Dos gadgets do Concorde aos menus pan-americanos, chega a Turim a nova sala do Museu do Turismo, onde se pode viajar pela história da aviação civil, destacando o empenho e o valor profissional dos agentes de viagens de ontem e de hoje. Eis uma viagem no tempo, para descobrir o passado glorioso da aviação civil: é a mais recente proposta do Lab Travel Group, operador do setor da distribuição turística, que conta com a colaboração de mais de 150 agentes de viagens em todo o país .
Lab Travel Group has chosen to join the Museum of Tourism by creating a room dedicated to the history of airlines in its branch in Turin, via del Carmine.
The Museum of Tourism is a non-profit initiative created by the Spaniard Alberto Bosque Coello which aims to promote the history of tourism all over the world. Italy is one of the 7 countries that host the nearly 100 thematic rooms full of objects, including brochures, gadgets, postcards, stamps, tickets and souvenirs collected by individuals on their travels.
The new room, number 73, is open to the public upon reservation and was set up by Rita La Torre and Paolo Destefanis, travel agents of the Lab Travel Group and direct witnesses of the revolution generated by the internet in the air transport sector, which culminated with the advent of new automated systems for the distribution and calculation of tariffs and the success of the low-cost model.
The result is a path dedicated to nostalgic travelers, but also to younger tourism enthusiasts among memorabilia, anecdotes and vintage objects with a timeless charm, such as the bottle opener as a tribute to the passengers of the Concorde that flew between Paris and New York in the 1980s, featuring a stylized shape inspired by the profile of Concorde itself and the Eiffel Tower.
And again, copies of Pan Am’s First Class menus, models of past aircraft, briefcases and travel kits. Also noteworthy is the section dedicated to timetable booklets, simply unimaginable for digital natives, which also includes a rare example of the official timetable of all the companies in the world, grouped into two large books, updated and sent to travel agencies every 3 months .
Museum of Tourism, Concorde memorabilia
Among the most curious thematic itineraries, a mention certainly goes to the one centered on the history of the ticket office. Inside the hall you can find tickets of all types and the manuals of the various companies for calculating fares based on miles.
Prior to the 1980s, it would take an experienced travel agent about fifteen minutes to calculate the fare for a direct Milan – New York flight, but it could take up to an hour for more complex routes involving one or more stopovers.
Once the amount was calculated and availability checked, the ticket was issued with special machines, which the authorized agencies received directly from IATA (International Air Transport Association) to then be labeled with a labeling machine which affixed the logo of the agency and airline logo, making it valid for boarding.
With the advent of the first automatisms based on the GDS (Global Distribution System), in the 1980s the way of issuing tickets changed completely: the exhibition traces this evolution up to today’s “E-tickets”.
Paolo Destefanis, travel agent of Lab Travel Group and curator of the Room, declares: «This room is the result of a great work of recovery of historical memory and offers a complete retrospective on the evolution of airlines and, consequently, of the work of agents of travel during the twentieth century.
Many of the objects on display are personal memorabilia of Lab Travel Group colleagues, but we also made use of the collaboration of other travel agents and former employees of the same companies, who opened their archives for us (a special thanks goes in this sense to Mr. Mimmo Cristofaro, owner of the Contur Srl agency) and loyal and historical customers, who wanted to share their travel memories.
In line with the philosophy that animates the Museum of Tourism, we intend to keep alive the past of a profession that has profoundly changed following technological evolution, so that both enthusiasts and professionals today can understand the commitment and value that has always characterized the profession of the travel agent».
To visit the room, simply make an appointment at the Lab Travel Group branch in via del Carmine 28 in Turin.
