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  • ASEAN starts promoting experiential and inventive tourism

    The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is promoting six experiential and artistic travel themes to encourage multi-country trips across Southeast Asia. The themed promotions are portion of the implementation of the ASEAN Tourism Business plan 2012-2015.

    The themes include: “The Tastes of Southeast Asia,” “ASEAN, a Tropical Paradise,” “World Class Cities,” “Experience Diverse Traditions,” “Sport and Relaxation,” and “Diverse Contemporary Creativity.”

    An initial list of 20 tour operators offering the subjects in multi-country itineraries are actually at the new look ASEAN travel website, www.aseantourism.travel, the official website of ASEAN Tourism. More trips are being added. Website enhancements are underway.

    “Our new focus is on experiential and inventive tourism that respects environment and culture,” said Mr. Aung Zaw Win, Director General, Ministry of Hotels and Tourism Myanmar, who’s also Chairman of the ASEAN Tourism Product Development Working Group. “An authentic travel experience involves meaningful engagement with the heritage, arts and special character of our ASEAN destinations,” he said.

    Mr Aung Zaw Win urged tour operators in ASEAN countries to develop more multi-country packages highlighting experiential and artistic tourism, which he mentioned was a rising trend among consumers who want ‘authentic’ travel.

    “Today’s travellers are more sophisticated and occupied with unique experiences with immersion in local ways of life,” he said. “Our role is to therefore support multi-country experiential travel within ASEAN member states.”

    To inspire travellers, ASEAN has compiled a sequence of features about themes together with beach, nature and wildlife; cruise tour and rail; culture and heritage; education and volunteering; food and nightlife; fun and leisure; health and spa; outdoor and water sports; and pilgrimage tourism.

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  • Marriott Institute of Hospitality Education makes debut in China

    Marriott International today launched the ‘Marriott Institute of Hospitality Education’ in co-operation with Anhui Zhong-Ao Institute of Technology. Here is the newest college partnership model Marriott International has embarked upon in China to develop the long run generation of the hospitality workforce to support its growth inside the country.

    Once established, the Marriott Institute of Hospitality Education turns into a vital part of the Anhui Zhong-Ao Institute of Technology and should enroll students from the once a year China national examination for a 3-year diploma programme. The anticipated variety of 2013 intakes can be 300 students.

    Initially, the curriculum spotlight will be on Hotel Management, but plans are in place to expand the course to incorporate Tourism Management in addition to Culinary and Nutrition. Inside the final year of analysis, students may have work placements at Marriott’s hotels in China to achieve experience in an actual-life hotel environment.

    Marriott International will offer a whole array of support making sure that this joint programme is a good success from the very start, including lectures from the company’s senior executives to the scholars. Other support includes student field study and internship opportunities at Marriott International’s hotels, faculty internship and curriculum development. Michael Malik, Market Vp – Eastern China of Marriott International will function the deputy dean of the Marriott Institute of Hospitality Education. He’s going to provide counsel and oversee the education direction of the Institute. 

    In the inauguration ceremony of the Marriott Institute of Hospitality Education, Regan Taikitsadaporn, Chief Human Resources Officer of Marriott International Asia Pacific, said: “Marriott International is happy with the truth that it’s far consistently recognised as a top employer in China and world wide. We now have been providing career development opportunities to ambitious talents worldwide for greater than eight decades. The launch of the Marriott Institute of Hospitality Education not just upholds our core values, but additionally serves as a timely move to fuel our tremendous portfolio growth in China.

    “Marriott International currently cooperates with a lot of colleges throughout China to assist foster a higher generation of hotel executives. Nevertheless, when it comes to the breadth and depth of such types of exercises, this co-operation with Anhui Zhong-Ao Institute of Technology is unprecedented,” said Taikitsadaporn. 

    Marriott International has launched co-operation programmes with 15 colleges in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guiyang and in other locations. Similarly, Marriott has relations with 112 colleges across China and recruited greater than 2,500 interns in 2012 within the country.

    Wang Yuan Hao, Dean of Marriott Institute of Hospitality Education, said: “The hospitality industry of China was growing rapidly and this trend is anticipated to continue in coming years. Therefore it’s essential that our education will keep pace with and meet the human resources demand of the industry. We’re delighted to have the support of Marriott International to this programme because the company brings a wealth of expertise and heritage in developing hospitality talent around the globe.”

    With 137 open and signed hotels in China, Marriott International expects to open on average one hotel per thirty days inside the country for the five years. The corporate intends to feature some 40,000 associates in China by 2016.

  • News: Leisure traffic boosts Eurostar revenues

    Eurostar has reported an encouraging begin to the year with growth in sales revenues in the course of the first three months of the year.  In comparison to an identical period in 2012, sales revenues grew by 1% to £213 million (£211 million Q1 2012), while passenger numbers remained stable year-on-year at 2.23 million (2.24 million Q1 2012).

