Category: News

  • Corinthia Hotels challenges global managers to satisfy health and safety standards

    Corinthia Hotels is pioneering a brand new solution to monitoring and maintaining health and safety standards around the board. The hotel group is operating with health and safety experts Check Safety First to implement a risk management system at 10 of its luxury hotels worldwide, recognising its teams globally for meeting the necessary standards of hygiene as a part of its business strategy. General Managers around the company might be regularly assessed on their ability to keep these standards to deliver the handiest service to guests.

    Corinthia Hotels worldwide were using Check Safety First’s complete E-Cristal auditing system to preserve the top levels of hygiene. Following the success of the system on the group’s London hotel, its complete module package have been rolled out in Budapest, Khartoum, Lisbon, Prague Tripoli and St Petersburg.

    E-Cristal is an electronic risk management system that gathers and records hygiene data while alerting managers to points of weakness. The package includes Foodcheck, Roomcheck, Firecheck, Safetycheck and Aquacheck. It gives managers 24/7 control across all properties and was developed according to guidelines from the realm Health Organisation.

    Liam Lambert, Chief Operating Officer for Corinthia Hotels, said: “Attention to detail is the important thing to providing guests with a luxury experience. Our partnership with Check Safety First will make sure that first-class hygiene standards are the concern in all our hotels. We’re using health and safety to measure the power of our General Managers and their teams to deliver the best standard of quality service to guests. We’re reminding all colleagues to simply expect what you inspect and don’t expect what you don’t inspect.”

    Mark Harrington, CEO of Check Safety First said: “This new signing with Corinthia means we’re now working worldwide to enhance the standard of hotels for holidaymakers. The great thing about the answer is that it may be read and translated in nine different languages which implies it is usually used anywhere.”

  • News: Norwegian Cruise Line announces “Breakaway Water Project”

    With lower than a month to move until Norwegian Breakaway’s UK inaugural event on 29 April this year, Norwegian Cruise Line has revealed a brand new fundraising partnership with international water aid charity, Only a Drop.

    Anchored across the inaugural launch in Southampton, Norwegian has committed to a “Breakaway Water Project”, raising money to assist bring clean water to a village in Africa. Launched in 1998 as a global water aid charity, Only a Drop aims to scale back child mortality caused through poor sanitation and hazardous water by working with local communities to offer local, clean water supplies. Only a Drop was founded by former World Travel Market Chairman Fiona Jeffery OBE who, on learning that just £1 can deliver clean water to a kid for as much as 10 years, sought to encourage everyone to offer a touch so as to make a serious difference.

    As portion of the their commitment to the charity, Norwegian Cruise Line will donate £1 for each agent attending the inaugural –  an expected 3,000-plus – in addition to host a Only a Drop stand at the day, drive donations through collateral and donate all “no-show” fees charged for any unexplained absentees. Both founder Fiona Jeffrey and multi-medal winning former Olympic swimmer Chris Cook (Schools Ambassador for only a Drop), should be attending the united kingdom launch celebrations.

    Francis Riley, Vice chairman and General Manager International Norwegian Cruise Line says, “Our strong connection to water makes Only a Drop a natural partner for the united kingdom launch of Norwegian Breakaway which, in itself, was designed to truly deal with the sea around it. We’re proud to champion safe water; it truly is incredibly humbling to understand that though this activity we are able to prevent the unnecessary dying somewhere on this planet, and we’re calling for donations – however large or small.”

    Chris Cook, Schools Ambassador for only a Drop says, “Just a Drop is thrilled to be working with Norwegian Cruise Line at the Breakaway Water Project. As an envoy for the charity, I passionately believe that everybody must have the proper to access clean and safe water, but as everyone knows there are still vast parts of our world where accessing safe water supplies is an everyday struggle. Norwegian Breakaway’s support will thereby help to enhance the lives of a few of the world’s poorest communities through raising awareness and funds. We glance forward to announcing the result of their fundraising efforts later this year.”

  • A Welcome boost for Welsh Tourism

    The promotion of Welsh tourism is under the remit of the Welsh Government. However, this week, Welsh Conservatives have called for the promotion of tourism in the principality to be put under the control of the tourist industry, suggesting that “Visit Wales” should be an independent body led by people who are at the sharp end of the tourist industry themselves. “Visit Wales”, set up by the Welsh Government in 2006, after the closure of the Welsh Tourist Board, has had some success but Welsh Conservatives have criticised its risk-adverse nature and say it is stifled by bureaucracy. Improvements had been noted after the appointment of a panel of tourism experts and Conservatives feel that these people and others like them should be “running it for themselves”

    In the meantime, tourism figures for Wales have shown a huge rise in the number of people visiting Wales for barge and boating holidays or visiting on cruise ships. There has been a marked  increase in the number of cruise ships docking in Holyhead and in ports on Anglesey, bringing extra money into the local areas.

