OUR 17TH WEEKLY UPDATE REGARDING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC AND AN INSPIRING FOURTH OF JULY VIDEO FOR YOU TO ENJOY
FRIDAY, JULY 03
FROM CHRIS KRARAS
PRESIDENT OF WHITE STAR TOURS
Dear Friends:
First and foremost, on behalf of all of our family and staff here at White Star Tours, we would like to wish you a HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND! With all the many challenges that our country has been facing over the last four or five months, it will be good to take a deep breath and try to enjoy the many beauties that we are all blessed with in our country. We see that the weather is supposed to be relatively pleasant in a good portion of the United States, so we hope you will be able to get outdoors a little bit and soak up some fresh air and sunshine. And maybe in some cases, cook a few hot dogs and hamburgers with your family and friends. To help get you in the spirit of this holiday, please click here for some very inspirational and uplifting music by a nationally renowned performing group known as the “Voices of Liberty”. Enjoy!
So, as I mentioned in my message to you over the last few weeks, this coming week is a very exciting one for us at White Star Tours and should be very exciting to all of you as Group Leaders, and also exciting for your Group Members. This coming week we will be sending out our first bus tours since the beginning of the pandemic. One of the Groups is leaving from Michigan and is heading to West Virginia, and the other Group is heading from North Carolina to Ohio. The level of excitement is at a peak for all of us to know that we are finally having so many of our good friends and customers get back on the road to enjoy our beautiful country. Next week, I will give you a summary of how these first few Groups enjoyed their trips and some other innovative ways that so many destinations have adjusted to make the trips even more enjoyable during this “new normal”.
I did want to mention a couple things to share with your Group regarding your upcoming trips with our White Star Tours Company. As you recall in past weeks, I told you that the hotels, restaurants, and entertainment venues have all fully figured out how to handle the Groups in the safest possible way. The one part of your trip that was not fully decided upon recently is how the Bus Companies will be handling all the Groups. We have gotten more clarity from almost every Bus Company and we are happy to share with you the precautions and the procedures that are being employed by the Bus Companies, in answer to the concerns regarding the Coronavirus:
- Almost every bus company has built a plexiglass separation directly behind the Drivers.
- Most bus companies have purchased a “fogger”, which is a new device that spreads a mist throughout the entire bus and kills all germs for a period of 28 days.
- On a daily basis, the Drivers will have a special spray which will be used throughout the trip to sanitize the bus on a regular basis.
- The Drivers will be equipped with a solution that they will be wiping on any “touch points” throughout the bus several times a day.
- Most Bus Companies have installed a whole new filtration system which purifies the air being circulated on the bus as effectively as what we find on airlines.
- Most bus companies will also have UV Lighting which is still an extra precaution to further zap away any remaining germs which may be present.
So, as you can see, the precautions are very impressive and should give us all tremendous confidence that our trips will go on safely and will be enjoyable.
In addition, to answer some questions from Group Leaders, we have created a “Waiver Form” that will be sent to you prior to departure of the trip. You will have every member of your Group sign the Waiver and return it to you before they board the bus on the first day. These forms ask your fellow travelers to vow that they have no symptoms of the Coronavirus and have not been near anyone recently who had tested positive. It also states that, in the unlikely event any of them become ill during or after the trip, that you as the Group Leader and White Star as the Tour Company will have absolutely no liability. Please note that this will be the standard form that virtually every Group that travels anywhere in our country will be signing as a way to protect you, the Group Leader.
So, I hope I was able to give you some more pertinent answers to your many questions and also give you even more confidence to get your Group traveling once again. Maybe you want to share a couple sayings regarding travel with your Group such as: “TO TRAVEL, IS TO LIVE.” AND “WITH AGE, COMES WISDOM, WITH TRAVEL COMES UNDERSTANDING.”
That is all for this week my friends and, again, I wish you a beautiful FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND CELEBRATION. We continue to pray that you stay safe and healthy and may God bless you all.