Conference & Meetings World Issue 106 | Page 8

News FOR ALL THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS & DAILY UPDATES, VISIT: www.c-mw.net Back to market in June? Results of a survey by US-based MMGY Travel Intelligence indicates that North American DMOs are expecting to resume paid promotional advertising before the end of June. Tourism professionals were surveyed on the question of how Covid-19 has affected their sector and 95% reported they had reduced or postponed planned paid promotional efforts, although half of all destination organisations said they expected to return to investing in paid promotional advertising within the next 60 days. Eighty percent revealed that they have shifted their sales and marketing strategies. EMAIL THE CMW EDITORIAL TEAM WITH ALL YOUR INDUSTRY NEWS: [email protected] BIE recommends Dubai Expo 2020 postponement The Executive Committee of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), organiser of the world Expo, has unanimously agreed to propose the postponement of Expo 2020 Dubai by one year to 1 October 2021 – 31 March 2022. As changing the dates of an Expo requires the support of a two-thirds majority of Member States of the BIE (Article 28 of the Paris Convention of 1928), the organisation’s General Assembly will now be called upon to vote on the recommendation. Voting will be carried out remotely between 24 April and 29 May 2020. The name ‘Expo 2020 Dubai will be retained for the event, despite it now moving to 2021. Etihad trials Covid-19 test Etihad Airways is the first airline to trial contactless technology for monitoring temperature, heart rate and respiratory rate of travellers. The UAE flag carrier will partner with Australian company Elenium Automation to trial the new technology which allows self-service devices at airports to be used to help identify travellers with medical conditions, potentially including the early stages of Covid-19. The technology will provide the monitoring via an airport touchpoint such as a check-in or information kiosk, a bag drop facility, a security point or immigration gate. 8 / CONFERENCE & MEETINGS WORLD / ISSUE 106 Bells toll for Lausanne Lausanne Notre Dame Cathedral Night Watchman Renato Häusler is reviving a tradition from the Middle Ages, by shouting out from the top of the Cathedral’s 153 steps on the hour, from 10pm to 2am, to the four points of the horizon and then ringing the Clemence Bell. It is a tradition which dates back to 1405 – where a watchman would keep vigil and ring the bell if there were something amiss. It has now taken on a modern poignancy with Covid-19. Häusler, who has been night watchman since 2002, is now daily climbing the stairs of the cathedral that attracts 400,000 visitors a year.