SOUTH AFRICA: Travelcheck.co.za Starts In South Africa

Online travel agency Travelcheck has launched in South Africa. The new company is a privately funded venture and offers flight and hotel bundles, online booking for all major airlines, and more than 300 000 hotels around the world.

Travelcheck.co.za differentiates from other online booking websites with a dynamic packages feature which enables travellers to custom create holidays.

Pre-defined packages are available to book should travellers desire recommendations.

“We are excited to launch Travelcheck in South Africa,” said CEO, Odette Faling. “Travellers can save up to 25 per cent by booking flights and hotels in a bundle rather than reserving these components separately, and features such as dynamic packages will give South Africans more choices when booking travel online.”

The flight search engine features ‘Quick Share’ to facilitate seamless itinerary and price sharing to third-party messaging apps such as WhatsApp directly from the search results page.

Mix & Match allows travellers to book more than one airline in the same ticket – for example, travellers can choose to fly from Cape Town to London on British Airways and return on Turkish Airlines without booking separate segments.

Travelcheck has partnered with third parties to offer useful ancillaries which can be added during the online booking, including: lost luggage insurance, a cancellation and refund policy and flight ticket amendments.

The website takes EFT and credit card payments (Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Diners Club), and customers can also complete payment over the phone. Travelcheck customer service agents are active from Monday to Sunday inside business hours, and after-hours support is available around-the-clock to assist with urgent reservations.

Dynamic packages and bundled bookings have helped travellers in more developed markets save time and money. We’re enthusiastic about being the first to bring this technology to South Africa, said Faling.

Travelcheck is a proudly South African online travel agency that offers innovative international technology to simplify the travel planning and booking process, for you, our valuable client.

Travelcheck, provides you with the convenience of comparing and booking flights and hotels that are perfectly suited to your travel needs.

Thanks to a smart search engine, you now have a travel gateway right at your fingertips and can search, customize and build your very own holiday package. There are multiple accommodation and flight options to choose from; you will be spoilt for choice.

Travelcheck allows you to tailor your accommodation and flights to suit your individual needs perfectly.

The price range of the trip, the type of flight, the flight duration, the location of the flight layover, the flight departure and arrival time, luggage allowance, meal preference and so much more can all be arranged, in one single place, our website.

Once your trip has been selected, you can simply complete the reservation process, by proceeding with payment, which is simple, straightforward, and safe. Payment at Travelcheck.co.za is secured by the most reliable security and is fully Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant.

We at Travelcheck aim to bring South Africans a seamless experience by dynamically packaging their travel needs in an affordable and convenient way.

You will have complete control over selecting exactly what you want. The ticket reservation process at Travelcheck.co.za is simple and fast, giving users an enjoyable, hassle-free purchasing experience.

We look forward to delivering a dream holiday to you and yours. Your next vacation is as close as a click of a button.


Tourism Observer

MEXICO: World Monuments Fund Raises US $1 Million To Rehabilitate Oaxaca Archaeological site

The New York-based World Monuments Fund (WMF) has announced more than US $1 million in funding to repair earthquake-related damage at the Monte Albán archaeological site in Oaxaca.

Restoration work will start in July on 15 structures that were affected by the powerful September 7 earthquake, including five with severe damage that required emergency structural support to prevent collapse.

Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), which has worked at the site since 1999, will also be involved in the project.

The WMF said that its partnership with INAH would address the long-term stability of Monte Alban, including physical conservation, documentation and geological assessment.

It also said that the program will also emphasize training and capacity building, giving local technicians the skills they need to effectively repair and prepare Monte Alban for future natural disasters.

American Express, the Robert W. Wilson Charitable Fund and Mexican businessman Roberto Hernandez Ramírez were among the donors who made the program possible.

WMF president and CEO Joshua David said that for more than 50 years the fund has been helping people restore the buildings and places that define their values following natural disasters.

Now we have the opportunity to safeguard one of Mexico’s most important archaeological sites while empowering its community, he added.

Founded in the sixth century BC, the ancient Zapotec metropolis overlooks the modern-day city of Oaxaca.

The site’s impressive architectural remains include pyramids, terraces and canals that extend over 6.5 square kilometers.

Since 1987, Monte Alban has been a UNESCO World Heritage site and in 2008 it was included on the World Monuments Watch to highlight the various threats affecting it.

They have included erosion of hieroglyphic inscriptions due to exposure to the elements, looting, vandalism, unchecked tourism and forest fires.

