amadeus travel sellers

TRAVEL AGENTS

Enabling travel sellers to better delight their travelers with personalized experiences.

The Amadeus Discover solution enables travel sellers to improve customer satisfaction, increase revenues and differentiate their brand through personalized experiences delivered at the right time to their travelers.

What is it?

Amadeus discover for travel sellers.

Amadeus Discover helps travel sellers to inspire , delight , and engage their customers with  personalized experiences worldwide that can be offered at any time of their  travel journey and beyond.

How does that work?

Amadeus Discover enables travel sellers to inspire their travelers with diverse destination content, driving traffic and generating bookings. They can differentiate their brand by creating complete packages that include the whole experience: flight, hotel, activities and restaurants.

It also helps them improve revenue growth by offering cross-selling opportunities or supporting the re-engagement of abandoned baskets with unique, personalized experiences based on travel context and profile, that delight their travelers.

What’s more, they can offer tailor-made local experiences that go beyond the trip itself and stay top of mind when they think of booking their next trip.

Why travel sellers should choose Amadeus?

Integrate your own content with local suppliers

Easily book unique experiences on behalf of your travelers  or  let them book directly on your  B2C channels 

Choose the integration options that best fit your business needs

Earn commission when booking activities through Amadeus Discover 

Increase customer satisfaction and engagement

Our catalogue of experiences

Benefits for your travelers

Get inspired and uncover the finest experiences for an unforgettable journey 

Receive personalized offers that match their preferences.

Do you want to learn more?

If you would like to know more about Amadeus Discover:

      Or do not hesitate to send us your request via the following form:

Amadeus Service Hub

One-time password (otp) verification, a one-time password (otp) has been sent to your email. if you have not received your one-time password after a while please open an incident against service hub template., please select your company's profile.

Powered by Amadeus Service Hub

Amadeus and Taxera Partner on eInvoicing for Travel Sellers

Amadeus  and  Taxera Technologies  partnered to enable streamlined, secure and automated eInvoicing for travel sellers worldwide.

The  collaboration  will add Taxera’s global tax compliance capabilities to the  Amadeus Agency Manager  and  Amadeus Gestour  travel technology platforms, the companies said in a Thursday (April 4) press release.

“Thanks to this automated technology, travel sellers will be able to concentrate on offering personalized services to customers, safe in the knowledge invoice administration will be streamlined,”  Stephanie Madée , vice president of product management, travel office IT products, at Amadeus, said in the release.

The solution arrives at a time when eInvoicing is becoming mandatory in a growing number of countries around the world, with each market having its own specific characteristics, according to the release.

The integration of the Taxera platform with those of Amadeus will offer a standardized feed to travel sellers worldwide, providing the required data to each government and guaranteeing the delivery of a secure and validated sales document, the release said.

Taxera’s cloud-based solutions simplify tax regulations and processes and help businesses handle global indirect tax compliance, per the release.

“Moving forward, there will be fewer worries about eInvoice reporting, validation or formats for travel sellers,”  Paul Antunes , managing partner at Taxera, said in the release. “The process will be taken care of with the new offering.”

In another addition to its offering, Amadeus acquired  Voxel  in March, saying it will add that company’s eInvoicing and  B2B payments  tools to the Amadeus portfolio. These additions will help the company’s corporate customers by further automating aspects of the business travel experience like reservations, payments and expense management.

Voxel operates the Bavel platform, which orchestrates payments processes for more than 50,000 hotels, 1,000 tour operators and travel companies, and 3,000 restaurants and franchises.

In June, Amadeus partnered with  Emburse  on a  business travel  and expense solution that combines Amadeus’ collaboration and travel capabilities with Emburse’s expense management functionality.

The solution enabled by the collaboration is designed to offer global enterprises an integrated suite of tools that includes trip planning and booking, expense reporting, reconciliation, reimbursements and spend analytics. It also includes travel companion apps and integrated card programs.

For all PYMNTS B2B coverage, subscribe to the daily B2B Newsletter .

Recommended

Trending news, the big story, featured news, partner with pymnts.

We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.

Expedia Wants New Features With Amadeus NDC Partnership

Dennis Schaal , Skift

April 4th, 2024 at 1:59 PM EDT

Very slowly, the New Distribution Capability is enabling online travel agencies to catch up with the services that airlines offer on their own websites.

Dennis Schaal

It wasn’t too long ago that if you booked a flight through an online travel agency, you couldn’t pick your seat assignment in advance.

