forget, never forget!!!

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=2D74BED05A2C8596