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  • Royal Demeure Hotel Group singlas growth with investment

    Royal Demeure Hotel Group has opened new offices in Belgravia, London, moving its headquarters from Rome and appointing a brand new senior team to steer the Italian luxury hotel group.

    The company’s investment in a London-based headquarters demonstrates its desire and commitment for growth and investment, specializing in boutique luxury hotels.  Because the luxury travel and hospitality industry continues to grow, the Royal Demeure team intends to capitalise in this trend, developing the emblem and future focus and building at the reputation of the famous Hotel d’Inghilterra in Rome whilst also opportunities for future expansion and investment in all the six properties that make up the gang of hotels.

    Part of TDA Capital Ltd, an individual Italian-owned investment company that specialises in luxury hospitality, Royal Demeure is headed up by TDA Capital Group Chief Executive Officer Professor Luigi De Simone Niquesa, who has moved from Rome to be based in London. His newly appointed team includes Group Sales & Marketing Director Greg Ward, Chief Financial Officer Colin Castelino, and Marketing & Communications Manager Charlotte Gray.

    With an intensive and successful career in luxury hospitality, CEO Luigi De Simone Niquesa has held quite a lot of hospitality industry and academic leadership roles including President of the Institute for Tourism Marketing and Research, President of UNICA (Union of Italian Hotel Chains), and Executive Advisor/Council Member of Federalberghi-Confcommercio (the leading association of hotels in Italy).

    Colin Castelino have been appointed as Chief Financial Officer. With a successful career in finance Castelino spent 11 years with Deloittes before joining the Cliveden Group, where he took the company’s luxury hotel and clubs to a whole listing at the London Stock Exchange and eventual successful sale. He has also worked with Pacific Investments Ltd and sooner than TDA Capital Ltd was Financial Director for the ESPA Group.

    Charlotte Gray joins the hotel group as Marketing & Communications Manager. Gray has spent the past eight years with the historic Pall Mall private members’ club, The Royal Automobile Club and Singaporean-owned 5* COMO Hotels & Resorts.

    Greg Ward is the newly appointed Group Sales & Marketing Director and has an intensive international background with an emphasis on luxury sales & marketing.  Ward has held a lot of senior positions with international companies during his 20-year career, including Westin Hotels & Resorts, Rafael Hotels and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. More recently, Ward has frolicked with Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, the von Essen hotel Collection and Clarenco.

    Greg Ward, Group Sales & Marketing Director said: “I’m thrilled to be working for such an iconic group of hotels as Royal Demeure. Situated in cultural capitals like Rome and Florence, each property has many individual qualities, which i glance forward to highlighting for the good thing about travellers trying to find a really memorable luxurious experience, Additionally, with plans for future growth and investment, it’s a particularly exciting time to affix the corporate.”

    CEO Luigi De Simone Niquesa said:  “We have created a dynamic and experienced new team which will lead us in the course of the next stages of our development plans. The experience in luxury customer experiences and robust commercial background that every new team member brings makes them instrumental in developing and shaping the expansion of the hotel group. They join us at a time after we need to strengthen the collection’s positioning in the industry.”

  • Tourism Australia report back to help guide future tourism distribution strategy

    The findings of a comprehensive review of ways Australian tourism product is shipped internationally had been published by Tourism Australia and its state and territory tourism partners.

    The “Distribution 2020: Situational Analysis” report provides industry with an outline of current distribution approaches and potential models for the longer term across Australia’s key holiday markets.

    Tourism Australia Managing Director Andrew McEvoy said the report, compiled with the aid of PricewaterhouseCoopers, was portion of the continued Tourism 2020 work as Australian industry looks to double the worth of overnight tourism to A$140 billion by 2020.

    “It’s a partnership with the states and territories that appears at how persons are planning and booking holidays globally and the way we will influence this for Australia’s benefit.

    “Global tourism is amongst essentially the mostsome of the most competitive and fastest changing industries, heavily influenced by advances in technology and changes in consumer behaviour. We recognise this fact and that’s on the heart of this review to make certain we’re doing our job within the top of the line and effective way possible,” Mr McEvoy said.

    The project involved extensive consumer research and interviews with greater than 60 travel agents, wholesalers, inbound tour operators, online agents and direct sellers.