The WMF previously completed work at the site to prevent the further decay of the hieroglyphics.

Following the funding announcement, the Consul General of Mexico in New York said the cultural sites that were damaged during this tragedy don’t belong only to the Mexican people; they belong to humankind.

Out of great loss and devastation, we have a chance to restore hope and optimism to the people of Oaxaca and those for whom Monte Alban is a source of great pride.

We are grateful for the support to make it stronger and accessible for future generations, Diego Gomez Pickering added.

The restoration project is expected to take about two years but the site will remain open to the public through its entire duration.

At least 1,200 historical buildings and monuments were damaged in last September’s earthquakes, which caused widespread devastation in central and southern Mexico.


Tourism Observer

Modigliani Nude Sells For $170.4 Million At Christie's

Amedeo Modigliani’s 1917 "Nu Couche (Reclining Nude)"

Chinese billionaire Liu Yiqian bought Amedeo Modigliani’s painting of a reclining nude woman for US$170.4 million, the second-highest price for an artwork at auction, in a volatile sale at Christie’s in New York.

It is not the first time he has broken records for bidding on works of art: in 2014 he paid a record price for a Tibetan tapestry.

Modigliani’s 1917 Nu Couche (Reclining Nude) anchored Christie’s special, mixed-category sale titled "The Artist’s Muse," which included 34 paintings and sculptures created from the 1860s through the 2000s.

The evening tallied US$491.4 million, setting five auction records for artists including Gustave Courbet and Roy Lichtenstein, whose painting of a nurse sold for US$95.4 million.

The Modigliani price was an auction record for the Italian artist.

"Prices have reached the Promised Land," billionaire collector Eli Broad said after the sale. "I can’t imagine it going much higher though. Can you?"

Some resistance was already visible during the packed evening sale, which was part of a 10-day marathon in which more than US$2.1 billion of art is on offer at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips. Ten lots failed to find buyers, including those by Lucian Freud and Willem de Kooning.

The results fell within Christie’s presale target range of US$442 million to US$540 million, but were 30 per cent lower than the company’s first hybrid sale in May, "Looking Forward to the Past." That auction tallied US$705.9 million, and a Pablo Picasso painting set a new auction record at US$179.4 million.

To win the prized artworks, Christie’s offered the sellers of 17 pieces minimum guaranteed prices regardless of the outcome in the salesroom. Initially, the guarantees were backed by Christie’s. Before the auction started, Jussi Pylkkanen, the auctioneer, announced that five guaranteed lots, including top works by Modigliani and Lichtenstein, were financially backed by third parties, a move that reduced Christie’s risk, but could also eat into potential profit.

Bidding for Modigliani’s ravishing brunette on a red couch started at US$75 million and attracted seven hopefuls. The Long Museum in China was the buyer of the Modigliani, according to Christie’s. The museum was founded by Liu Yiqian, who frequently buys art with his American Express card.

"It was a sensational picture and it brought a sensational price," said Guy Jennings, managing director of the Fine Art Fund in London and Christie’s former deputy chairman of Impressionist and modern art in New York. "It was the best painting Modigliani ever made. It’s not often that you can say this about an artwork at auction."

The previous auction record for Modigliani was US$70.7 million, established at Sotheby’s a year ago for a carved stone head of a woman.

Courbet’s painting of a sleeping nude fetched US$15.3 million, quadrupling the Impressionist artist’s previous auction record. Courbet’s 1862 canvas, Femme nue couchee, was estimated at US$15 million to US$25 million.

Lichtenstein’s comic book-style Nurse painting fetched US$95.4 million, also an artist auction record. Although the final price, which includes buyer’s premium, surpassed the presale target of more than US$80 million, only one bidder wanted the work, a client of Laura Paulson, Christie’s senior international director in the postwar and contemporary art department. The work’s value increased about 5,500 per cent in the 20 years since it last sold at auction. Lichtenstein’s previous auction record of US$56.1 million was achieved in May 2013 at Christie’s in New York.

Paul Gauguin’s carved wood sculpture of a woman, Therese (1902-1903), fetched US$30.9 million, surpassing the high estimate of US$25 million. It was pursued by Stephane C. Connery, a private art dealer, and Paul Gray, director of Richard Gray Gallery in Chicago and New York whose clients include hedge-fund manager Kenneth Griffin.

