11 hours ago
Advisors and DMCs mobilize to get travelers out of Israel
Chai Travel founders Rebecca Liben Levy, Michael Liben and Daniella Liben Pally have family in Israel, so it's not unusual for a member of their extended clan to be visiting the country.
This month, it was their mother, Sindy Liben, who arrived in Tel Aviv on June 8, just five days before Israel attacked Iran.
When Israeli airspace closed, the family decided they had to get Sindy, who was traveling alone, back home. The siblings approached a supplier partner, the destination management company Pomegranate Travel.
The DMC picked Sindy up from her hotel, escorted her to the Jordanian border, assisted with border services and had a representative waiting to meet her on the other side. They ferried her to the Ritz-Carlton in Amman, where she stayed for a night before flying to London and on to New York JFK.
All told, it took about 44 hours door-to-door, said Rebecca Liben Levy, the company's COO. While they were very confident they'd get their mom home safe, the siblings were still anxious until she was back.
"When you have someone you really love, and you are lucky enough and blessed enough to be an expert in the field -- and surrounded by people that are experts in the field -- you do feel a sense of competency," she said. "But of course, we were nervous. There's no way not to be nervous."
She praised Pomegranate Travel as well as everyone at Chai Travel, calling it a "team effort."
Chai Travel is an affiliate of New York-based First in Service Travel (No. 44 on Travel Weekly's Power List), which has been assisting 10 client groups to exit Israel with the help of local DMCs, CEO Fernando Gonzalez said.
Nashville-based First in Service advisor Michelle Gross is another advisor who jumped in to help. She got a call from a client in Los Angeles whose daughter was in Israel with a group of friends when the war broke out. The group of seven 20- and 30-something young professionals had been traveling together in Europe and ended up in Israel. None were direct clients of Gross, but she was happy to assist.
Working with DMC Conexion Travel, she transported that group to Jordan, where they were able to join an expedited line at the border and on to the airport in Amman.
"It was a bit of a nerve-wracking situation, but everyone was safe," she said.
It also meant a lot of lost sleep for Gross because of the time difference between the U.S. and Israel.
"That's what we do," Gross said. "It's just the way our business is. There are no set hours, especially in a crisis."
Gonzalez said that is a common thread among the advisors he's spoken to recently: "The sense of responsibility that they had." In Gross' case specifically, he said, she was acting purely out of a desire to help.
"That came across so loudly with all of the different advisors that we helped," he said. "It was all about, 'How do we help these people that are in a desperate situation?'"
First in Service ready in a crisis
First in Service has an internal crisis committee made up of team members. Gonzalez said the group was born in the pandemic and remains on call to monitor and react to any emergencies around the world.
First, the crisis committee identifies whether any First in Service clients have been affected by an event.
In the case of Israel, the committee began working as soon as Israeli airspace was closed, he said. They identified affected clients, then got in touch with their respective advisors. In addition to helping the advisors, First in Service also connects its advisors to facilitate networking amongst themselves.
It's all part of one of the host's foundational pillars, stylized "fanat1cal service," referring to its goal to offer consistent and exceptional service.
Gonzalez said First in Service intends to deepen its crisis committee's work by partnering with preferred DMCs throughout the world to enhance reaction time whenever an emergency occurs.
