Best Holiday Lettings

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  • The Sultanate of Oman major new development openings in 2013/2014

    Oman expects to open several new hotels and complexes with greater than 2,000 resort and hotel rooms to be added in 2013. Oman’s Capital City Muscat will see the vast majority of growth with over 720 new rooms, with remainder spread evenly around the country. New hotel openings in 2013 include the Fraser Place Sohar that’s currently on target to open afterward in 2013 and the Azaiba Hotel, Muscat, an $80 million 5* project that’s expected to be operational by mid-2013.
    The Sultanate’s expanding hotel portfolio will soon include Four Seasons, Banyan Tree Hotels and Hotel Missoni in Muscat’s Jebel Sifah project. Omran (the Sultanate’s leading tourism-related development, hospitality management and investment company) has recently announced that it has passed the 60% construction mark of its 2,000 metre hilltop luxury project, the Alila Jabal Akhdar Resort, set to open its doors in December 2013 and the 110-room Khasab Hotel in Musandam is likewise set to open towards the top of 2013.

    These developments are along with boutique hotels that opened in 2012 including the 5* Juweira Boutique Hotel, Salalah Beach, The View and Sahab Hotel inside the Jebel Akhdar mountain range and the Jebel Sifah boutique hotel near Muscat. Following the Sultanate’s sustainable tourism model, Omran recently completed the installation and furnishing of ten eco-friendly luxury tents at Ras Al Jinz Turtle Reserve. The rise in accommodation availability also included the completion of an 800 metre walkway that allows visitors to head from the reserve’s Scientific and Visitor Centre to the tents’ picturesque location
    The Duqm City Hotel a 117 room business hotel equipped with comfortable rooms and business amenities opened its doors on the end of 2012 catering for business travellers seeking affordable and contemporary Omani hospitality at the side of the 4 Star, 200 room Duqm Crowne Plaza both ideally located from which to go to the Duqm Rock Gardens.

    Developments across the Sultanate include a 20-room and 12-villa Cheval Blanc Resort on Sodah Island with private beaches for every unit and a brand new Crowne Plaza within the Oman Convention & Exhibition Centre precinct both attributable to be completed by the top of 2015.

    The Oman Convention & Exhibition Centre, due for completion on the end of 2015, is determined to become an iconic landmark for Muscat and the Sultanate of Oman. Surrounded by nature it overlooks a wadi that could be a haven for Oman’s exotic bird life. The arena-class facility is ideally fitted to host international, regional and national conventions, exhibitions and business events. Amongst its features can be a tiered auditorium seating 3,200 people and greater than 22,000 square metres of exhibition space

  • UNWTO reveals steady increase in global tourism spending

    Receipts from international tourism in destinations world wide grew by four per cent in 2012, reaching US$1,075 billion, figures from the UNWTO reveal.

    This growth is the same as the four per cent increase in international tourist arrivals, which reached 1,035 million in 2012.

    An additional US$ 219 billion was recorded in receipts from international passenger transport, bringing total exports generated by international tourism in 2012 to US$1.3 trillion.

    According to the newest UNWTO World Tourism Barometer, international tourism receipts hit a brand new record in 2012, reaching an estimated US$1,075 billion worldwide, up four per cent in real terms, from US$ 1042 billion in 2011.

    “It is encouraging to peer that the expansion in international tourist arrivals was equalled by a comparable increase in spending even with continued economic challenges” said UNWTO secretary general, Taleb Rifai.

    “Considering that tourism is a key export for plenty of economies all over the world, this result’s excellent news because it provides foreign reserves to destinations, and contributes to job creation in tourism in addition to in related economic sectors,” he added.

    By regions, the Americas (up seven per cent) recorded the most important increase in receipts, followed by Asia and the Pacific (up six per cent), Africa (up five per cent) and Europe (up two per cent).

    Receipts inside the Middle East were still down (down per cent); yet report a gradual improvement in comparison with the decline recorded in 2011.

    In absolute values, Europe saw US$ 457 billion in tourism earnings, similar to 43 per cent of the world’s total tourism receipts, the biggest share by region.

    The top ten ranking of destinations by receipts remained virtually unchanged in 2012, with the usa, Spain, France, China and Italy leading, followed by Macau (China), Germany, Uk, Hong Kong (China) and Australia.

  • Focus: World Travel Awards to celebrate South America Gala Ceremony in Lima

    World Travel Awards has confirmed the host for its annual South America Gala Ceremony would be Lima, Peru.

    Regarded because the premier global awards ceremony programme for the travel, tourism and hospitality industry, the arena Travel Awards Gala Ceremony will see entrants from across South America competing in over 35 categories.

    Delegates will gather in Lima at an iconic Huaca Temple on July 20th 2013 for the ceremony.

    Peruvian minister of foreign trade and tourism, Jose Luis Silva, said: “Peru welcomes the regional competition of the area Travel Awards, which now celebrates its 20th anniversary.

    “For us it’s a great honour to host this Gala with a purpose to let us show the arena what our country has to provide.

    “Not only as a destination rich in history or with a beautiful cuisine, but as a spot that lives as much as the large cities that frequently host events reminiscent of this.

    “Once again, Peru is within the eyes of the area, especially the tourism sector, providing us with invaluable exposure to the regional level.”

    World Travel Awards was established in 1993 to recognize, reward and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the tourism industry.

    Today, the WTA brand is recognised globally because the ultimate hallmark of quality, with winners setting the benchmark to which all others aspire.

    In 2013, WTA will celebrate its historic 20th anniversary year.

    In 2011, 791,358 individual votes were cast by travel professionals and consumers in 171 countries.