That’s because the technology from global distribution systems such as Sabre, Amadeus and Travelport, which connect airlines and online travel agencies, wasn’t capable of doing so.

Enter the New Distribution Capability (NDC) developed by IATA. It has enabled online travel agencies, such as Expedia, Booking.com, and MakeMyTrip to enable passengers to select their seats in advance for many airlines.

Expedia Expands Amadeus Partnership

Madrid-based Amadeus announced this week that it has an expanded partnership where Expedia will integrate Amadeus’ NDC tech, and deploy its aggregated NDC content solution. Expedia downgraded its distribution relationship with Amadeus rival Sabre , based in Texas, a couple of years ago.

An Expedia Group spokesperson said the Amadeus partnership will enable the online travel agency to accelerate its NDC-based services options.

“With that, travelers will benefit from more dynamic offers and a wider range of competitive fares including ancillaries, ultimately leading to richer traveler experiences,” the Expedia Group spokesperson said.

Potential Services That Expedia Might Introduce

Amadeus said the collaboration would also enable Expedia to further personalize services.

Expedia declined to detail which services it might be adding based on the expanded partnership.

There are a range of services that airline websites offer pre-flight that most online travel agencies don’t.

Among them are onboard Wi-Fi, meals and beverages, dedicated security, early boarding, lounge access, and overhead bin space.

Amadeus believes it can leverage its airline and online travel agency relationships — it already provides flight connectivity services to many online travel agencies — to push NDC.

“Building on our relationships with both airlines and travel sellers, we are in a strong position to foster cross-industry collaboration on NDC to the benefit of travelers everywhere,” Sam Abdou, Amadeus’ vice president of global sales airline IT, distribution and global online travel agencies, said in a statement.

The Daily Newsletter

Our daily coverage of the global travel industry. Written by editors and analysts from across Skift’s brands.

Have a confidential tip for Skift? Get in touch

Tags: amadeus , ancillary services , distribution , expedia , expedia group , ndc , online travel newsletter , personalization , travel tech

Photo credit: Expedia hopes to expand airline ancillary services that it can offer customers. Pictured is New Club World products being served on board a special flight on a 787-9, which also marked the opening of First Wing, London Gatwick and Boston Lounges. Source: Nick Morrish/British Airways Nick Morrish / British Airways

Amadeus Brings Personalization, Choice, and Flexibility to the Forefront of the Hotel Tech Stack with Expanded iHotelier® Suite

The latest innovation to Amadeus’ leading reservations system and booking engine will address hoteliers’ top goals and challenges with a “build-your-own” suite of solutions model

April 16, 2024 – As the hospitality industry continues to evolve, the rising need for personalization serves as a powerful indication that new strategies are essential to elevate the customer experience and unlock untapped revenue potential. Just as guests expect their preferences and challenges to be addressed immediately and accurately, hotels too are seeking innovative solutions to meet these demands effectively.

In response to this growing trend, Amadeus has evolved iHotelier to become a powerful suite of customizable solutions designed to revolutionize the hotel tech stack experience. With a keen focus on creating more personalized experiences that increase revenue, conversion rates, and guest loyalty, the iHotelier Suite offers a strategic range of options to ensure hoteliers can address their most pressing goals and challenges.

At the core of the technology lies the iHotelier Central Reservations System and Booking Engine, designed to help mid-sized chains and independent properties drive more bookings, maximize reservations, and boost hotel revenue. From there, hoteliers can choose from a variety of integrated add-on solutions to fit their needs, such as Amadeus Web , Metasearch , Guest Management Solutions (GMS), or Digital Media .

Customers are already recognizing the value of having an integrated technology stack from one trusted partner. Flemings Hotels reported a 109% increase in revenue, 98% increase in return on ad spend (ROAS), with a boost in loyalty by combining Amadeus’ iHotelier, GMS, Web, and Digital Media solutions in a seasonal campaign.

Whether the goal is to drive more profitable direct bookings, personalize the guest experience and increase loyalty, or gain visibility in today’s crowded online marketplace with an omni-channel strategy, the iHotelier Suite brings an unrivaled approach to meeting the needs of hotels, no matter the size, location or segment.

“As hotels strive to deliver exceptional experiences to their guests, the need for personalization has become more pronounced than ever before,” says Jose Canelos, Vice President, Reservation Solutions, Hotel IT, Hospitality, Amadeus . “With the iHotelier Suite, we are empowering hotels to extend personalization not only to their guests but also to their properties, enabling them to create unique, memorable, and revenue-producing experiences that set them apart from the competition.”

