------------------------
Executive Board
Terry F. Koenig
President of Koenig & Associates, a marketing and public relations company. Past President of the Skål Club of San Francisco. He has spent 38 years in the Travel Industry with 20 years directing the marketing for passenger ferry operations in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Served as Chairman of the California Travel Industry Association and on the boards of the Long Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau, Catalina Island Chamber of Commerce and the Tiburon Chamber of Commerce.
Vice President:
Robin Morales Business Development - Sales Manager at SoPac/SF Connection -- a tourism and travel represenation company Robin has served as a successful professional in Business Development/ Sales for an airline, a tour wholesaler, a worldwide chauffeur company, a non-profit organization and a travel agency.
Secretary-Treasurer:
Christian Spirandelli
Bryan International Travel, President, CEO and Owner since 1995. He merged into FROSCH International Travel in 2007. As usual with the travel industry, he has traveled extensively worldwide and has held advisory positions with several companies.
Chairman:
Lakshman Ratnapala
Chairman of Enelar International, a global management consultancy. Emeritus President & CEO of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA). A regular writer to business magazines and speaker on travel topics at conferences and workshops.
Co-Chairman:
Logan Happel
Director of Sales and Client Relations, Travel Industry at USI Travel Insurance Services.
|
 |
|
OUR STORY --
75 YEARS
Founded in 1934, the Foreign Travel Club (FTC) of San Francisco, the oldest of its kind in California, celebrates its 75th birthday this year.
The Club was launched by a band of enterprising men who challenged the monopoly of the local travel scene by employees of the Southern Pacific Railway.
The Club is non-sectarian and apolitical. Led over the years by respected executives of the travel industry, the Club membership has comprised individuals who have contributed to the growth of the single most important industry that enhances the quality of life and the vitality of the San Francisco Bay Area.
The FTC's monthly luncheon meetings, featuring speakers on travel topics are occasions where past and present travel industry executives, travel writers and frequent travelers meet to share experiences and promote the business of travel in a spirit of camaraderie.
|
The Foreign Travel Club cordially invites travel presentations at our monthly luncheon meetings from Government, State, and City Tourism Offices, Airlines, Cruiselines, Hotels, Tour Operators, Travel Writers, and others.
Please contact:
President, Terry Koenig at
There is no cost to the presenter.
|  CLUB EVENTS
Please mark your calendar for luncheon meetings of the Club scheduled for the fourth Thursday of every month, except September (summer outing), November (third Thursday), and December (Holiday Party).
We usually meet at the Marines Memorial Club, 609 Sutter Street, 12th Floor, San Francisco. The keynote topic, speaker and venue are announced by a special notice, a week prior to the meeting.
COMING UP:
Japan Airlines
Thursday, May 27
High Country Passage
Topic: Israel & Palestine
Thursday, June 24
Philippine Tourist Office
Registration begins at 11:30 am. Guests are welcome at these luncheons.
For details and to RSVP, contact:
Terry Koenig
ftcosf@gmail.com or call (415) 726-3712.
|
|
FTC CLUB ANNUAL
MEMBERSHIP DUES
Couples - $50
Individuals - $40
For details, please contact Terry Koenig at ftcosf@gmail.com or call (415) 726-3712. | |
|
Membership of the FTC is open to travel industry personnel, travel writers and frequent foreign travelers whose credentials must be endorsed by a current member. Spouses are welcome to join. FTC luncheon meetings serve the dual purpose of social interaction and business opportunity.
Professional presentations on travel trends, destinations and services are followed by Q&A session with Club members.
Although the internet and guidebooks do a great job of preparing the traveler, nothing can replace the experience of someone who has been there, done that and can speak from personal exerience. Research shows 20% of American travelers value others' personal comments over information from books, newspapers and the internet.
The FTC is a forum to meet world travelers, many of whom are travel writers and executives who have worked for tour companies, airlines/cruiselines and hotels. Whereas the internet gives impersonal information, the FTC offers insights to real life experiences.
Being a member of the FTC enhances every trip you take, it ensures you unforgettable travel experiences and opportunities to share them with other members in a spirit of camaraderie.
|
SIGN OF THE TIMES...
Air travelers face tougher TSA security measures
Prepare to be scanned, swabbed or patted-down. For those who haven't flown in a while, be prepared to be scanned, swabbed or thoroughly patted down. Maybe all three.