    Each year WTA covers the globe with a sequence of regional gala ceremonies staged to recognise and celebrate individual and collective successes within each key nation-state.

    Chris Frost, World Travel Awards vp, added: “As we celebrate the 20 th year of the realm Travel Awards, it’s our mission to locate and include countries which would like to present themselves on a world platform to the remainder of the arena.

    “We offer an unrivalled opportunity for showcasing this diverse country, and are delighted that PromPeru has honoured us with a spectacular venue, an instrinsic portion of the Peruvian tourism landscape, by hosting the Awards at an historic huaca temple in Lima.”

    Take a glance on the official website for additional info.

  • News: Small Luxury Hotels emphasises importance of mobile channel

    Small Luxury Hotels of the arena has revealed how significant the mobile economy is to the luxurious travel industry with its latest data on global browsing and booking trends through its website.

    Tech gurus hyped 2012 because the year of the mobile boom and the newest figures from the posh hotel brand really highlight the growing ubiquity of handheld devices over 12 months by comparing visits and bookings at the site by iPad, iPhone and Android handsets.

    The year on year analysis for SLH’s online activity for January, traditionally one of the vital popular booking months, not just reinforces the growing trend for mobile browsing and booking, but additionally underpins the growing demand for luxury travel inside the emerging markets, which saw the best percentage increase of traffic to slh.com.

    In January 2013, SLH website hits in China were up by 406 per cent year on year; Brazil saw a rise of 104 per cent, followed by Russia with a more moderate 22 per cent increase.

    The UK saw an incredibly positive increase, up 15 per cent, while in step with expectations other more developed travel markets along with america and Germany saw slight increases of 1 per cent and 4 per cent respectively, when compared with the identical month the former year.

    In terms of website visits by mobile devices, the developed economies saw the foremost significant growth.

    The iPad remains to be the most well liked handset for searching hotels on slh.com, with iPad visits from the united kingdom recording the most important share of total website visits at 22 per cent in January 2013, up 108 per cent year on year, followed by Canada (19 per cent), France (17 per cent) and Germany (16 per cent).

    Website visits by iPhone were also marginally up year on year with the Canadian and Chinese markets both seeing essentially the mostsome of the most significant jump, recording a 193 per cent and 105 per cent increase in iPhone traffic to slh.com.

    Android visits were also up in most markets, even though it still represents a terribly small proportion of the complete volume of website visits, suggesting there’s untapped potential for more mobile-friendly content.

    The mobile technology market inside the UK continues to surge and accounts for an increasing amount of the complete online search volume for accommodation.

    In January 2013, 30 per cent of visits to slh.com from the united kingdom were from a mobile device, when compared with 18 per cent in 2012, representing a 50 per cent increase year on year.

    This data mirrors a nationwide technology trend for the travel industry consistent with the result of a Google UK survey revealing that in the third quarter of 2012, 33 per cent of all online searches for accommodation were from a mobile device, a pointy increase from a similar quarter in 2011 when mobile accounted for just five per cent of searches.

    These results don’t come as much surprise on the grounds that the united kingdom has one of the vital highest penetrations of smartphones on the planet in step with Ofcom.

    As of December 2012, 58 per cent of the population has a smartphone and almost a fifth (19 per cent) owns a tablet.

    The iPhone is the most well liked device capturing 29 per cent of the united kingdom smartphone market.

    Meanwhile, the share of website visitors making bookings on slh.com across all mobile platforms remains fairly low worldwide, although the conversion rate is growing.

    Over 14 per cent of all bookings inside the last two quarters of 2012 were made by iPad, iPhone and Android, up from seven per cent around the same period in 2011.

    China and Russia saw an extremely large increase in year on year bookings by iPad, with the iPad accounting for twenty-four per cent (in comparison to zero per cent in 2012) and 15 per cent (up 700 per cent) of total bookings respectively.

    The steady rise of the iPad fan club within the UK continues with 18 per cent of SLH hotel stays booked via iPad in January 2013, up from seven per cent in January 2012.

    The selection of bookings made by iPhone and Android remains very small, apart from the world’s leader in technology, Japan, where seven per cent of all bookings via slh.com were made by iPhone.

    Could these technology champions be paving the way in which for smartphone luxury accommodation bookings within the future

  • WTTC recognises growing importance of LGBT tourism

    The lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender sector is creating a dynamic and influential contribution to the worldwide tourism industry, based on World Travel & Tourism Council president David Scowsill.

    Addressing the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association, Scowsill explained the LGBT market within the U.s. alone is estimated to be over US $55 billion and around US$165 billion globally.

    Significantly, the LGBT sector is growing faster than the wider tourism economy, growing by almost ten per cent in 2012 year-on-year, against global growth of the industry of around three per cent.

    Scowsill explained: “This is because travel is a life-style for many people on this world, whatever their sexuality. 

    “Even inside the toughest times, it is still a concern for populations worldwide.

    “Travel drives economies and creates jobs. 

    “Even in challenging economic times, it still has the capability to grow, as consumer appetite for travel beyond national borders remains undimmed.”

    Despite the upper growth among LGBT travellers and the undeniable fact that the arena is viewed by marketers, tour operators, product development specialists and advertisers as a gap market, the sphere faces the similar challenges because the remainder of the industry – restrictions on personal movement, high taxes and the long-term sustainability of the industry.

    These are the 3 strategic priorities that underpin the work of WTTC because it seeks to realize global understanding of the commercial and social contribution of an industry which represents nine per cent of worldwide GDP and supports one in 11 of all jobs on the earth.