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  • News: First ILTM Africa opening forum debates

    The first International Luxury Travel Market Africa (ILTM) Africa (www.iltm.net/africa) opened today on the Mount Nelson Hotel in Cape Town with a gap Forum that keen on the evolution and issues facing the luxurious travel marketplace for Sub-Saharan Africa. The forum welcomed all 70 African luxury travel experiences participating at ILTM Africa, in addition to the international Hosted Buyers, each specialising in creating and planning luxury travel inbound to Africa, plus a delegation of selected international and regional media.

    Minister Alan Winde, Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Tourism, Western Cape Government, opened the forum by thanking Reed Travel Exhibitions for bringing ILTM Africa as a “vital new important platform for this region to showcase themselves to the luxurious travel buyers of the area.” Winde said that there has been a wealth of various tourist attractions from the wine lands to the V&A waterfront, now considered one of South Africa’s most visited destinations, to ancient art on rock forms and its amazing natural infrastructure. He also informed the audience that there’s to be a brand new luxury cruise liner terminal.

    An economic and political overview was presented by Clem Sunter, formerly Chairman of the Anglo American Chairman’s Fund – the premier corporate social responsibility fund in South Africa. He referred to how Africa is not any longer seen because the “hopeless continent” but the way it is now considered “a continent of immense commercial opportunity to which US and European companies are turning.” Consistent with the sector Bank, inside the next 5 years, 7 of the head 10 fastest-growing economies are African. Mr. Sunter mentioned how they’ve seen spectacular growth from tourists within the Far East and the way he views the resort of Sun City as “Macau with Lions.”

    The issues facing the posh travel industry in Africa was the topic for a panel discussion that included Tony Romer Lee, CEO, The gathering by Liz McGraw; Adrian Gardiner, Founder&CEO, Mantis Group; and Beks Ndlovu, CEO, African Bush Camps. The controversy addressed the change within the guest demographic from the early days of British travelers to the evolving impact of diversity and global reach that experience also meant a metamorphosis within the tourist’s expectations. The panel, though, believed “We have the depth of product to give everyone and meet all expectations in this continent.”

    Tony Romer Lee said: “This continent has a narrative to inform; guests will never forget the relationship they make with its people in the course of the places they stay. It’s unique. People come for thus many reasons, they would like to look all of it, but there’s a lot more than simply the plain attractions.”

    Adrian Gardiner agreed that what makes Africa “hot” is “experiences, experiences, experiences.” He said that Africa is “an amazing-value destination” and that experiential travel is booming to any such degree that Mantis has launched Mantis eXtreme if you happen to are looking to paraglide off Cape Town’s Table Mountain, or go shark diving, whale watching inside the Western Cape or diving the sardine run in Eastern Cape. In Zimbabwe, the corporate offers walking with rhinos, and white-water river rafting. Looking ahead, he predicts that Zimbabwe turns into the jewel of southern Africa’s tourism industry.

    The debate broadened to discuss the various needs of the international traveler and meeting the expectancies of these traveling from places comparable to China.

    David Chai, Director of Product Development-Travel, Tidesquare spoke from the audience about what his clients were searching for. “I am here representing the affluent Asian market traveler. People who have already done Paris, London, and Rome again and again, they don’t want more of an identical. We (as buyers) are here at ILTM Africa to appear for luxury experiences at a brand new level – our clients can communicate well in English and are prepared to pay for whatever they need. In the event that they come to Africa they expect the exotic, they seek an experience that cash can’t buy in the other country, whether a bucket shower or on the other end of the dimensions – Singita. They are going to be happy to attempt your food, but perhaps surprise them with white congee and you’ll have exceeded their expectations.”

    The ILTM Africa Opening Forum closed with a one-to-one interview in regards to the evolution of the posh travel industry in Africa with Colin Bell, one of several pioneers of sustainable travel inside the continent and founding father of Wilderness Safaris. He observed how luxury tourism is usually a technique to supporting conservation projects if tourism companies and comfort hotels integrate with local communities.

  • 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.”

  • Investment paying off for Welcome to Yorkshire

    Figures just out show Yorkshire tourism made a grand begin to 2013 after the announcement that the Tour de France is coming to the county.

    Despite freezing temperatures, Yorkshire tourism saw the best year-on-year rise for spend in England this January and February in comparison to the identical time last year – up 47 per cent.

    The news comes as Welcome to Yorkshire teamed up with Lightwater Valley this week to launch a brand new summer campaign to advertise the county.

    The new campaign capitalises at the strong begin to 2013 which also saw trips to Yorkshire up 6.6 per cent and overnight stays rise 24.2 per cent through the same period, in keeping with the nice Britain Travel Survey (GBTS).

    This all follows the historic news in December 2012 when Welcome to Yorkshire discovered their audacious bid to bring the Grand Depart of the Tour de France – the world’s largest annual sporting event – have been successful.

    Gary Verity, chief executive, Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “Stats like these are testament to the labor and backbone of our tourism businesses, coupled with the innovative work we do to market Yorkshire.

    “These encouraging figures follow our announcement that we had secured the Tour de France – and the next international media coverage it brought for Yorkshire, thrusting it into the spotlight once again.

    “Our summer campaign, backed by Lightwater Valley, builds in this great start. It shows that by working together around the county, Yorkshire can paved the way.

    “Yorkshire is now recognised as one of the vital leading tourist destinations in Europe and our summer guide is only one of various initiatives we’re resulting in build in this momentum.”

    These latest stats showed that during an analogous period, England’s national averages for trips were up 0.9 per cent, overnights stays up 7.3 per cent and spend up 9.2 per cent – all way below Yorkshire’s performance.

    Early estimates predict Le Tour may be worth greater than £100 million to Yorkshire’s economy when the race’s Grand Depart kicks off on July 5th, 2014, for stage one and July 6th for stage two.

  • 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.