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  • Hilton London Islington gets £5.2m refurb

    Hilton London Islington has announced the £5.2 million refurbishment of its guest rooms, to be completed June 2013, with the addition of 7 new bedrooms, bringing the full number to 191.

    The hotel, situated within the heart of trendy Islington, was inspired and influenced by its close proximity to the Square Mile. Each room displays subtle hints of London, with a graceful city style. In-room features are influenced by the materials and fabrics related to a tailored pin-stripe suit making a classic British feel.

    Oded Lifschitz, UK area vice chairman, Hilton Worldwide said, “London remains essentially the mostsome of the most popular visitor destinations on this planet and, alongside Hilton’s superb service, we’re involved in keeping our product fresh and unique.

    “We currently have plenty of refurbishment programmes in progress across our London properties, including Hilton London Islington, Hilton London Metropole, The Waldorf Hilton, London and Hilton London Heathrow Airport.

    “This investment highlights our ongoing dedication to satisfy and surpass guests’ expectations.” Added Oded.

    For guests visiting on business, the refurbished bedrooms offer spacious black glass desktops, accessible ports and stylish consoles positioned to maximize space, for a tailored working environment.

    All of the furniture is bespoke, designed by Robert Angell Design Studio, with polished chrome, limed grey oak wardrobe doors and black oak nightstands offering a classic timeless quality. In step with town theme the specially commissioned artwork, by Angell, sees prominent London landmarks photographed in profile and displayed on contemporary canvases. Sharp neutrals, greys and blacks, highlighted with hints of aubergine piping and sew details, dogtooth wool carpets, patterned upholstery and handstitched leather headboards, complete the recent look guest rooms.

    With a spotlight on both comfort and practicality, the hot look rooms offer form and serve as, while the en-suite bathrooms are both sleek and chic. Using beautiful carrara stone flooring, grey feature mosaic tiles, bespoke illuminated vanity mirrors and lavish Peter Thomas Roth amenities, the guest experience is on the heart of each design feature.

    Located within easy reach of Kings Cross, at the doorstep of Angel’s vibrant social scene and situated next to the Business Design Centre, Hilton London Islington is ideally positioned for business and leisure travellers. Incorporating this into the design, the refurbishment project features a new executive lounge, 45 executive rooms and five deluxe plus standard rooms so that you can offer balcony access.

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  • News: Aviation to return under spotlight at Arabian Travel Market

    Aviation sector experts and commentators will gather in Dubai for the twentieth annual Arabian Travel Market exhibition next month because the industry comes under close scrutiny at dedicated sessions as portion of the total ATM 2013 seminar series.

    Kicking off the talk, two of the giants of aviation will participate in The massive Conversation at the first day of the show, with Emirates Airlines president, Tim Clark, and Qantas chief executive, Alan Joyce, discussing their groundbreaking partnership.

    A Euromonitor-led presentation on the WTM Vision seminar on May 7th, will share the result of research into the opportunities for growth by most economical airlines inside the Middle East.

    Another aviation outlook session, specializing in the challenges and opportunities, will feature Ghaith Al Ghaith, chief executive, flydubai; Aage Dünhaupt, director, group communications south-east Europe, Middle East & Africa, Lufthansa; and Randy Tinseth, vp, marketing, Boeing Air carriers.

    Building at the momentum, Sunil Malhotra, director aviation sector, Middle East & North Africa for Ernst & Young, will present the newest industry findings and a 10-year outlook with a session entitled ‘Looking to the skies: global aviation trends 2013 – 2033’ at the afternoon of May 8th.

    “The last three years have seen the worldwide aviation industry turn a corner despite ongoing market turbulence.

    “While consolidation is the method in North America, and European carriers are busy lobbying for an end to excessive taxation and passenger duties, the center East and Asia are capitalising on both route network growth opportunities and robust passenger demand,” said Mark Walsh, portfolio director, Reed Travel Exhibitions.

    According to IATA, global airline sector profit will grow from -$US4.6 billion in 2009 to a forecast figure of US$7.5 billion for 2013 with Asia Pacific and Middle East based airlines dominating the international passenger market and leading the manner with regards to improved operating margins.

    “The aviation industry has grown by 53 per cent since 2000 despite the impact of SARS, the worldwide financial crisis and regional conflicts.

    “The world passenger growth in air traffic is recoded at five per cent every year by ICAO scheduled traffic analysis since 1980,” said Malhotra.

    “According to the report, Asia-Pacific will lead world traffic by 2031, with a 32 per cent share, while the center East will rise to 11 per cent in 2031 from the present figure of 7 per cent.

    “The future forecasts over a higher two decades for the realm GDP growth as per IMF is at 3.2 per cent once a year and in response to ICAO forecasts, the selection of airline passengers is projected to grow at four per cent with airline traffic growth outlined to grow at five per cent each year.”

    Partnership activity is a significant focus of the report as airlines are proactively seeking for more meaningful alliances and partnerships to reinforce their synergies and passenger flows.

    “Some of the Gulf carriers are joining global alliances, whilst others have entered into strategic code shares to advertise traffic flows between continents.

    “Airlines are actually planning to guage aggressively dormant partnerships and consider making a cohesive air charter for organic growth,” said Malhotra.

    However, he points out that despite consolidation and new alliances, the industry is facing a highly competitive environment, which continues to overwhelm airline profitability and return on capital, with it unlikely to meet up with cost of capital within the near future.

