Best Holiday Lettings

Category: Holidays

  • ITB Berlin 2013: Cape Town Tourism within the spotlight at ITB

    December 2012 marked the only billionth international tourism arrival globally and competition between destinations is more fierce than ever. Staying relevant by maintaining with future trends is a key focus at this year’s ITB tourism trade event in Berlin, set to attract some 170,000 visitors between March 6-10, 2013. As in previous years, Cape Town Tourism and Wesgro are representing the region’s tourism industry at ITB.

    As portion of ITB’s strong specialize in etravel, Cape Town Tourism CEO, Mariette du Toit-Helmbold (pictured), is presenting a conversation called “How Tourism Boards Work With Social Media, Local Citizens And Travel Bloggers To inform The tale Of A Destination” on March 9.

    The talk follows a year where Cape Town Tourism caught the notice of world tourism trend watchers through its #LoveCapeTown social media campaign. The campaign included an iambassador campaign that saw the DMO bringing respected international bloggers to Cape Town to experience the destination first hand. The main factor that differentiated the campaign is that Cape Town’s twitter community felt a swelling of pride about their town and engaged heavily with the visiting e-journos about what to do and spot during their stay.

    The #loveCapeTown program has since been included in a White Paper on travel blogging and used for example internationally on how DMOs can work with travel bloggers. Plans are afoot to continue the #loveCapeTown campaign during 2013, at the side of South African Tourism and a set of international and native bloggers. Most significantly the tag is now component of the social media lingua franca when regarding Cape Town.

    In addition to the strong take care of social media and digital marketing, Cape Town Tourism is (along side Blue Yonder, India) a co-partner of ITB’s Responsible Tourism program and could feature as a part of their CSR day program on March 7. Up for discussion may be the need for tourist interactions with local communities and problems surrounding water shortages and rising energy costs.

    Councillor Grant Pascoe, Mayoral Committee Member for Tourism, Events and Marketing on the City of Cape Town, says: “The City of Cape Town is driving responsible tourism with the support of industry players like Cape Town Tourism. The purpose is to go from pockets of excellence to a complete destination approach.

    “This means the adaption of RT principles as a core way of doing business – not just by a specific group of responsible operators but by the complete tourism industry. The Responsible Tourism Pilot Project is an example of the way the responsible tourism principles were adopted on a large scale by the industry.” Added Grant.

    Speaking at the broader objectives in their visit to ITB, Du Toit-Helmbold said: “Our key challenge within the industry is to stimulate jobs and investment by eliminating barriers to travel reminiscent of visa restrictions, taxation, and outmoded infrastructure systems. i’m confident that these issues shall be addressed at Europe’s premier travel trade fair – ITB Berlin. It’s the key place to be told about new trends, market developments, and to deepen existing business relations.”

  • VisitEngland teams with Blacks for brand new campaign

    VisitEngland and outdoor specialists Blacks have announced a thrilling partnership to advertise outdoor breaks in rural England.

    Domestic overnight holiday trips to rural locations in England were worth £2.2bn in 2011, with day trips contributing one more £8.7 billion.

    To boost rural tourism this year, the national tourist board and Blacks have today launched a £1.2million multimedia campaign, geared toward inspiring Britons to explore England’s breath-taking countryside with a brief break within the great outdoors.

    The campaign will run throughout March, ranging from today, with a 30” television advertisement filmed in Cumbria, highlighting the various outdoor activities that may be enjoyed off the beaten track in England’s countryside – including walking, camping, trail and fell running, and wild swimming.

    Consumers are encouraged to go to www.blacks.co.uk/visitengland, where they may be able to enter a contest to win an incredible adventure break in Cumbria.

    The website also contains destination details about the filming locations, and advice on learn how to become involved in outdoor pursuits around the country.

    James Berresford, VisitEngland’s chief executive, commented: “England’s stunning countryside is a big draw for visitors from both home and abroad, and gives experiences to be found nowhere else on the planet!

    “We’re delighted to be working with Blacks in this campaign, which showcases England’s dramatic landscapes to inspire Britons to explore what’s on their lonesome doorstep with a thrilling outdoor break.”

  • Andy Murray serves up a lift for his home town with new luxury hotel venture

    It was confirmed today that the usa Open and Olympic champion has acquired Cromlix House Hotel, with reference to Dunblane. His plans to remodel the elegant Victorian mansion right into a 15-room five star destination will create as much as 40 new jobs for the area people and generate significant custom for other businesses nearby.