    One of the most important industry bodies to have provided input for the report was the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC).

    ATEC’s Manager Director, Felicia Mariani, said the project and the following report could be a good tool in assisting the industry to navigate the complex world of distribution in today’s tourism landscape.

    “The report shows that to be effective in today’s world of product distribution, operators need to be engaged with and connected across all of the touch points that buyers use in booking their holiday,” she said.

    Mr McEvoy said that the review has further reinforced the advantages of governments and industry working closely together and speaking with “one voice” when promoting Australia and Australian tourism product to the area.

    “Industry feedback has indicated a robust desire for all levels of presidency to work more collaboratively on the subject of international distribution, that’s certainly something we’re very focused upon,” Mr McEvoy said.

    Some of any other key insights from the report include:

    Clear trend towards increasing digitalisation of the patron purchase cycle with greater planning, booking and sharing happening online;
    Traditional distribution channels remain important. In mature markets the extent of internet use for planning and booking seem to have reached a plateau;
    46% of holiday travellers to Australia are booking some aspect in their trip online sooner than arrival, 54% through traditional channels;
    Price, complexity and level of familiarity are barriers to online booking, though consumers desire to do more online. Consumers are actually using a much broader range of sources

    “The report confirms that the foremost elements of the distribution strategy for Australian tourism product are in place. But whilst, there are opportunities to perform a little things better, including monitoring future ‘game changing’ technologies,” Mr McEvoy said.

    In response to the report, Tourism Australia and its State and Territory tourism partners are actually engaged on an integrated plan of trade activities for Australia’s key international markets. This will likely include a review of existing distribution activities, including trade events and missions, to searching for potential efficiencies and higher value for industry.

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  • News: Getaround launches new iPhone app

    Getaround, the leading peer-to-peer car sharing service, is happy to announce a brand spanking new, fully redesigned iPhone app. The brand new app will make it even easier for Getaround users to share cars with people nearby through just a few new, key features and important improvements to hurry and reliability. The hot app comes as a part of the company’s resolve to make car sharing a widespread and accepted behavior amongst drivers.

    “Since day one, our goal was to empower people to car share everywhere,” said Jessica Scorpio, Founding father of Getaround. “We believe that this app is step one in making car sharing really easy and seamless that that’s truly available to people everywhere. The better we make it to share cars at the go, the earlier we’re going to see real shifts within the way people consider car ownership.”

    Beyond a visible redesign and new API designed to make the app faster and more reliable, the Getaround team has added a couple of key features to this release with plans for plenty more inside the near future. New features include the power to go looking and read cars without signing in, new filter options to locate the suitable car each time, a completely redesigned map view and the flexibility to immediately rent cars in only about a taps.

    “Beyond a visible redesign and new API designed to make the app faster and more reliable, the Getaround team has added some key features to this release with plans for lots of more within the near future. New features include the power to go looking and read cars without signing in, new filter options find the perfect car whenever, a completely redesigned map view and the power to immediately rent cars in barely a couple of taps.”

    To celebrate the brand new app, two Getaround owners have listed their 2012 Tesla Model S’ at the site. Two of only 3,000 produced last year, these cars are a terrific way for Getaround users to experience the recent app and the way forward for car sharing.

    Getaround’s goal is straightforward: with nearly a thousand million cars at the road internationally, the corporate is maximizing what already exists. Getaround gives people a raffle to share their cars with others nearby, ultimately offsetting the price of car ownership for owners, and giving renters a convenient method to rent a car in their choice near to home for a cheap price.

    Following Getaround’s launch in San Francisco in May 2011, the corporate has seen dramatic growth including launching in four additional cities, greater than quadrupling the employees and raising $14 million in Series A funding.

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  • News: CEO of Qatar Airways to take part in World Routes Strategy Summit

    Today saw the official launch of the 19th World Route Development Forum in order to turn up on October 5-8, 2013 co-hosted by Las Vegas Convention&Visitors Authority (LVCVA) and Las Vegas McCarran International Airport.

    World Routes is the most important and most vital commercial aviation networking forum of its kind, and 2013 will see Routes head to the usa for the primary time ever when the development happens inside the entertainment capital of the arena, Las Vegas, Nevada. Tourism is the #1 industry in Las Vegas, with record visitation of nearly 40 million visitors last year, and town may be a thriving business destination hosting greater than 21,000 annual meetings and trade shows with almost 5 million attendees in 2012.

