Two organizations have partnered with a local marketing and communications firm to provide special training sessions for thousands of hospitality employees in preparation for Pope Francis’ visit in September.

The Philadelphia International Airport and the Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association will be working with Shapiro Communications in the months leading up to the World Meeting of Families and the papal visit.
PHL Airport
About 900 workers at the airport are undergoing a specially designed papal preparation and religious tourist hospitality program by the communications firm. Training began Monday.
Airport workers, including airline employees, the Transportation Security Administration, concession operators and management team, among others, will be undergoing 90-minute to two-hour sessions for a total of nearly 30 training sessions until the papal visit.

“The program … involves talking about different customer service situations, exercises and role play, trying to understand the traveler’s needs and expectations,” airport CEO Mark Gale said.
“We want to help prepare our staff on the frontline to be sympathetic and provide that level of hospitality that we so much need to provide visitors coming into the city,” Gale added.
Three areas the airport program will touch on are stress, empathy by active listening, and how to gracefully work to resolve challenges without necessarily being able to resolve them, according to Brian Shapiro, president of Shapiro Communications.

Source: http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2015/07/28/airport-hotel-employees-undergoing-special.html