As an introduction to the iHotelier Suite, Amadeus is pleased to extend a special limited-time offer for net new customers .

Related Posts

Double Digit Growth in Global Hospitality Industry for Q4, with Europe Leading the Way

Hospitality Data Alert: Top U.S. Christmas and New Year’s Destinations by Hotel Occupancy

Amadeus Accelerates Expansion in Hospitality Sector with $1.52bn Agreement to Acquire TravelClick

Take a trip to other amadeus sites, corporate site.

We’re creating a more connected travel industry, underpinned by sustainability and long-term investor relations.

Careers site

At Amadeus, we’re always on the lookout for talented, passionate people to join our team. Interested?

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Frugal Traveler

To Protect Your Miles, Be Careful How You Book

American Airlines recently announced new restrictions on point allocation based on how you book a flight. What does that mean for loyalty members?

By Elaine Glusac

Elaine Glusac is the Frugal Traveler columnist, focusing on budget-friendly tips and journeys.

Earlier this month, American Airlines announced that beginning May 1, it will require travelers to book directly with the airline, partner airlines or “preferred travel agencies” in order to receive points in its loyalty program.

The unprecedented move confused many travelers eager to protect their mileage currency, prompting posts like this one on X: “@AmericanAir your news about earning miles/loyalty points is a bit concerning — we’re loyal to you no matter who we book through!”

In an email, a representative of the airline said that the approved list of travel agencies would not be published until April.

While there is much to be determined about the new policy, a battle for customers between the airline and third-party ticket sellers, which includes online travel agencies like Orbitz, has emerged. Here’s what travelers should know before booking their next flight.

What are the new points rules at American?

Currently, the biggest domestic carriers — including Delta Air Lines , United Airlines , Southwest Airlines and American — award points and miles to members of their loyalty programs on most tickets regardless of where they are sold.

American’s new rules state that in order to receive miles and points, travelers must book through its website, a Oneworld partner airline or approved travel agencies (with exceptions for those enrolled in its business program, which targets small companies, or with a corporate contract).

Also beginning May 1, fliers booking basic economy fares, the airline’s cheapest fares, may only earn points by booking through American’s website or its airline partners.

What’s behind the switch?

According to analysts, this is largely a behind-the-scenes fight over technology.

Travel agencies have long used distribution systems like Sabre and Amadeus to sell airline tickets. But many airlines are interested in using an emerging channel developed by the International Air Transport Association called New Distribution Capability . It offers airlines a more direct means of communicating with passengers, whom they can target with personalized fares or bundled offers not available in the traditional systems, providing opportunities to sell more services.

The “preferred” agencies that American said it will announce in April will be those making a substantial number of bookings on the new platform.

“American is dead set on being a more efficient airline and reducing its cost of sales, so they have issued this new edict and travel agents who choose not to follow along will find themselves on the losing end of the battle,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst and the founder of the Atmosphere Research Group.

Many travel agents object to the speed of adopting a technology they say still has bugs. In a recent letter to the 18,000 member agencies of the American Society of Travel Advisors , the president and chief executive of the trade organization Zane Kerby called it “an underdeveloped technology,” with “basic servicing” issues that include problems with cancellations, booking multiple people on the same itinerary and rebooking.

Mr. Kerby cited a heightened risk to most business travelers using external agencies to make their bookings. “It feels like American Airlines is disenfranchising or willing to disenfranchise its most profitable and lucrative segment, which is the frequent business traveler,” he said.

In American’s new requirement that basic economy fliers book directly with the airline to earn miles, Brian Sumers, who writes the Airline Observer newsletter, sees a play for greater loyalty from thrifty travelers at a time when many airlines have abandoned them. Delta , for instance, no longer awards points to its basic economy passengers. United restricts basic economy fliers to one personal item carried aboard when flying domestically.

American wants those basic economy passengers, Mr. Sumers said. “The end goal is to get people so excited about having AAdvantage points and using them all the time, because that’s where they’re making money.”

How should I book to ensure I’m awarded miles for American flights?

If you are accustomed to booking online with the airline directly, earning miles is not endangered.

If you use a travel agency, including online sites like Expedia or Orbitz, check the list of approved agencies when it is published in April.

But even for travelers who are accustomed to D.I.Y. bookings, the new American policy poses some threat to earning miles. If you use a travel agent to plan a more complicated trip — say, an African safari or a trek to Machu Picchu in Peru — make sure the agent is approved by American or be prepared to make the booking yourself to earn miles.