Many spring break travelers are about to have their first encounter with airport security measures stepped up after Christmas, when a man was accused of trying to blow up a U.S. jetliner using explosives hidden in his underwear.
As the extra measures are rolled out and travel demand picks up, security lines are expected to grow. Airlines, meanwhile, worry the government will require them to pay to maintain the beefed-up security checkpoints. The Obama administration is committing tens of millions of dollars to deploy more state-of-the-art screening equipment, and it is tightening enforcement of some older security measures.
For example:·There are now 44 full-image body scanners at 21 U.S. airports, a 10 percent increase from before Christmas. Chicago's O'Hare and Boston's Logan are the latest airports to add these. Nearly 1,000 scanners will be in use nationwide by the end of next year.·The use of "swabs," or Explosive Trace Detection machines, has been expanded in recent weeks. Security agents are now more frequently roaming boarding areas and security lines with portable machines, which can detect traces of explosives after a cotton swab is applied to hands or luggage.·The Transportation Security Administration has sought to make screening less predictable. At some airports, passengers are asked to choose between a body scan or a pat down. A passenger who refuses a 30-second body scan may receive a two- to four-minute manual pat down.A passenger might proceed to their plane after clearing just one form of screening. Or they could run the gamut like software executive Bob Thomas did on a recent flight departing from Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport.A gum wrapper made of aluminum foil in Thomas' pocket set off a metal detector. After that, he went into a cylindrical machine 6-foot-wide by more than 8-foot-high to have his body image taken. Next came the hand swab. Lastly, he sat down and lifted his legs for a pat down by an airport screener. All clear.For the former Marine officer, the extra few minutes were "a big waste of my time." But he understands the agents' predicament. "They don't know" which passenger is a potential threat, he said.Fliers say they are understanding of the new measures, but nevertheless agitated by them.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul airport is remodeling two checkpoints at its expense to install new baggage-screening equipment, a move that also would make room for body scanners. But if TSA wants scanners at other checkpoints, it's unclear who will pay for any remodeling, airport spokesman Patrick Hogan said.The government is installing 450 scanners this year. At an average of $150,000 each, that's $67.5 million just for the machines. President Obama's fiscal year 2011 budget requests $88 million for another 500 units.TSA is also using $15 million to buy 400 more portable explosive detection machines this year. Obama has requested $39 million to buy an additional 800 machines in fiscal 2011.In addition, Obama has promised to put more air marshals on flights. His fiscal 2011 budget includes $85 million "for increased federal air marshals on international flight coverage." For full story, click here.
|
 |
|
Cruising?
Join your fellow FTC members & friends on fun cruises at
group rates with
group amenities.
CONTACT:
Claudette Main, CTC, ACC
Phone/Fax:
(650) 345-9455
|
Global Warming Solves 30 Year Dispute of Isle in the Bay of Bengal
NEW DELHI - For nearly 30 years, India and Bangladesh have argued over control of a tiny rock island in the Bay of Bengal. Now rising sea levels have resolved the dispute for them: the island's gone.
New Moore Island in the Sunderbans has been completely submerged, said oceanographer Sugata Hazra, a professor at Jadavpur University in Calcutta. Its disappearance has been confirmed by satellite imagery and sea patrols, he said.
"What these two countries could not achieve from years of talking, has been resolved by global warming," said Hazra.
Scientists at the School of Oceanographic Studies at the university have noted an alarming increase in the rate at which sea levels have risen over the past decade in the Bay of Bengal.
Until 2000, the sea levels rose about 3 millimeters (0.12 inches) a year, but over the last decade they have been rising about 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) annually, he said.
Another nearby island, Lohachara, was submerged in 1996, forcing its inhabitants to move to the mainland, while almost half the land of Ghoramara island was underwater, he said. At least 10 other islands in the area were at risk as well, Hazra said.
"We will have ever larger numbers of people displaced from the Sunderbans as more island areas come under water," he said.
Bangladesh, a low-lying delta nation of 150 million people, is one of the countries worst-affected by global warming. Officials estimate 18 percent of Bangladesh's coastal area will be underwater and 20 million people will be displaced if sea levels rise 1 meter (3.3 feet) by 2050 as projected by some climate models.
India and Bangladesh both claimed the empty New Moore Island, which is about 3.5 kilometers (2 miles) long and 3 kilometers (1.5 miles) wide. Bangladesh referred to the island as South Talpatti.
There were no permanent structures on New Moore, but India sent some paramilitary soldiers to its rocky shores in 1981 to hoist its national flag.