    The ongoing economic uncertainty throughout Europe continues to persuade business travel patterns particularly as many organisations maintain an in depth eye on corporate travel budgets.  However, even with a protracted period of unseasonably cold and winter the ongoing resilience of Eurostar’s leisure travel market has helped deliver the cast performance in Q1.

    Nicolas Petrovic, Chief Executive of Eurostar, said: “This is an encouraging begin to the year regardless of the challenges posed by both the economy and the elements. 

    “Our sales revenues have grown during 1 / 4 which saw heavy snowfalls and a few of the coldest temperatures on record inside the South of britain and northerly France. 

    “This quarter’s performance is testament to our enduring popularity with regular and primary time travellers alike.” Added Petrovic.

    Supporting the delivery of a superb performance over the primary three months of the year, multiple marketing initiatives both domestically and internationally have helped underpin the expansion in sales revenues.

    In January, Eurostar ran its most successful consumer promotion ever with 150,000 seats available from only £59 return for travel between London and Paris, Brussels or Lille.  Over the process the promotion sales exceeded even those made in the course of the ash cloud disruption in 2010, previously Eurostar’s strongest ever booking period.

    Similarly, an ongoing think about international marketing campaigns has delivered impressive growth in both passenger numbers and sales revenues for travel originating outside the european.  Within the first three months of the year non-EU originated sales revenues grew 10% while passenger numbers increased by 8% in comparison to the identical period in 2012. 

    Reflecting the increasing strategic importance of Eurostar’s website as a right away sales channel for passengers originating outside the european, total sales revenues generated via online bookings in Eurostar’s largest international market, the us, have shown particularly strong growth within the first three months of the year, up 20%.

    Further demonstrating its ongoing commitment to investment around the business, Eurostar recently took the wraps off its trendy consumer facing website.  This can be a central component of Eurostar’s ambitious growth plans and has transformed the shopper experience when booking online. 

    The new website simplifies and accelerates the booking process and because launch has reduced the typical period of time taken to book a ticket by greater than 40% from eight minutes to four and a half minutes.

    The launch marks the primary stage of an important investment by Eurostar in digital technology as a way to see a raft of latest features added to the location over the arrival months.

    Nicolas Petrovic continued: “The transformation of eurostar.com is a part of a much broader investment in our business designed to make certain we continue to supply our customers the absolute best end-to-end travel experience.  Along with this investment in our ‘virtual shop-window’, our £700m programme of investment in our fleet of trains which encompasses the refurbishment of the present Eurostar fleet and the acquisition of 10 new trains is progressing well.”

  • Copenhagen Airport passenger numbers up nearly 5% in June

    Passenger numbers at Copenhagen Airport were up 4.8% in June. a complete of two,329,956 passengers travelled through Copenhagen Airport in the course of the first month of summer, the busiest month ever on the airport. The year-to-date increase in passenger numbers is two.2%.

    Many people travel abroad for his or her summer holidays, and that shows at Copenhagen Airport, because the choice of international passengers rose by 4.4% year on year in June.

    “June 2013 was the busiest month ever in Copenhagen Airport’s 88-year history. That emphasises how important that’s for us to have the big, 1,400 square metre expansion of Terminal 2 ready for the summer traffic. The recent, more light and spacious terminal area has 12 new check-in desks and a lot of additional self-service kiosks,” said Thomas Woldbye, CEO of Copenhagen Airport.

    Domestic traffic increased by up to 10.2%. This brought the complete year-on-year increase in passenger numbers to 4.8% in June.

    Year-to-date, passenger numbers at Copenhagen Airport increased by 2.2%, to a complete of eleven.5 million passengers.
    On the head-10 list, the ecu cities Milan and Berlin showed the strongest growth.

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  • News: Carnival Cruise Lines to speculate $300m on safety

    Carnival Cruise Lines has implemented a program to improve emergency power capabilities, introduce new fire safety technology, and improve the extent of operating redundancies across its entire 24-ship fleet.

    This enhancement program will cost greater than $300 million, and rapid upgrades have already begun.

    The actions by Carnival Cruise Lines will expand the provision of hotel services for the relaxation of its guests within the rare instance of a shipboard event that involves the lack of main power.

    In addition, the plan will reinforce key shipboard operating systems to further prevent a possible lack of primary power. The advance plan is the results of a comprehensive operational review, overseen by parent company Carnival Corporation & plc, initiated immediately after the Carnival Triumph fire in February 2013.

    “All of Carnival Cruise Lines’ ships operate safely today. Each vessel already has effective systems in place to forestall, detect and reply to emergency situations, and we meet or exceed all regulatory requirements,” said Gerry Cahill, president and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines.

    “However, by applying lessons learned through our fleet-wide operational review after the Carnival Triumph fire and by profiting from new technologies, we’ve got identified areas for enhancement across our operations. These initiatives reflect our commitment to safe and reliable operations and an enjoyable cruising experience for the nearly 4.5 million guests who sail with Carnival Cruise Lines every year.” Added Cahill