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Ambernectar 13 John Breyault, vice president of the National Consumers League, has opined that the upcoming spring and summer season is the time for travel related scams as agents, touts and brokers are looking towards making a fast buck through families, students, foreigners and senior citizens. Travel and tourism reaches new heights with different packages, schemes and discount offers to lure the tourists in attractive ways during these seasons of the year.
Sterling Ivey, spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, has commented that in popular tourists' destinations like Florida, scamsters start planning their travel related schemes way in advance and innocent tourists get trapped while booking tickets, accommodation, trip packages, etc. Tourists are often given wrong advice about destinations that are much less appealing than what has been advertised. Travel plans that are value for money and leave behind fond memories in the minds of the tourists have to be carefully made to avoid getting conned by travel bureaus and websites that are out to make a kill.
With the risks of travel arising due to natural calamities, scams, terrorist threats , there has been a spurt in the growth of traval assistance firms that are involved in monitoring global events and proving 24 X 7 sacurity, medical assistance and total help in times of emergency or evacuation.
Travelers cheques, International plastic cards, VISA credit cards and globally accepted travel cards should be used for making payments rather than getting into the complications of currency exchange and variable rates on offer. Paying like locals help in keeping a track of the transactions and in case of a fraud or scam it becomes easier for the authorities to track the accused.
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Nick PerrettiAfrican Travel has recently announced its very own travel agency for the African safaris. This is known as Travelstore, which is based in California and which creates personalized African safaris as well as adventures. It has sent till date as many as a hundred thousand travelers to the continent of Africa. African safaris constitute an important part of the business of African travel, since they provide a fulfilling and enriching experience for travelers to Africa.
Jim Holden who is the president of the organization, African Travel stated that the agency is highly proud of its association with Travelstore. He said that the safari consultants at African travel work tirelessly with experienced consultants at Travelstore in order to ensure the most exotic safari vacation experience for travelers. Dan Ilves who is the vice president of the organization Travelstore, stated that the focus of Travelstore is one the personal relationships which the experts on the organization's team enjoy with its hand picked suppliers in the different parts of the world.
Jim Holden also commented that any traveler interested in opting for a vacation to the African safari will benefit from the long standing success which a travel agency like Travelstore has at selling and promoting Africa.
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BetchaboyA new tax has recently been imposed on international travel agencies in the American state of Tennessee. In response to this imposition of tax, the ITSA or Interactive Travel Services Association has responded quite strongly and has expressed a great deal of opposition to this move made by the legislators. The basis of imposing such a tax is the attempt to apply the occupancy tax of the States hotels to service fees of online as well as traditional travel agencies that facilitate the reservations for hotel room transactions in Tennessee.
State legislatures all across the country of America, such as in the states of Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Missouri, Oregon, Massachusetts and Utah and many others have examined this issue. It was overwhelmingly recognized by the state legislatures that application of the hotel occupancy tax towards a travel agency made the state nothing but less competitive for tourism and travel. Joseph Rubin who is the president of ITSA believes that travel taxes are often very quickly imposed by elected officials who are of the opinion that this will not affect their constituents. Instead, they think it will affect the faceless and the nameless visitors who are incapable of taking any step.