Trade celebrates women in travel to mark IWD


Travel Weekly reporters


Agents and operators highlighted travel partnerships and holidays to echo the spirit of International Women’s Day, which was on Monday. Intrepid Travel announced a


programme of London day tours led by female guides who have overcome challenging circumstances in association with social enterprise Women in Travel. The women, from Ethiopia,


Albania and Morocco, will share stories about customs and traditions of their home countries and their influence on immigrant communities in Shepherd’s Bush, Kingston and Southwark. Guests will learn about Ethiopian coffee, Balkan kofte and Moroccan mint tea. Online agency and social


enterprise Charitable Travel launched a partnership with all-female online travel community Girl About Travel Club to “harness the community spirit”. Club members can donate a percentage of their holiday cost to charities such as Young Women’s Trust, Freedom4Girls, Bloody Good Period or Women For Women. Exodus Travels is funding and


facilitating a further 10 scholarships


Celebrity Edge’s groundbreaking 2020 all-female bridge and onboard leadership team


for Tanzanian women to train as mountain guides on Mount Kilimanjaro in the second year of its programme. Cruise line Viking celebrated


the achievements of the women who have become godmothers to its ships, including UK managing director Wendy Atkin-Smith and her colleagues Clare Armitage and Faye Pirie; broadcaster Anne Diamond; musician Debbie Wiseman; author and activist Tracy Edwards; polar explorers Liv Arnesen and Ann Bancroft; and astronaut Dr Anna Fisher. Celebrity Cruises celebrated


the first anniversary of its inaugural all-female bridge and onboard


leadership team on Celebrity Edge in the Bahamas. Jacqueline Dobson, president


of Barrhead Travel, said she was “proud” that seven out of nine of the company’s directors are female, adding: “The key is not parachuting in female talent from outside into senior roles, but to nurture our own.” And the Association of Women


Travel Executives held a ‘recognition breakfast’ celebrating the efforts of female figures who have inspired others during the pandemic. Steph Robins, head of sales at Cyplon Holidays, and Ana Araque, co- founder of Imagine Experiences, were among those nominated.


Virgin Voyages names third ship Resilient Lady


Virgin Voyages’ third ship will be calledResilient Lady and will sail two Mediterranean itineraries in 2022 from its homeport in Athens. Resilient Lady is due to be


completed in July 2022 and will join Scarlet Lady and Valiant Lady in the fleet. It will operate two seven-night itineraries from Piraeus: a Greek Isles route taking in Santorini, Rhodes, Crete and an overnight stay in Mykonos; and an Adriatic itinerary including calls at Dubrovnik, Kotor, Corfu and Argostoli. Details of the new ship and


itineraries were revealed to the UK trade in a virtual event co-hosted with Travel Weekly coinciding with the global announcement on International Women’s Day. Virgin Atlantic, meanwhile,


named two new Airbus A350s in honour of iconic women: ‘Lady Emmeline’, in homage to Emmeline Pankhurst, founder of the suffragette movement, and ‘Fearless Lady’, in memory of Sir Richard Branson’s mother, who died in January.


Scarlet Lady


EC review of PTD proposes ‘a fairer sharing of burden’ for refunds


A European Commission review of the Package Travel Directive (PTD) has recognised the difficulties caused by airlines failing to refund travel organisers during the pandemic. An EC report proposes to assess “whether the


rules should be more aligned and specific rules for situations like Covid-19 should be proposed”.


8 11 MARCH 2021 The PTD requires customers to be refunded


in full within 14 days of a package booking being cancelled. But many airlines, which should pay refunds to consumers under EC Regulation 261 on air passenger rights within seven days, have delayed or failed to refund organisers for the flight portion of package bookings during the crisis.


The EC said it would consider how to achieve


“a fairer sharing of the burden”. Its report notes the directive’s rules have been “poorly followed” during Covid and suggests a change to require airlines to refund travel organisers where the


latter are required to refund customers. i Get Social, page 18


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