UNWTO organize energy efficiency conference for hoteliers

The United Nation World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) in partnership with the European Commission is set to organize energy efficiency conference for hoteliers.  The event tagged, nearly Zero Energy Hotels 2015 conference, neZEH 2015, is billed to hold in Nice, France.
According to UNWTO, the conference is part of efforts to educate hoteliers’ management on how energy innovation can drive sustainability and competitiveness in the hotel sector. The conference, according to the organization, is a forum for tourism and hotel sector stakeholders, including energy efficiency professionals and policy makers on all levels, to actively explore the opportunities of nearly zero energy strategies as a means to enhance hotel sustainability and competitiveness around the world.
UNWTO revealed that neZeh 2015, is co-funded by the European Commission and is free to attend upon registration.

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Post-election crisis: Is US Marine stationed in Ghana?

An unconfirmed intelligence report has revealed that the United States Marine numbering about hundred has been stationed at the Kotoka Airport in Ghana, in case of possible post-election crisis in Nigeria.

The reports quoted an Aviation source in Accra, as saying that two Hercules C-130 transport planes landed at the Kotoka Airport last week, bearing “at least three helicopters”.

The Ghanian aviation source said, “There are well over 200 marines. They are camped at the airport. The helicopters are believed to be meant for the quick evacuation of Americans in Nigeria in the event of violence.

“Two United States Navy ships had been sighted off the coast of Takoradi, Ghana. A Ghana Defence source said one of the ships is equipped with medical facilities.

“More marines are expected,” he said, also pleading not to be named because, according to him, he is not allowed to talk to the media. It is not unusual for the United States or any other country to do this because they have to protect their people.”

He further revealed that one may think that the marines are in the country to train the military. But he disclosed that their mission is to move into Nigeria as soon as crisis started in the country after the election.

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Can Idanre Hill look like San Baldo?

In order to make Ondo state a major tourism hub in Africa, the present Ondo State Governor, Dr.  Olusegun Mimiko, is presented with option of taking

San Baldo

a cue from this architectural design at the present San Baldo in Italy, to consolidate on the efforts to making IDANRE HILL, a choice destination.

This may appear quite expensive but, I trust it is worth the investment, considering the potential of the hill.

Although, this writer can attest to the massive investment that this same Idanre Hill has gulped through the Mountain Resort, but as a marketing technique, there is therefore the need to still adopt more creative idea that will further boost the site for tourists.

 IDANRE HILL is a treasure that can be better than this

NB:  A tunnel like this can link Idanre town to Edo City and other villages …………  

Idanre  Hill

 San Baldo Pass, Veneto, Italy very close to Venice!

San Baldo Pass, this region saw major action during the First World War. As the landscape suddenly becomes more alpine, there are traffic lights filtering one-way traffic through the Passo San Boldo, a hairpin route through tunnels and bridges that eventually brings you out at the beginning of the Dolomites.

Known as the "100-day road", this was built at breakneck speed by the Austrian army at the end of 1918 to transport troops and artillery down to the battlefield. Immediately at the exit of the last tunnel is Osteria la Muda, originally a customs house and inn that dates back to 1400.

It has recently been renovated and has an innovative list of proseccos and a creative German chef. It is a major

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Eko Atlantic, Lagos Polo club woo investors with beach polo