     

  • News: Travelocity announces best days to fly for Memorial Day weekend

    With Memorial Day travel top of mind for travelers, Travelocity today announced the most effective days to fly for the vacation. Travelocity data shows that travelers trying to find a bargain getaway will find savings of as much as $191 in the event that they depart the week leading as much as Memorial Day and return on Saturday, May 25, while travelers extending their trips past Memorial Day will see a fare increase.

    Travelers looking to travel for the vacation weekend only, departing Friday, May 24 and returning Monday, May 27, can expect to spend an ordinary of $350 for a round trip domestic flight.

    “When it involves Memorial Day travel, it’s best to go looking to your flights using flexible dates and multiple airports,” said Courtney Scott, senior editor for Travelocity. “Be certain to book sooner instead of later, as with every holiday, prices will continue to extend as Memorial Day approaches. Book now, and be strategic concerning the days you fly to get probably the most bang to your buck.”

  • lowcostbeds ventures into the center East

    Rated a few of the top 10 independent bed banks globally, Swiss – based lowcostbeds, has announced its foray into the center East. Targeting the lucrative inbound and outbound markets from the region, the corporate has officially appointed Discover the sector Marketing as their exclusive representative within the region and is calling to enroll with prominent regional and international travel agents.

    Mr Paul Riches, Group Director of Sales, lowcostravelgroup, said, “We are confident we’re hitting the perfect market as both inbound and outbound business inside the region is showing a healthy increase. We’re absolutely delighted to be working with Discover the area Marketing. They have got a proven track record in working closely with the travel trade and we don’t have any doubt they may be the appropriate partner for us to grow our ME business.

    We offer an in depth range of hotels around the globe, coupled with leading technology, so we’re very fascinated by the prospects the center East market has to supply us. As a trade only brand, lowcostbeds boasts an amazing portfolio of hotels across Europe, the Far East and USA, besides other regions that Middle East outbound travellers traditionally like.”

    Commenting at the appointment, Discover the realm CEO, Jenny Adams said, “Discover the realm Marketing is terribly desirous about our strategic partnership with lowcostbeds. We’re wanting to use our vast experience with the local ME travel market to introduce the trade to lowcostbeds. With their vast hotel inventory and engaging commercial terms, lowcostbeds is the proper solution for today’s travel trade.”

    The experienced Discover sales team shall be visiting travel agents and attending various trade shows during the region over the arrival months, providing support and advice on a variety of lowcostbeds related issues including agent registration, site navigation tips, commercial terms, product updates, and exclusive travel agent offers. Ms Sarah Marron, Sales Director, Discover the sector Marketing, said, “Our strategy with lowcostbeds is to work with the network of regional travel players to ensure that them to provide our excellent range of hotels, from leisure resorts to city breaks and from budget to five-star luxury.”

    The team of Directors from lowcostbeds could be present in the course of the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) to satisfy travel trade professionals and agencies, including its Commercial Director Patricia Rossello – Evans.

    Mr Riches added, “ATM is the leading travel and tourism exhibition and offers us the proper opportunity to introduce and position Lowcostbeds. We’re extremely desirous about the show and searching forward to being there. Patricia can also be attending, as a way to meet with the local hoteliers who we’re already working with within the region and to source new hotels, so as to add to our GCC product portfolio.’

    Offering an international inventory of 150,000 hotels in over 4000 resorts and cities, lowcostbeds is the correct partner for travel agencies. Mr Riches continued, “Travel agents are always in quest of good rates and, a growing number of relevant hotel inventory. In the interim we’re working with over 20,000 travel agencies and native buyers worldwide and our objective is to grow that considerably.”

    The Middle East is likely one of the fastest growing regions in relation to tourism with outbound travel quadrupling within the last two decades. The arena Tourism Organisation estimates that a further two million Arabs will travel abroad inside the next two decades, taking its total of outbound tourists to 37 million, spending an estimated $20 billion and accounting for two.2% of world outbound travel, an increase of 0.7%.

    Riches concluded, ‘In the following 2 to three years the corporate is calling to grow its annual turnover to over £1bn USD. Today nearly all of our business is generated from the united kingdom. Our objective now could be to extend our business from other parts of the arena, to become a really global hotel provider. Our launch into the center East market is a key component to that strategy.

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