    “Facing future uncertainty in a risk-laden market, legacy carriers also are scrambling to locate a model that works, with a refocus on short haul routes, development of LCC’s and re-evaluation in their long-haul networks,” added Malhotra.

  • Families shouldn’t be get rid of visiting Crete

    Now the college holidays are in full swing, increasing numbers of youth are heading to the Greek island of Crete to take pleasure in the late night clubbing scene.  However loveholidays.com advises that UK families shouldn’t be get rid of visiting the island.

    “This increase in noise and late night partying in Crete is sort of entirely confined to the resort of Malia, which has become the favorite party town for college students this summer.” said loveholidays.com CEO Alex Francis.

    He continued: “Generally in the course of the months between June and August, Crete and particularly Malia is a best choice for college students and young revellers.  However other visitors including families and couples shouldn’t be deterred.  Crete is the most important of all of the Greek islands and provides a lot of other choices of places to stick which are well far from the lively hustle of Malia.”

    Loveholidays.com has over 300 hotels on sale at the island of Crete, lots of that are in smaller towns and villages or located at the outskirts of Malia where visitors can still enjoy a relaxed retreat.  Asterias Village in Hersonissos is one such property.  It’s a lovely family-run and family oriented three star hotel perched high above the most town between two very traditional Greek villages.  The emphasis here’s a great deal geared towards young families because the hotel has a policy of only accepting children aged between 2 – 11 years old, along side couples and other adult guests.

    The main advice this summer from loveholidays.com is to liaise directly with their team to pick out a vacation that most closely fits individual requirements.  The web site also is finely tuned to provide searches for properties and holidays suitable for families and couples, thus avoiding booking a break at some of the more lively resorts.

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  • Appointments on the Turkish Culture & Tourism Office in London

    The London-based Turkish Culture & Tourism Office is delighted to announce the appointment of its new Directors Dr. Aysegul Gurgezoglu and Ali Selcuk Can, who’ve taken up their posts for what’s going to be a brand new and dynamic phase in Turkish tourism.

    Turkey remains one of several world’s most suitable tourism destinations with 31.78 million people travelling to the rustic in 2012. Additionally it is one of the vital fastest developing tourist destinations on this planet making dynamism and effort a byword for its tourism sector. The coming of Ali Selcuk Can and Dr. Aysegul Gurgezoglu heralds a brand new era for the London-based tourism team with plenty of new and different activities within the pipeline. More news and developments will follow within the upcoming weeks.

    Director Ali Selcuk Can on taking on his new appointment says “Ranking 6th on the earth with respect to the selection of international tourist arrivals based on the sector Travel Organisation, Turkey continues to grow in tourist numbers. We wish to continue this trend and inspire people to approach travel to Turkey from different angles; inclusive of visiting Istanbul q4 for its acclaimed arts biennial or to enjoying international golf within the south coast in the course of the Turkish Open in November.”

    Director Dr. Aysegul Gurgezoglu adds: “Turkey remains filled with undiscovered gems – its rich history, culture, cuisine and landscapes make it a very fascinating and unforgettable land. i’m expecting developing our cooperation and tourism potential with the united kingdom even further as i think that there’s still a lot scope in what Brits can discover and revel in in Turkey – however it truly is already one of many UK market’s most-popular holiday destinations. Turkey offers an awesome form of travel experiences and we are able to be aiming to focus on that during the arrival months.”

    Dr. Aysegul Gurgezoglu, who has a Doctorate in Archaeology from the University of Oxford, was Deputy Director at London’s Turkish Culture & Tourism office 2009-2012, and Ali Selcuk Can has previously been an Internal Auditor for the Ministry of Culture & Tourism based in Turkey.

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  • News: Record month for Dubai international

    Dubai International registered a record 5.8 million passengers in March, in step with the monthly traffic report issued by Dubai Airports.

    Passenger traffic in March surged by 20.6 per cent, the very best since August 2012, to five,846,297 in comparison with 4,848,320 in March 2012, the fourth consecutive month with greater than five million passengers and a double-digit growth.

    The strong showing has boosted the year so far traffic to 16,486,417, up 15.6 per cent compared with 14,261,606 recorded through the first three months of 2012.

    The largest increase in total passenger number were recorded at the Western European routes – driven mainly by Emirates airline and flydubai services to destinations within the region registering the most important increase in total passenger numbers (up 227,830), followed by the AGCC (up 209,737), and the Indian subcontinent (up 202,703).

    Growth remained subdued (up 2,532) on South American routes while Middle Eastern routes registered moderate growth (up 36,479).

    In terms of percentage growth, eastern Europe was the fastest-expanding market (up 67.9 per cent) driven by Emirates airline’s launch of recent services to Poland and flydubai’s service to Macedonia, followed by Asia Pacific (up 26.5 per cent).

    Dubai International recorded a complete of 31,713 aircraft movements in March, up 8.3 per cent in comparison with 29,276 in March 2012.

    The year thus far movements increased 5.9 per cent to achieve 91,130, in comparison with 86,014 recorded throughout the first three months in 2012.

    Paul Griffiths, chief executive, Dubai Airports said: “We have had a particularly successful first quarter highlighted by record growth and the outlet of the world’s first purpose built A380 facility.

    “I am particularly pleased that we’re no longer only the world’s second busiest international hub but in addition some of the efficient with 208 passengers per aircraft movement way to our growing variety of A380 operations which led the realm in 2012 with 7,259 A380 flights to twenty-eight destinations.”

    He added that traffic looked set to continue its upsurge inside the second quarter adding to the import of Dubai Airports’ ongoing expansion projects at Dubai International.