As part of measure to woo investors to the Eko Atlantic city project, the management of the project in collaboration with Lagos Polo Club hosted the first polo tournament in West Africa at the Eko Atlantic city in Lagos State on Sunday. The three-day event which ended on Sunday started on Thursday, March 19, 2015 with participation from a number of Nigerian teams.
The competition was held on a landscape of approximately 42,000 square metres of land located directly off Eko Boulevard. It was participated by six teams with a total of about 80 horses and 24 riders from the Lagos Polo Club.
It was attended by selected participants from the oil and gas, manufacturing, agriculture, real estate, banking and finance, telecommunications and several other notable industries to ensure guest numbers are controlled and avoid overcrowding with a maximum of 1,000.
According to Mr. Habeeb Fasinro, who is the president of the Lagos Polo Club, Beach polo is similar to arena polo, which was set up in 1904 under British colonial rule. He said, “It is usually played off season, when you’re not playing on grass, just to keep the horses in shape. But now it’s turned into something very big. You have the world beach polo tournament as well in Miami, you have it in Dubai, in Ibiza” 
He said that the beach polo debuted in 2004 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and the following year the game took to the beaches of South Beach Miami and has continued to grow in popularity ever since.
Fasinro said , “A growing new audience has the ability to combine a day at polo with a day on some of the most beautiful beaches in the world while maintaining the glamour of the sport. The growing number of worldwide beach polo events have aided in exposing the sport of polo to a new audience in a fun and exciting fashion. Eko Atlantic will be no exception
He further noted that Polo isn’t a recent sport in Nigeria and has remained popular among the wealthy even after the country gained independence from Britain in 1960. He added that has Nigeria has at least 30 polo clubs, adding that Lagos Polo Club has between 80 to 100 players.
He said, “There’s a very long tradition of polo in Lagos. We’ve attracted the best players who’ve come here and played with us. And we’ve had Nigerian players also playing abroad quite frequently. A good number of us played in Europe this season, in England mostly.
Ronald Chagoury Junior, the vice-president of Eko Atlantic revealed that the idea of the tournament was aimed at creating activity in the new city. He added that a beach football tournament, ‘Copa Lagos’, had earlier been held on the sand of Eko Atlantic. He further noted that the promoters of the tournament, which he described as the sport traditionally associated with the elite, sensed an investment opportunity through the hosting of the tournament on the entire Eko Atlantic city project.
According to Brent Sadler the spokesman of the project, “We want to associate Eko Atlantic, the new city for Lagos, with polo (the sport of kings). We want to show that we’re producing a professional quality, prestigious city that people will enjoy living in and people will understand what we’re doing here by coming to watch polo.”
Team Lagos Polo Club emerged winners amidst a tight competition from the Red Bull team with a 5-4 score line at the end of the day. It was sponsored by Access Bank, Eko Energy Estate and Eko Pearl Nigeria Ltd others are Moet and Hennessey, Samsung and Coscharis

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Nigerians, other countries shun Dubai due to tight dollar rate

The Hotel occupancy rate in Dubai has dropped by five per cent in February due to the strengthening of the US dollar in Nigeria and other countries where Dubai’s visitors mostly come from. This was revealed in a research conducted by a United Arab Emirates based, Gulf News.

According to the report, Dubai’s hotel sector is currently facing headwinds, with the average hotel occupancy averaging at 86.2 per cent last February, which is two percentage points lower than in February 2014.

The report says that analysts in the hospitality industry also attributed the drop in the occupancy rates to the strengthening of the US dollar in Nigeria and other developing countries. They also linked the drop to increased supply of hotel rooms

It however confirmed that the popular attractions in Dubai, including the musical fountain, Dubai Mall, Burj Khalifa and other major landmarks are still attracting hundreds of visitors each month. Adding that tourists are not checking into hotel rooms as they used to.

It said, “Revenues don’t look promising, either, with the revenue per available room (RevPAR), a key indicator of financial performance in the hospitality industry, also declining by 7.7 per cent year on year last month, the ninth consecutive month of decline.

The value of the greenback has gone up against a number of currencies, including those. This has consequently eroded the purchasing power of a number of Dubai’s visitors.

“Many of the key markets for Dubai are emerging markets which have been particularly hard hit by currency weakness relative to the USD,” Emirates NBD said.

Adding to the pressure on occupancy rates, the hotel sector in Dubai is seeing more hotels entering the market. Dubai wants to keep adding more hotel rooms until 2020.

As of January 2015, 38 new hotels were under construction, representing 16 per cent of the current room supply. The number of hotel rooms went up by 6.8 per cent last month compared to a year earlier, while the total supply last year increased by 7.8 per cent year on year.

STR Global’s data showed that around 11,000 more rooms are still in the planning or final planning states, so the supply is expected to expand further.

“As the authorities are targeting a doubling of hotel room from 2012 to 2020, this trend is set to continue,” said the bank.