“American is counting on the fact that travelers engaged with AAdvantage will want to remain engaged, so that if their travel agent is not onboard, the customer will find a different travel agent or opt to book directly,” Mr. Harteveldt said.

Will other airlines follow suit?

Experts say commercial aviation is a copycat industry; if a policy is successful, others are likely to follow. But it may not happen quickly in this case.

“There are some very expensive tickets that go through using the older system,” Mr. Sumers said, describing other airlines as “taking a watch-and-wait approach” to see if any defections from former American customers boost their business.

“By no means has this play reached its conclusions,” Mr. Harteveldt said. “We are in the first part of the first act.”

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram and sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to get expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places to Go in 2024 .

Open Up Your World

Considering a trip, or just some armchair traveling here are some ideas..

52 Places:  Why do we travel? For food, culture, adventure, natural beauty? Our 2024 list has all those elements, and more .

Mumbai:  Spend 36 hours in this fast-changing Indian city  by exploring ancient caves, catching a concert in a former textile mill and feasting on mangoes.

Kyoto:  The Japanese city’s dry gardens offer spots for quiet contemplation  in an increasingly overtouristed destination.

Iceland:  The country markets itself as a destination to see the northern lights. But they can be elusive, as one writer recently found .

Texas:  Canoeing the Rio Grande near Big Bend National Park can be magical. But as the river dries, it’s getting harder to find where a boat will actually float .

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Amadeus, Elgar, a bogus gold disc and Goldie Hawn: Neville Marriner’s best recordings

The great British conductor was born 100 years ago today. His son Andrew picks his father’s most memorable recordings

A s a five-year-old, I sat spellbound on the stairs outside our living room. The furniture had been removed to to make space for a handful of string players, there to rehearse and play with no end in mind other than the pure pleasure of making music. The conductorless string chamber group founded by my father Neville was named “The Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields” (ASMF), after the church in which it rehearsed, and gave its first concert in the Trafalgar Square church on 13 November 1959.

I well remember the excitement when test pressings arrived of recordings by the newly formed group. Theirs was a fresh approach, bringing to works normally performed by the larger and weightier orchestral forces a sparkling clarity and refinement of balance – a style that characterises the Academy’s playing to this day.

When I later became a long-time player with the orchestra, I had the good fortune to enjoy the ride from within, witnessing my father’s ability to shape and guide the ensemble he directed until well into his 80s, with his customary mix of stringent musical demands and boundless and infectious good humour.

Neville made more than 600 recordings over five decades. Here’s a handful of my favourites.

Handel - Chandos Anthems (1966) ASMF/Willcocks, led by Neville Marriner

As a boy chorister in Cambridge, I was in the choir when the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields were commuting along the Parade between the choirs of King’s and St John’s Colleges, making a total of 22 recordings with the two of them. Neville formed a lasting friendship with the emerging “Schola Cantorum Pro Musica Profana in Cantabridgiense”, and advised the choral group not to make the same mistake he had with an impossibly unwieldy name. They changed it to the King’s Singers and that seemed to work …

Strauss – Metamorphosen (1969) ASMF/Marriner

Strauss’s In Memoriam for his beloved Dresden, so recently destroyed when he wrote it in 1945, is a work of extraordinary emotional power. This is a musical challenge at the best of times, given the individual technical demands made on the 15 solo string players; to achieve the same intensity on a studio recording is difficult without straying into a sentimentality that would not stand the test of repeated listening. The early efforts were not really getting the desired results and time was pressing. How to get this “in the can”? An extended break was called and with limited session time left the players produced this performance in one complete take (with one small edit for extraneous noise, I’m told).

Janáček – Suite for Strings, Strauss – Sextet from Capriccio, Suk - Serenade for Strings (1975) Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra/Marriner

In 1968 Neville was founder director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra , where he fulfilled two important ambitions: one, to meet and play chamber music with the great Jascha Heifetz and the other, to meet Goldie Hawn.