    The event attracts all manner of airlines with low-cost, charter, regional, and flag carriers all in attendance and represented by delegates who’re liable for making decisions on both new and existing routes. Early registrations indicate a powerful presence from all regions with greater than 100 carriers already registered to wait, including Air Canada, British Airways, AirAsia X, easyJet, UPS, Delta Air Lines, Southwest, Emirates, Allegiant, Etihad, COPA Airlines, Virgin America, Volaris, and American Airlines.

    This year’s event will see quite a few content streams running through the four days, including the realm Routes Strategy Summit, held in partnership with ICAO and the sector Bank; the arena Tourism Summit, held in partnership with the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), the International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP), and TTG; Invest and Manage; and a program of social media briefings.

    The summits assemble senior leaders and key stakeholders from aviation, tourism, and load to take part in discussions for you to set the economic and political agenda for the industry. The events attract airline and airport CEOs, Ministers of Tourism, and leaders of industry associations worldwide comparable to Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways; Alain St.Ange, Minister for Tourism&Culture for the Seychelles; Angela Gittens, Director General of ACI World; Sani Sener, President&CEO of TAV Airports; and Rossi Ralenkotter, President/CEO of the Las Vegas Convention&Visitors Authority, who’ve all confirmed their participation.

    “Las Vegas is honored to host the primary World Route Development Forum inside the Usa,” said Rossi Ralenkotter, President/CEO for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. “As the entertainment and convention capital of the realm and an emerging international business center, Las Vegas offers a very unique experience to the world’s aviation leaders. From our new US$2.4 billion state-of-the-art international Terminal 3 to our ability to repeatedly reinvent Las Vegas as a world tourism destination, Las Vegas is the ideal stage for industry leaders to attach and gain key insight into what the way forward for travel and tourism holds.”

    David Stroud, Executive Vp, Routes, said: “For Routes, taking the development to the usa for the 1st time will further strengthen our position inside the world’s largest aviation market. We predict over 3,000 delegates to affix us in Las Vegas this year, including senior representation from over 300 carriers from world wide. McCarran International Airport’s expansion offers airlines new opportunities, and hosting World Routes will allow town to extend their air services that’s fundamental to the prosperity of the region.”

    “Last year, McCarran International Airport opened its doors to increasingly more travelers from all over the world once we opened our fantastic Terminal 3 expansion,” said Randall H. Walker, Director of Aviation for Clark County, Nevada, which owns and operates McCarran. “This fall, we glance forward to welcoming Routes attendees from world wide, providing each guest a primary-hand opportunity to experience all that our airport and community must offer.”

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  • Willow Stream Spa arrives at Fairmont, The Palm

    Willow Stream Spa at Fairmont, The Palm, Dubai has arrived on the iconic Palm Jumeirah.

    The newest addition to Fairmont Hotels & Resorts’ award-winning spa collection, the energy of the spa draws from the basis of the Willow Stream brand with its connection to nature and encouraging energy for all times. 

    The spa’s maxim is “alive by nature,” drawing its character and principal elements from its location inside the Persian Gulf.

    Brought alive by the mixing of the colourful, vitality of urban Dubai with the character of the sand and sea, endless sky and desert heat, the Willow Stream Spa offers an urban oasis for spa goers to socialise and reenergize.

    Natural elements of Dubai are reflected within the spa’s colour palette, including attributes along with sand and the ocean, and within the spa experiences, which use local products and spa traditions.

    The design of the spa comes alive with its contemporary strategy to traditional facilities, luxury treatment rooms and social spaces.

    The impressive 17,200-square-foot spa boasts 13 treatment rooms, including separate massage, facial and treatment rooms, and a duet suite for a standard Arabian rasul experience, that’s a cleansing ritual that uses mineral-rich mud, heat and steam.

    The spa also offers a grand suite with two single suites connected by an enormous lounge.

    Overlooking the water and beach, the ladies’ area provides indoor and outdoor spaces to unwind and luxuriate in the quiet before or after treatments.

    There also are great spaces perfect for small groups or girlfriend gatherings, with healthy spa refreshments available.