In memoriam...
Funeral services will be at noon on Feb. 2 at the Larchmont Avenue Presbyterian Church, 60 Forest Park Avenue in Larchmont, N.Y.
Donations in memory of Abels can be made to Best Friends Animal Society (www.bestfriends.org), Friends of Animals (www.friendsofanimals.org) or Tree House Animal Foundation (www.treehouseanimals.org).
Joel M. Abels, editor
and publisher of Travel Trade, died Jan. 26 at Sound Shore Medical
Center, New Rochelle, N.Y., after a prolonged illness. He was 80.
Together with his wife, Lenore, Abels
edited and published Travel Trade for some five
decades.
Abels was inducted into ASTA's Travel
Hall of Fame in 2001, and in offering its condolences to his family
and friends, ASTA called Abels an "outspoken advocate of the travel
agency industry." He also was inducted into the Cruise Lines
International Association's industry Hall of
Fame.
On its Web site, Travel Trade wrote
that "Abels was a pioneer in the cruise industry, educating travel
agents about the opportunities they had in cruise sales through the
industry's pre-eminent conferences, the CRUISE-A-THON and Leisure
Travel/Home Based/Winter CRUISE-A-THON, which have attracted more
than 3,000 travel agents and industry executives annually for the
past 25 years."
In a statement, CLIA said it was
"extremely saddened by the death of Joel
Abels."
"The travel agency community has lost
one of its greatest advocates," said Terry Dale, president and CEO
of CLIA. "No single person in the travel industry has worked
harder, longer and with such an unwavering commitment to travel
agents than Joel. He spent his long and productive career ensuring
that retailers particularly smaller agents who might not otherwise
have found a voice received the respect and dignity they deserved.
... Joel will be sorely missed."
To contact the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail
to Johanna Jainchill at [email protected].