Alper Can Bulcum, cluster general manager of Ramada Plaza Jumeirah Beach Residence and Ramada Sharjah, told Gulf News, that they saw a slight drop in occupancy in February but they added that they were able to maintain "good business."

Bulcum said, "One of the reasons for the business drop in this area of Dubai was the decrease in the number of tourists from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) market which is normally at its peak during these months.

"There is also the shift of school holidays to March from Kuwait. The [other] markets [like] Egypt and Turkey are targeting similar markets with Dubai, promoting better weather, beaches."

Habib Khan general manager of Arabian Courtyard Hotel and Spa, told Gulf News  that  occupancy rate dropped by about 5 per cent compared to last year in his hotel. According to him, inventory has increased in Dubai which had taken the share. He added that the Euro drop also affected the European market which was key during the month," Khan.

"Egypt tourism is reviving and taking market share. Gulfood [an annual food and hospitality show in Dubai] wasn't that busy as it used to be. All these factors affected the occupancy."

In comparison, the hotel sector in Abu Dhabi is not facing serious challenges. The revenue per available (RevPAR) room in Abu Dhabi grew by an “astonishing” 29.2 per cent last month compared to a year earlier, while occupancy rate rose by 1.22 percentage point to 80.6 per cent.

“The trend evident in Abu Dhabi has been one of rising occupancy rates and RevPAR, despite a stronger USD. We also note that the supply of hotel rooms in Abu Dhabi has grown at a faster pace than in Dubai (11 per cent year on year in February 2015 and 11 per cent for the full year 2014).

The bank, however, noted that there are fewer hotels in Abu Dhabi, about less than one third the number in Dubai. The UAE capital’s RevPAR is also 33 per cent lower than in Dubai.

Emirates NBD, however, pointed out that the 86.2 per cent hotel occupancy in Dubai last month is still within “healthy” levels and slightly higher than January’s 85.8 per cent.

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Travelstart offer job opportunities with neXt

Odette Faling, Global Sales and Marketing Manager, NeXt,   and Mrs. Lilian Obinna-Igwe, Country Manager, Travelstart, Nigeria at the   product launch

Travelstarts, an online travel agency in Nigeria, has unveiled,neXt, a new travels platform for independent travel agents, to address the challenges faced by travel agencies in the country. The platform is created for agents that are interested in starting their own private business without basic skills.

 According to LilianObinna-Igwe,  Travelstart Nigeria’s  Country Manager, neXt is simple anyone to use, anytime, and anywhere.  She said, “With the platform, new agents will have access to all Travelstart negotiated special fares, ancillary products, payment gateways and support. It gives agents the opportunity to focus on relationships with their customer while the agencytakes care of all post sales processes such as payments, schedule changes, and updating information.

 The Travelstart boss revealed that, NeXt platform , offers independent travel consultants a flexible, tablet-friendly application that features comprehensive flight search results, easy-to-use reporting and financial tools, as well as the technology needed to accept payments from a variety of channels.

 Travelstart is already the online travel market leader in Africa and agents looking to branch out on their own stand to benefit from the company’s established relationships, access to personal and online training modules, over and above the bells and whistles developed in-house such as multi-city flight searches, mix and match flight functionality on domestic bookings and real time availability.

 She added that neXt is fully integrated with Amadeus AETM, as well as with existing Global Distribution Systems. According to her, the solution also includes an I-Frame, making it possible for agents to create their own travel affiliate websites. All issues relating toticketing, reissues and refunds will be handled by the dedicated staff of the agency.  

“Agents using Amadeus GDS to make their flight bookings are able to import their PNR’s prior to ticketing to neXt ensuring that all flights and related activities are integrated and contained within the neXt system allowing easy access and management of all activities within the system.

“Agents using neXt keep 100 per cent of their mark-up, which can be changed. They can also diversify their revenue streams by selling add-on products during the transaction or post sale.

Other exciting offers in the new travels product also includeairline liquidation policy, aviation accident benefit, cancellation and refund policy, domestic insurance policy, others areinternational travel insurance, premium service package, flexi ticket and visa denied service.

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