The demarcation of the maritime boundary - and who controls the remaining islands - remains an open issue between the two South Asian neighbors, despite the disappearance of New Moore, said an official in India's foreign ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on international disputes.
Bangladesh officials were not available for comment Wednesday.
|
destinations, tour packages, cruises, airfares, hotels or other services? The FTC delivers you a sophisticated travel audience.
COSTS: Graphic banner ads cost $15 per issue. For live links to websites, add $15 per URL.
AD DIMENSIONS: Files must be submitted in .JPG file format with a 100 dpi resolution with dimensions as follows:
Rectangle Ad: 180 pixels wide x 240 pixels high.
Vertical Banner Ad : 60 pixels wide x 100 pixels high.
FTC members receive a 10% discount. For ad quotes or to place an ad, contact:
|
.
| |
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE:
JAL The Early History
In 1952 the governments of Japan and the United States signed a bilateral agreement which established normal air services between the two countries. During the postwar American occupation, Northwest and Pan Am were the two principal air carriers serving Japan. The formation of a Japanese airline was not permitted until the occupation ended in 1951. At that time Japanese Air Lines (JAL) was established and placed in charge of domestic flight services between a number of major Japanese cities.
Japan Airlines Martin 202 Aircraft.
The airline suffered from a shortage of experienced pilots. Nearly all Japanese aviators were drafted into the air service during the war and very few survived. As a result, American, British, and other Commonwealth aviators were required to operate the company's fleet of aircraft (which consisted of Martin 202s leased from Northwest and, later, a number of DC-4s) until Japanese pilots could be trained and assimilated into the flight crews.
Japan Air Lines grew quickly. In early February 1954, JAL inaugurated its first international route, a semiweekly service which connected Tokyo, Honolulu, and San Francisco. Plans were made to extend JAL services to Hong Kong and Sao Paulo, Brazil, the center of a large Japanese community in South America. Also that year, JAL opened offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. A route connecting Tokyo and London was established when the airline purchased several de Havilland Mark II Comet jetliners.
In its first year of operation JAL secured a significant share of the trans-Pacific market. The company lost money, however, despite a $3 million government subsidy. In its rush to acquire the latest aircraft, JAL purchased production orders for DC-6Bs from other airlines. This plan for securing early delivery of the airplanes obliged JAL to pay a compensatory premium. Another costly factor was the training program which placed an unusually high number of employees on the payroll. In addition, JAL's maintenance and repair work was being performed by United Airlines until Japanese personnel could be trained.
In 1958 JAL extended its Bangkok service to Singapore, marking a significant return to southeast Asia for Japanese interests. The Japanese occupation of Malaya (peninsular Malaysia) and the East Indies during World War II has remained a politically sensitive issue for southeast Asian governments. The return of the Japanese flag to Singapore on commercial terms began a normalization process between Japan and southeast Asia.
Japan Air Lines created a subsidiary in 1957 called the Airport Ground Service Co., Ltd., which provided a variety of maintenance services to JAL and other airlines serving Japan. The company's personnel training programs were completed that same year, and for the first time JAL was operating regular flights with all-Japanese crews. Two years later a JAL crew training center was opened at Tokyo's HanedaAirport.
The company began a Tokyo to Paris service in conjunction with Air France in 1960. This route was unique because it was one of the first regular services to fly over the North Pole. Air France provided the Boeing 707 jetliners which were required for the long stretch over the Arctic.
Later that year JAL entered the jet age when it received its first DC-8 commercial jetliner. Less than a month later the jet was put into service on the Tokyo to San Francisco route. By the end of the year JAL DC-8s were flying to Los Angeles, Seattle, and Hong Kong. The company ended its arrangement with Air France and inaugurated its own DC-8 service from Tokyo to London and Paris via Anchorage on June 6, 1961.
Terry Koenig
President
Foreign Travel Club of San Francisco |
FOCUS THIS MONTH: Thursday, April 22nd
Japan Airlines
 SPEAKERS PROFILE: Douglas Shelton, Account Manager, Japan Airlines International, spent five years on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu teaching English, pursuing a graduate degree and tending bar. Douglas worked for the Aichi Prefecture office at the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in San Francisco for three years, and, having recently jumped onboard at Japan Airlines, is excited to have the opportunity to offer his take on travel to Japan and update the Foreign Travel Club on the Land of the Rising Sun.