    Following extensive refurbishment, the Perthshire hotel is scheduled to re-open next spring, previous to the 2014 Ryder Cup, that is being staged a quick drive away at Gleneagles.

    Commenting on his new venture, Andy said: “I am pleased to have acquired Cromlix House and stay up for securing its future as a successful business.

    “By re-establishing Cromlix as a number one luxury hotel on the heart of the Dunblane community we can attract new visitors to the world, create numerous new jobs and concentrate on supporting other local businesses. I’m pleased so that they can give something back to the community I grew up in.”

    The hotel would be managed on behalf of Andy by Inverlochy Castle Management International (ICMI), who already manage eight other renowned independent properties around Scotland, including Inverlochy Castle, near Fort William, Greywalls Hotel in Gullane and The Atholl, in Edinburgh. ICMI’s group of industry experts includes Albert Roux OBE, KFO, owner of Le Gavroche in London, the 1st UK restaurant to be awarded thee Michelin stars.

    The refurbished Cromlix House will boast a Chez Roux restaurant offering fine dining using locally sourced produce. With Chez Roux’s very cost-effective menu Andy hopes to draw diners from the Dunblane and Stirling area, as achieved by the logo elsewhere in Scotland.

    Previous owners, the Eden family, who ran the hotel for greater than 30 years said they were delighted the venue was staying in local hands after completing its sale to the tennis champion. a well-liked wedding venue through the years, Andy’s brother Jamie married his Colombian wife Alejandra Gutierrez there in 2010.

    Situated in beautiful countryside, lower than five miles from Dunblane, Cromlix Home is set in 50 acres of secluded woodlands and garden, with a good looking trout loch. The hotel currently has 14 bedroom suites, a chapel, reception hall, two drawing rooms, conservatory, dining room, library and meeting rooms.

  • Brits on holiday throw caution to the wind

    Following the outbreak of violence at the island of Borneo a brand new poll from Holiday Extras recently asked customers whether or not they could be do away with by an adverse piece of stories coverage at their chosen holiday destination.

    And the survey revealed that holidaymakers pay less attention to warnings about their safety than expected.
    While the Foreign Office is advising travellers to stick faraway from Borneo, over a 1/2 intrepid men said that trouble within the sun wouldn’t hinder their travel plans in any respect. Only 34 per cent of fellows said that a significant incident or crime would stop them from holidaying wherever they wanted.

    Women were more cautious, with 51 per cent admitting that bad news a few country or resort can be enough to lead them to change their plans to go to that destination.

    15 per cent of Holiday Extras customers declared that they’d avoid a resort for a year if it were negatively reported inside the news and 43 per cent said that they might avoid a destination for as much as six months.

    There will be no going back for 11 per cent of these polled, who said that they’d never book a vacation at that place once it have been perceived as dangerous.

    Andrea Clayton, Head of Insurance at Holiday Extras commented: “ The result of this poll show how positive British people feel about their travels on the earth – and it is a impressive thing.

    “Keep in mind, wherever you go on holiday and however daring you need to be so that you can always follow advice from the Foreign Office.  Just remember to have adequate travel insurance and don’t underestimate the quilt that you can require wherever you go.

  • Unprecedented 5.7% rise in visitors from UK to Germany

    Destination Germany remains on track for fulfillment, with excellent growth inside the volume of overnight stays by international visitors providing much of the momentum. In 2012 the German Federal Statistical Office recorded in far more than 68.8 million overnight stays by visitors from abroad in accommodation establishments with greater than ten beds, a rise of around 8 per cent at the previous year. “We have exceeded, by a transparent margin, the forecast volume of 400 million overnight stays from Germany and abroad. This emphatically underlines the massive acclaim for Destination Germany, that’s becoming increasingly attractive to people from other countries,” says Ernst Burgbacher, Member of the German Parliament, Parliamentary State Secretary on the Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology and Federal Government Commissioner for SMEs and Tourism.

    Europe and the BRIC countries go from strength to strength

    The German Federal Statistical Office recorded a complete of 68.8 million overnight stays by visitors from abroad in 2012, up 8 per cent at the previous year.  The united kingdom market (visitors from the united kingdom to Germany) alone rose by 5.7%. “The European source markets and the BRIC countries are going from strength to strength they usually have played a primary role on this new record result for inbound tourism in Germany. If the most important source markets continue to accomplish strongly, we shall be on course to pass the 80 million mark in international overnight stays by 2020,” says Petra Hedorfer, Chief Executive Officer of the German National Tourist Board (GNTB). In response to a UNWTO survey, growth in inbound tourism for Destination Germany remains well above the worldwide and European average.