Vivaldi – the Four Seasons (1970) ASMF/Marriner with Alan Loveday (violin) and Simon Preston (harpsichord, organ continuo)

This best-selling recording nearly didn’t happen. The ceiling in Holborn’s Kingsway Hall collapsed and there was a scramble to find a new venue, leading to the hitherto untried St John’s, Smith Square in Westminster. Perhaps this is the best-known of the Academy’s recordings, awarded a gold disc for sales of 750,000 in its first couple of years. The gold disc was received in triumph, but when Neville attempted to play it, he found that the recording underneath the gilding, despite its congratulatory label, was one conducted by Mantovani not Marriner!

after newsletter promotion

Vaughan Williams – The Lark Ascending (1971) ASMF/Marriner with Iona Brown (violin )

Recorded in Kingsway Hall, in Holborn, central London, which had one of the great acoustics for classical recordings, with one small drawback. “All was going well; Iona and the Academy were playing beautifully, and this was the magic take. Then, right at the end, as Iona’s final note was fading away into nothingness, a tube train rumbled under the hall. Hearing it through the headphones, Stan (recording engineer) turned to Mike (producer), his face contorted in agony: “Just the wind in the trees, Stan,” muttered Mike – and that is how the record ends, with the “magic take” and the Lark, ascending to the rustle of windblown leaves on the Piccadilly line.” (From The Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields by Meirion & Susie Harries ).

Mozart – Requiem in D minor (1977) ASMF and ASMF Chorus/Marriner

The addition of a virtuoso Academy chorus was celebrated most often on annual tours of Germany. The chorus was trained by László Heltay in a way that entirely complemented the Academy style, and audiences were ecstatic. As a clarinet student in Germany at the time, I could hear at first hand why the Academy was so feted abroad on these whirlwind tours, and why it became the first (and, to date, only) orchestra to be given in 1993 the Queen’s award for export achievement.

Amadeus – Original Soundtrack Recording (1984) ASMF/Marriner

“Only two people were qualified to conduct Miloš Forman’s Amadeus – one was unavailable” ran the slogan on the poster for the film, with a picture of Neville and Mozart side by side. Symphony 25 opens the film that became an Oscar-winning sensation. The collaboration with Forman took place in airport lounges around the world and on Neville’s tennis court; the resulting cohesion of music and film was achieved by recording the music in its entirety before shooting the film, an unprecedented but successful experiment.

Elgar – In the South (Alassio), Symphony No 1 in A flat (1990) ASMF/Marriner

Neville rarely listened to his recordings, but this was an exception. I can picture him in his beautiful country cottage, volume on the player turned up to the maximum, relishing how well the sound was captured and how the small string group that had been the Academy had evolved into a flexible ensemble able to play the large symphonic repertoire with all the skill and commitment of its youth. For me, this recording is a happy memory of all my years with the orchestra. The spectacular opening passage of “In the South” is overwhelming; Neville loved it and it was the obvious choice to be the affirming music at his funeral, a celebration of a wonderful life.

• Classical music
• Choral music

Comments (…)

Most viewed.

Russia Travel Blog  | All about Russia in English

• About our blog
• RussiaTrek.org

Sidebar →

• Architecture
• Entertainment
• RussiaTrek.org News

• Send us a tip with a message
• Support RussiaTrek.org
• Travel Guide to Ukraine
• Comments RSS

← Sidebar

The trains and stations of the Moscow Metro

2 Comments · Posted by Alex Smirnov in Cities , Travel , Video

The Moscow Metro is the third most intensive subway system in the world after Tokyo and Seoul subways. The first line was opened on May 15, 1935. Since 1955, the metro has the name of V.I. Lenin.

The system consists of 12 lines with a total length of 305.7 km. Forty four stations are recognized cultural heritage. The largest passenger traffic is in rush hours from 8:00 to 9:00 and from 18:00 to 19:00.

Cellular communication is available on most of the stations of the Moscow Metro. In March 2012, a free Wi-Fi appeared in the Circle Line train. The Moscow Metro is open to passengers from 5:20 to 01:00. The average interval between trains is 2.5 minutes.

The fare is paid by using contactless tickets and contactless smart cards, the passes to the stations are controlled by automatic turnstiles. Ticket offices and ticket vending machines can be found in station vestibules.

Tags:  Moscow city

You might also like:

The bridge over Zolotoy Rog Bay in Vladivostok

The views of St. Petersburg from the TV tower >>

Tomás · August 27, 2012 at 11:34 pm

The Moscow metro stations are the best That I know, cars do not.

Alberto Calvo · September 25, 2016 at 8:57 pm

Great videos! Moscow Metro is just spectacular. I actually visited Moscow myself quite recently and wrote a post about my top 7 stations, please check it out and let me know what you think! :)

http://www.arwtravels.com/blog/moscow-metro-top-7-stations-you-cant-miss

Leave a Reply

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

• February 2024
• January 2024
• December 2023
• November 2023
• October 2023
• September 2023
• August 2023

Travel | April 17, 2024

Entertainment and consumer culture

Some of these museums lead, surprisingly, with humor—the kind of dark humor that is likely familiar to anyone who spent time behind the Iron Curtain.