 Japan Airlines International Co., Ltd. (JAL) is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Tokyo International Airport, as well as Nagoya's Chubu Centrair International Airport and Osaka's Kansai International Airport. The airline and four of its subsidiaries (J-Air, JAL Express, JALways and Japan Transocean Air) are members of the Oneworld® Airline Alliance. JAL group companies include Japan Airlines for international and domestic services; JALways for international leisure services; JAL Express for international and domestic low-cost services; Hokkaido Air System, J-Air, Japan Air Commuter, Japan Transocean Air and Ryukyu Air Commuter for domestic feeder services; and JAL Cargo for cargo and mail services. JAL group operations include scheduled and non-scheduled international and domestic passenger and cargo services to 220 destinations in 35 countries worldwide, including codeshares.
 JAL Boeing 747.
The group has a fleet of 279 aircraft. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009, the airline group carried over 52 million passengers and over 1.1 million tons of cargo and and mail.
JAL was established in 1951 and became the national airline of Japan in 1953. After over three decades of service and expansion, the airline was fully privatized in 1987. In 2002, the airline merged with Japan Air System, Japan's third-largest airline and became the sixth largest airline in the world by passengers carried. |
|
EVENT DETAILS:
WHERE
Marines' Memorial Club
609 Sutter St., 12th Floor
(Corner of Mason St.)
San Francisco, CA
COST
$25 Luncheon and Program
RSVP
Please RSVP by Friday, April 16th. Click on this link to RSVP: ftcosf@gmail.com or call (415) 726-3712. Include your name and the names of any guests. |
|
FEBRUARY ROUND-UP:
Rodney Fong -- A Very Busy Man
 Rodney Fong, Chair, San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau (SFCVB) and President, San Francisco Port Commission.(Photo by Jim Main.)
Our March Speaker, Rodney Fong, takes "multi-tasking" to a whole new level. As President of the famous Wax Museum at Fisherman's Wharf, he oversees an entertainment complex that stretches for a block along Jefferson Street in the heart of Fisherman's Wharf and includes a museum, destination restaurant, and a MacDonald's. He is also Chair of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau, President of the San Francisco Port Commission as well as serving on the Board of Directors of the: Fisherman's Wharf Merchants Association, the Fisherman's Wharf Community Benefit District, Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, California Travel Industry Association and the Fong Family Foundation. When this man sleeps is anybody's guess.
Rodney gave us the very interesting history of the Wax Museum, spinning a tale about how his Grandfather leased space in an empty warehouse he owned at Fisherman's Wharf to someone who had a collection of wax figures left over from the 1962 Seattle Worlds Fair. One day the owner of the figures left town without paying the rent and the Fong Family was left with the collection. Not sure what to do his Grandfather called his Grandmother and she advised, "Open the door and start selling tickets" and thus began the Wax Museum at Fisherman's Wharf.
As President of the San Francisco Port Commission, Rodney is faced with a challenge similar to the one his Grandfather faced, only it was the ships that left town! The once bustling Port of SF, with the advent of "containerization" saw most of its freight traffic move to other ports in the bay. The one glimmer of hope however has been the resurgence of the cruise industry. With more cruise lines with larger ships making San Francisco a port-call the city is in dire need of a 21st century cruise terminal. Rodney is spearheading the plan to build a new and modern terminal along the waterfront at Pier 27.
|
March 25th Meeting Prize Winners:
(From Left) Prize Winners - Amy Fink, Doug Shelton, Speaker - Rodney Fong, Prize Winners - Claudette Main, Chris Spirandelli, Cynthia Smith (Photo by Jim Main).
And, The Winners Are:
-
50/50 Drawing - $49 Chris Spirandelli -
Bottle of DiMajo Norante Sangiovese - Amy Fink -
Bottle of DiMajo Norante Sangiovese - Claudette Main -
Spectacular Ireland Book - Doug Shelton -
Wax Museum Goodie Bag - Cynthia Smith
|
COMING ATTRACTIONS:
Douglas Shelton, Account Manager, Japan Airlines
Thursday, May 27th:
Bill Diebenow, Executive VP, High Country Passage
Topic: Israel & Palestine
Thursday, June 24th
Philippine Tourist Office
 LUCKY YOU! Every meeting features a 50-50 raffle and one or more lucky draws that you must be present to win. |
| A SENSE OF TRAVEL...
with Georgia Hesse
One day quite a few years ago, Bruce Hamby, late travel editor of the Denver Post, and I found ourselves in Liechtenstein, sitting in the grass, munching bread and cheese, sipping a ringing Blaugunder red from a southwest-facing Alpine slope. "What a fine country," we thought. "Small; just our size, with snow-crowned mountains and a fabulous art collection. Why don't we adopt it?" So we did, unbeknownst to Prince Franz Joseph II of Liechtenstein (1906-1989), and we installed Jerry Hulse, then travel editor of the L.A. Times, as Keeper of Postal Stamps and Kermit (Bus) Holt of the Chicago Tribune as Plenipotentiary Secretary of the Principality.