The winner was a client of Conor Jordan, Christie’s deputy chairman of Impressionist and modern art in New York.

Great works that haven’t been seen on the open market for decades, like the Modigliani, "created a huge amount of energy and bidding", said Pylkkanen, Christie’s global president. Those that weren’t as fresh or had the estimates that were "a bit strong" led to the evening’s disappointments, he said.

Several pieces backed by Christie’s failed to find buyers, underscoring just how risky guarantees can be. One of the unsold guaranteed lots was De Kooning’s Woman, estimated at US$14 million to US$18 million.

Christie’s has jammed its Impressionist, modern and contemporary auctions into a single week, a strategy that worked for the company in May when it walked away with US$1.7 billion, almost twice rival Sotheby’s tally.

Sotheby’s last week sold US$377 million in its own hybrid evening sale, "Masterworks," from the collection of its former chairman A. Alfred Taubman. A Modigliani painting was the top lot in that auction, too. Unlike the nude at Christie’s, Modigliani’s woman at Sotheby’s was fully robed in black, and at US$42.8 million, cost four times less.

"It was straight forward: if the work was overestimated it didn’t sell," Jennings said about the Christie’s sale. "The market has plateaued. It’s leveled off at a very high level."

Luxury Travelers Preffer Private Air Travel

Several recent surveys on luxury travel showed similar results for U.S. travelers. A survey by American Express found that high-end travelers increasingly prefer to book an entire package, including air, rather than string together different components, even if there are price differences.

A second survey, by Virtuoso, confirmed that luxury travel bookings were up in 2014, indicating that this segment of the travel market is healthy. Most respondents said they prefer to work with a specialized travel agency that arranges once-in-a-lifetime experiences, rather than navigating through an “overwhelming” number of travel options on the Internet.

These surveys validate what XOJet has seen among its clients this year, says Shari Jones, chief marketing officer. “Many of our clients are looking for unique, exclusive experiences that they can’t find anywhere else,” she says. “We endeavor to find these through our partnerships with some of the most bespoke travel agencies and resorts in the U.S. Of course, we handle the accommodations for air travel.”

XOJet is the third-largest business-aviation firm in the United States, with a fleet of 42 Citation X and Challenger 300 super-midsize business jets. The San Francisco–based firm, known for its cost-efficient charter programs, has multiple Fortune 500 companies and name-brand Silicon Valley tech firms on its client roster. Jones says many clients mix corporate and family travel, thanks to the flexible terms of XOJet’s Preferred Access and Elite Access programs.

In order to accommodate clients who want more than business-jet access, XOJet has partnered with upscale agencies like Butterfield & Robinson to provide bespoke experiences for their clients. The Yellowstone Club, a five-star resort in Montana, is another partner, delivering an unparalleled Rockies lifestyle. Element Lifestyle, a third XOJet partner, is a Los Angeles–based agency that opens doors to many exclusive events and establishments, like Manhattan’s hottest new restaurants or blockbuster film premieres.

“We use the phrase ‘traveling beautifully’ to describe what we and our partners can offer clients,” says Jones. “Many tell us that these are some of the most memorable trips they’ve ever taken.”

Butterfield & Robinson, for instance, offers an exclusive visit inside the Masters Tournament in Augusta, with an intimate view of golf’s premier event. “With a VIP escort at the final day of the tournament, you’ll see one of the sporting world’s most hallowed events in a way that few do,” says Jones. “This kind of detailed view, as on any B&R trip, has a way of shifting one’s perspective so that you feel like an insider.”

Butterfield & Robinson also arranges unique accommodations. For the Masters Experience, the James Madison Inn, boasting some of the South’s most beautiful architecture and artwork, is a perfect complement to the trip. For the vineyard tour of Beaune in the Burgundy region, guests stay at the Bastion Ste. Anne, a historic Butterfield property dating to 1637. The French experience brings guests into the heart of Burgundy’s wineries. The five days include a private dinner in the walled gardens of Bastion Ste. Anne catered by a local chef, private tours of some of the Côte d’Or’s most famous vineyards, and a tasting of the region’s wines with the winemaker Jane Eyre-Renard.

“We’ve assisted in setting up these very well-thought-out trips to Europe, Belize, Costa Rica, and many U.S. destinations,” says Jones. “Because we handle the air travel, it’s a seamless, stress-free journey. Our clients appreciate the details that make these trips so special, and execution is typically flawless.”