For instance, visitors to the Budapest Retro Museum , which opened in 2021, can pick up the receiver of an old pay phone and dial a number to hear a typical communist-era joke, in which infamous Soviet leader Joseph Stalin visits a potato farm.

“Comrade Stalin, we have so many potatoes that, piled one on top of the other, they would reach all the way to God,” the farmer begins. “But God does not exist,” Stalin replies.

“Exactly,” the farmer says. “Neither do the potatoes.”

Cue the laugh track.

“We didn’t want to make it frightening, because the target of the museum is not to talk about history, but the life of people,” explains Andrea Kiss, the director of the museum. “We had a normal life—just the politics and the era were different.”

Kiss says the founder of the Budapest Retro Museum, Ákos Horváth, a graphic artist and businessman, created the project because no other museums in Budapest covered day-to-day life during communism.

The 8,600-square-foot space includes a café selling Hungarian sausage with bread and mustard and retro-inspired soft drinks, interactive displays and even an event room. Visitors enter through a turnstile to find themselves surrounded by miniature replicas of communist-style apartment buildings with windows that open to reveal communist-era objects ranging from egg cartons and bath soaps to pocket-sized books about communist ideology and a coffee grinder with an embossing of Stalin. Suspended from the ceiling is a 39-foot-long Soviet rocket that a retired soldier donated to the museum, apparently after having kept it in his garden for some time.

Kiss, who was 9 years old when Hungary declared a transition from communism in 1989, says that, in her opinion, many people in the West have a distorted view of life behind the Iron Curtain, thinking it was constantly frightening and politically charged. But in reality, she says, the lack of choice made some aspects of life easier.

“We didn’t miss, for example, having 12 types of bread,” she says. “We had one and we got used to it. And we didn’t miss, I don’t know, clothes from the West, because we didn’t know that it was possible to buy them.”

But for others, longing for consumer goods that were beyond one’s reach was one of the defining characteristics of life behind the Iron Curtain, according to Tibor Valuch , a social historian at the Hungarian Research Network Center for Social Sciences in Budapest. Some Hungarians, for instance, would travel to Vienna to buy brand-name toiletries and beer they could not find at home, then proudly display them when friends came to visit.

Valuch, whose 2022 book Everyday Life Under Communism and After analyzes the transformation of people’s lifestyles and consumer habits behind the Iron Curtain, says that one phenomenon that emerged during the communist years was a well-organized black market.

“People knew very well what kind of goods are lacking, for example, in Poland, that they could buy in Hungary,” Valuch says. “It was a very interesting situation.”

Parsing memory

For his 2017 book What Remains: Everyday Encounters With the Socialist Past in Germany , Jonathan Bach , a global studies expert at the New School in New York City, researched two dozen museums of everyday life in East Germany beginning in the 1990s. He says that the people he spoke with felt that, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the narrative shifted in such a way that it “seemed to devalue their life experiences.” People in East Germany had arranged their entire lives around the idea that they were working toward building a socialist state, Bach explains, but the unification with West Germany, which happened on West Germany’s terms, called their experience into question. The museums, which ranged from the 10,700-square-foot DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik) Museum in Berlin to more informal collections of items in garages and basements, offered a means to process this transition.

“Part of the whole idea of socialism is to break down the barriers between the personal and the political, so that you give a political edge to pretty much everything you do,” says Bach. As the state exerted control over everyday activities, from jobs to participation in civic organizations to where people spent their vacations, it “shaped how life was organized.” But this left people with the dilemma of how to frame common life experiences that had nothing to do with politics—for instance, going on dates or celebrating birthdays—to say nothing of the more complicated experiences, like having participated in (and enjoyed) activities organized by state-sponsored communist youth organizations.

“What did it mean to have lived under a regime that is considered negative now?” Bach says. “Where is the line between complicity and innocence?”

Selling emotion

When Anastasija Knežević decided to open a museum celebrating the 1980s in the former Yugoslavia, she wanted to name it “Yugoslavian Beauty,” in part a nod to the 1999 film American Beauty . But knowing how controversial the name “Yugoslavia” has become in Croatia, she says, her ex-husband convinced her to adopt a more neutral name: the Zagreb ’80s Museum .

Compared to other countries in the region, present-day Croatia enjoyed a relatively tolerant form of socialism as part of the former Yugoslavia led by President Josip Broz Tito . But the violent conflicts that followed the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991 left deep divisions that persist to this day. They have also given rise to a form of nostalgia so widespread it has its own name: Yugonostalgia.