Vaduz, Liechtenstein.
Taking over little European lands became a pastime and we seized seven of the eight tiniest: Together they command a combined area only a pear tree larger than the state of Connecticut. The Pope foiled our acquisition of Vatican City; we feared the Swiss Guards in their Michelangelo uniforms.
But zounds! We captured the rest in alphabetical order: Andorra, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, and San Marino.
Andorra, in the sky-poking Pyrénées, is Europe's highest country. The fitness fad is a succès fou, as everywhere in the winter sports universe, but don't despair. Idleness still reigns in sidewalk cafés in the capital, Andorra la Vella. The country counts 40 Romanesque churches, 51 smart shops, and restaurants serving local specialties. (River trout, curly lettuce, quince alioli and mulled Crémat wine, anyone?) You go largely to say you've been there.
 Botticelli's "Birth of Venus."
"Something is mything in Cyprus," my friend said. We mused upon white-capped rocks below, where Aphrodite had risen from her sea-shell birthplace to float ashore in a moment immortalized by Botticelli.
 Aphrodite's Rock, Cyprus.
Lawrence Durrell calls Cyprus "the forgotten Greek island." It is so old and sunburned that myth and history have become intertwined. Politics on this partitioned Greek-Turkish island are troublesome, testy and get in the way of a good time. The United Nations patrols a border that divides the labyrinthine capital. Even its name invokes squabble: Is it Lefkosia or Nicosia? Only the shadow knows.
At a monastery near Limassol, I bought a bottle of St. John Commandaria, a sweet dessert wine said to be the oldest continually bottled one in the world. I have never opened it; perhaps it was first served to Aphrodite and Adonis.
 Luxembourg Castle
Once part of Charlemagne's empire, Luxembourg became independent in 963 C.E. but has been bothered by Spain, France, Austria, the Netherlands and Belgium ever since. You visit the ruins of the Grand Ducal Palace with its Renaissance and baroque facades; you amble in Old Town; you hear a tangle of languages spoken in beflowered streets. Cafés serve chile con carne and coq au vin, not to mention cima alla Genovese or even lasary voatabia from Madagascar. I'd hold out for a local old regular such as nettle soup or pike in a snappy dry riesling sauce or a haunch of roe deer.
Human history lies thicker upon Maltathan "autumnal leaves ... in Vallombrosa." The five islands - Malta itself, Gozo, Comino, Comminotto, Filflawith - occupy less space on the globe than does Philadelphia. (Only the first three are occupied.) Malta has no rivals for ancient "civilizations" other than Egypt.
St. John's Co-Cathedral, Valletta, Malta.
Cruise ships hesitate for most of a day at the rocky perch where sits the capital of Valletta with its gorgeous St. John's Co-Cathedral, home of the Knights (Grand Masters) of St. John (1573-77). Too many travelers miss the stunning antiquities (7,000 years of them!). The underground halls and chambers cut out of the "living" limestone at the temple complex of Ġgantija, as only one example, contain the burial places of thousands of our Neolithic ancestors and their grave-goods.  Hypogeum, Malta
Where to find timelessness? Try the Ta' Cenc Hotel on Gozo.
Of Monaco I will say little, since everyone knows all about it. Suffice this from Anthony Burgess in the London Observer:
Here in Monte Carlo, where we have to take amusement seriously, there is not much to laugh at.
San Marino, the oldest republic in the world, was founded in about 301 C.E. Since it has the good taste to be completely surrounded by Italy, it is beautiful. Happily, it has never been battered by the wars and feuds of the peninsula but has survived, a tiny enclave atop the jagged sandstone ridge of Mt. Titano, looking down on Rimini.  San Marino
Named for its founder, a pious (what else?) mason named Marinus, San Marino has taken care of itself for 1709 years, striking its own coinage, issuing its own postage stamps, and maintaining its army and police force.
Sit in the sun, sip a glass of the local Moscato, and think small. |
|
