Watchtower Travel Agency ???

by 4thgen 16 Replies latest jw friends

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  sir82

  For the international conventions that US delegates are invited to, they are completely on their own as far as making travel arrangements.

  However, there is a list of "approved" hotels. Delegates must stay at one of the approved hotels, and must stay for a fixed minimum / maximum number of nights (I don't recall the exact details now - I think it is something like a minimum of 5 nights and a maximum of 9 or something like that).

  I've seen some of the prices of the hotels. They ain't cheap! The ones I recall are well north of $200 per night.
• 

  Julia Orwell

  I went to Myanmar for an international in 2009 and it was through Watchtower Travel. They made all the arrangements and chartered a local tour company in Myanmar to take about 100 jws around the country after the convention. We weren't allowed to make our own prep and join up with the tour later, we had to book the whole package and it was unbelievably expensive.
• 

  Da.Furious

  My understanding is that for this year, maybe only for UK, everyone arranges his travel personally except for Hotel; you have to book (directly not via Branch) the preselected hotel by the society.

  Previous to this, the international conventions were part of a package that was offered by the society. I presume this has caused too much admin and complaints of expensive packages.

  Now they get commission from Hotel bookings without any admin resources - sounds profitable!

  And as always, donate for the the free buses/coaches at the assembly.
• 

  skin

  From the above replys it would appear that different international conventions have been arranged differently. The only one ive been too held early last year was fully planned via w t Which you had to pay the wt for yourself. In fact we were told that NO private arrangements to attend was allowed due to numbers .
• 

  darkspilver

  Greetings!

  well i've had better apologies, though still not sure if that was one?....

  that's all folks!

  DarK SpilveR
• 

  sir82

  it would appear that different international conventions have been arranged differently.

  Yes definitely a change.

  I went to a few internationals many years back, and the whole shebang, outgoing flight to return flight and everything in-between, was taken care of by a company contractd by the WTS.

  As others have noted above, with the current arrangements, the Society reduces administrative headaches and still gets decent perks (free rooms for the bigshots).
• 

  4thgen

  Gosh, it seems like they got their hand in every pot that is profitable!