Knežević, a marketing professional, says the Zagreb ’80s Museum has nothing to do with the politics of the era; it is simply meant to recreate the aesthetic of what she describes as the most prosperous decade in the former Yugoslavia. With its floral wallpaper and olive-green velvet couch facing a large cabinet filled with books, porcelain and glassware, a piano and a couple of mismatched ottomans, the museum’s main room is cozy and eclectic, and it feels oddly familiar—down to the earthy smell of old furniture. Visitors, including a couple of university students in their early 20s, say it reminds them of their grandmother’s house.

The first iteration of the museum, established in 2017, was so successful that Knežević sold it to an individual in Shanghai, where it now functions as a pop-up museum. The current museum in Zagreb, a replica of the original, opened in 2019. Visitors can flip through an old photo album, squeeze into the driver’s seat of an original Zastava automobile or try their hand at an Atari computer game.

“I want a reaction,” Knežević says, adding that the museum is often cathartic for people, as it brings up memories. “We sell emotion.”

Teaching tools

Cātālina Andrieș, who opened the Museum of Communism in Bucharest in 2023 along with her husband, Gabriel Boga, says the project was inspired in part by the couple’s other business: a company that offers guided tours of Bucharest. Tourists wanted to learn about the history of communism, but the city did not have much to offer aside from tours of the Palace of Parliament , a sprawling complex commissioned by former dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and constructed in the 1980s and ’90s.

While Andrieș and Boga initially planned to mainly target foreign tourists, they decided to also develop a strong educational component aimed at Romania’s younger generation.

“This part of history, it’s not very studied in school,” says Andrieș, who has spent most of her career as a teacher of geography, travel and tourism. “It’s a very short chapter in the history books that students have in the 12th grade.”

Instead, Andrieș says many young people learn about the communist era from their parents and grandparents, potentially missing key parts of the story.

The museum’s history section is straightforward, taking visitors through a chronology of events beginning with the early days of the communist regime in the 1940s and ending with the revolution that overthrew Ceaușescu’s dictatorship in 1989.

Next, visitors step into the immersive sections of the museum, decorated to resemble a living room and kitchen from the ’70s or ’80s. They can flip through historical newspapers, try on an authentic Romanian fur hat, or relax on the couch and listen to an old record. Andrieș says the interactive aspect of the museum is particularly attractive for young people, who typically have little patience for traditional exhibitions with a lot of reading material.

A few evenings each month, the “living room” part of the museum turns into an event space for mini-conferences, documentary screenings and other events that unpack aspects of communism in real time.

“Our most recent event was one with two former political prisoners and dissidents from communist times,” Andrieș says, describing a March discussion with Niculina Moica, a former political prisoner and current president of Romania’s Association of Former Political Prisoners, and Gabriel Andreescu, a former anti-communist dissident who is now a university professor in Romania. “They came here and told their stories, and people listened, and they had the occasion to interact and ask questions.”

Pāiușan, the researcher at the National History Museum of Romania in Bucharest, says demand is clearly growing for museums about communism, as evidenced by the popularity of independent museums on the subject. Several publicly funded history museums are also broaching the topic; for instance, the Museum of National History and Archaeology in Constanta, the main port city on Romania’s Black Sea coast, has a permanent exhibition about communism in the region. Meanwhile, the Bucharest history museum is also planning a future permanent exhibition about Romania’s communist era.

“This is recent history that today’s parents and grandparents lived through,” Pāiușan says. “There is a lot of interest in it, mostly related to nostalgia—nostalgia for a time when you were young and your life was planned out from the moment you finished school until retirement.”

Get the latest Travel & Culture stories in your inbox.

Alice Popovici | READ MORE

Alice Popovici is a freelance journalist with experience covering a wide range of topics for publications including Reuters, NPR, CBS, History.com and Architectural Digest Pro. She currently divides her time between Bucharest and New York City. 

Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

UK Edition Change

• UK Politics
• News Videos
• Paris 2024 Olympics
• Rugby Union
• Sport Videos
• John Rentoul
• Mary Dejevsky
• Andrew Grice
• Sean O’Grady
• Photography
• Theatre & Dance
• Culture Videos
• Food & Drink
• Health & Families
• Royal Family
• Electric Vehicles
• Car Insurance deals
• Lifestyle Videos
• UK Hotel Reviews
• News & Advice
• Simon Calder
• Australia & New Zealand
• South America
• C. America & Caribbean
• Middle East
• Politics Explained
• News Analysis
• Today’s Edition
• Home & Garden
• Broadband deals
• Fashion & Beauty
• Travel & Outdoors
• Sports & Fitness
• Sustainable Living
• Climate Videos
• Solar Panels
• Behind The Headlines
• On The Ground
• Decomplicated
• You Ask The Questions
• Binge Watch
• Travel Smart
• Watch on your TV
• Crosswords & Puzzles
• Most Commented
• Newsletters
• Ask Me Anything
• Virtual Events
• Betting Sites
• Online Casinos
• Wine Offers

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in

Paris Olympics 2024: Eurostar trains from London selling three times faster than usual

Exclusive: ‘the opening ceremony before the official opening ceremony in paris will be on eurostar’, article bookmarked.

Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile

Sign up to Simon Calder’s free travel email for expert advice and money-saving discounts

Get simon calder’s travel email, thanks for signing up to the simon calder’s travel email.

One hundred days before the start of the Paris Olympics 2024, Eurostar is predicting its busiest-ever summer peak.

The Games in the French capital run 26 July to 11 August, coinciding with the normal highest demand for the international rail firm, with many British families heading to continental Europe .

When the first tickets for trains between the two cities during the Olympics went on sale, they were booked at triple the normal rate.

Gwendoline Cazenave, chief executive of Eurostar, told The Independent : “When we opened sales in last November between London and Paris , we sold three times more tickets than we sell in the usual sales opening.

• Why I chose Marseille over Paris for the Olympic Games
• Where to stay during the Paris Olympics 2024
• How to still buy tickets for the Paris 2024 Olympics

“We have already sold more than 400,000 tickets. So, yes, it’s gonna be a busy period. The trains are getting full really quickly. But we still have places.”

The cheapest return ticket from London St Pancras International to Paris Gare du Nord, travelling out the day before the opening ceremony and back on the final day of the Games, is £318 in standard class.

But that can be halved for shorter trips during the Olympics – such as £158 return between 29 July and 1 August.

Ms Cazenave said that passengers could well be travelling at the same time as competitors.

“We have 140 trains to Paris on which we’ll have athletes, so our customers will be able to meet athletes,” she said.

“The opening ceremony before the official opening ceremony in Paris will be on Eurostar.

“Returning home, these trains will be heavier because they will have medals on board: bronze, silver and gold.”

Flights between London and Paris are significantly cheaper than trains; flying out on 25 July, back on 11 August, the fare on Vueling from Gatwick to Orly airport, south of the French capital, is £204 return.

During the Games, Air France is offering a Heathrow-Paris CDG fare of £123 return from 29 July to 1 August.

These prices do not include the cost of travel to and from the capitals, nor anything more than modest cabin baggage.

Ms Cazenave said: “When you compare to airlines, you know that Eurostar is from city centre to city centre, with no added charges, no tax, no bag or seat [charges], no underground or taxis.

“It’s all included, and there’s no bad surprise.”

Tourism bosses in Paris are expecting a slump in the numbers of visitors staying overnight during the Olympics.

The Independent has been told that predicted hotel occupancy will be 60–70 per cent for the duration of the Games, compared with 91 per cent in July 2023.

All fares checked direct with operators on Wednesday 17 April

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

New to The Independent?

Or if you would prefer:

Want an ad-free experience?

Hi {{indy.fullName}}

• My Independent Premium
• Account details
• Help centre

Coast Guard to retreive washed up bouy and return to Wells Harbor

A buoy that washed up on Wells Beach earlier this month from the powerful nor'easter will eventually return to Wells Harbor.

The Coast Guard originally had plans to get rid of it, but after letters and calls from residents, they are changing course.

Residents said the buoy boasts an "iconic presence" in the harbor, and it helps boaters navigate safely.

"It's the Coast Guard's property. They plan to inspect it, and if it's good as it sits now, then they'll return it to station. If not, they'll take it off and repair it and bring it back," Wells Harbormaster Michael Yorke said.

Residents also pointed to the buoy's bell that serves as a reminder for beachgoers about the strength of tides, currents, and waves.

The Coast Guard will retrieve the buoy Monday morning.

If it is damaged, it will be taken away for repairs before it's returned to the water.

TOP STORIES FROM WMTW:

Special edition Stanley tumblers are selling out, but these are still in stock

READ THE FULL STORY: Coast Guard to retreive washed up bouy and return to Wells Harbor

CHECK OUT WMTW: Stay informed with the latest Portland news and weather from the team at WMTW. Browse the newest Portland, Maine, news stories and stay in the know.