Admiral House Hotel awarded three star rating

ADMIRAL House Hotel in Douglas has been awarded a three star rating by Quality in Tourism.

The independent assessment body, contracted by Isle of Man Tourism, has increased the hotel's rating by a star for displaying a high standard of service, food and accommodation.

Quality in Tourism works in conjunction with Visit Britain to award independent gradings and adheres to national standards known as the National Quality Assessment Scheme (NQAS).

Rachel Camilleri, general manager at the Admiral House Hotel, said: "The Quality in Tourism inspectors are renowned for having incredibly high standards but we were quietly confident that the review would go well.

"We work very hard to make sure that all of our visitors receive the same high level of service all day every day and it is fantastic news that we have been recognised for this."

Geoff Corkish MHK, political member for Isle of Man Tourism, said: "Admiral House Hotel has clearly strived hard for this significant achievement. We view the hotel as a valued partner in our efforts to drive up quality and service to visitors and residents alike and their hard work reflects on their investment and effort."

Admiral House Hotel was also recently awarded two rosettes by the AA for its restaurant JAR which is the maximum possible rating for a restaurant on its first inspection.

Investors plan more resort, hotel rooms

With the continued confidence in the tourism industry in the whole country especially in Cebu, property developers and managers announced their plans to build more properties to add more room capacity this year.

Quantuvis executive Alfred Reyes said the firm planned to build six more hotels and resorts in the country within two years.

“These properties will likely have about 75 to 200 rooms each, which we are targeting to develop and finish in two years,” Reyes told Cebu Daily News on Friday.

Quantuvis, which developed Oakwood Premier Joy-Nostalg Center in Manila, will develop three projects in Cebu this year.

Reyes said a business hotel project would soon rise near the Cebu Business Park.

“This property will have about 150 to 200 rooms. We’ll start building soon and have the property ready before Sinulog of 2013,” he said.

Reyes said the company allocated P500,000 to P1 million for the business hotel project.

The other two projects will be in the reclamation area and in Mactan island.

“Our Cebu property will have conference room facilities to cater to the MICE market which is what Cebu is trying to get a share of,” Reyes said.

Another property developer Genesis Hotels and Resorts Corp. is also looking for local partners for possible projects in Cebu.

The firm had no property in Cebu but they were open for opportunities here, said John A. Tanjangco, Genesis Hotels and Resorts Corp. assistant vice president for marketing.

“We are very interested in Cebu and open for a partnership with anyone who would want us to manage their properties for them,” Tanjangco said.

“In Cebu there are a lot of opportunities for a business hotel, a resort property or even a budget hotel,” he said.

The firm. manages seven hotels and resorts around the country including Astoria Plaza in Manila.

“Our properties are located in the most unusual places and we are bringing more marketing efforts here to strengthen our presence in Cebu which is a hub and has access to direct international flights,” Tanjangco said

He said the firm would open a property in Bohol Province in September and two more properties in Cagayan de Oro.

As a committed member of the local community, Riyadh's Al Faisaliah Hotel,

As a committed member of the local community, Riyadh's Al Faisaliah Hotel, A Rosewood Hotel, is running its 10th consecutive internship programme for promising Saudi hospitality students. Organised in collaboration with the Human Resources Development Funds, Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, the King Saud University and the College of Tourism and Archaeology, the comprehensive one year programme enables students to gain significant knowledge and experience that may become their future career.

Since the internship programme was launched 10 years ago, more than 100 Saudi graduates have enjoyed full time positions within various departments at Al Faisaliah Hotel.

"It has been our privilege to contribute to the development of Saudi talent in the hospitality industry. Al Faisaliah Hotel is renowned for its world class service and award-winning hospitality, and we take our responsibility to transfer this excellence to the next generation of professionals from our local community. We look forward to welcoming our latest intake of Saudi students who may well become our future colleagues," said Peter Finamore, Managing Director of Al Faisaliah Hotel.

A total of nine students are participating in this year's internship programme. One of the successful applicants, Arab Khalid Alhaidary, a student from King Saud University said: "There is no better place to learn from about the hospitality sector than Al Faisaliah Hotel. I've learned invaluable lessons from the talented staff in all the departments, which has helped me in choosing my future career in this industry".

Indian hotels: the Wall St effect

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The connection between Wall Street and the Taj Mahal may be not be obvious but it is real enough for India’s hoteliers.

The country’s lively tourist trade – used to coping with crises ranging from floods to terrorism – is now bracing itself for a slow down following the recent global markets shock.

“There will be negative impact on inbound tourism to India. Pretty much what happened after 2008, but perhaps to a lesser extent,” P R Srinivas, an analyst at Deloitte India, told beyondbrics.

Foreign tourist arrivals in India dipped in 2009 after the 2008 Lehman crisis hit the global travel industry, especially among the wealthy Americans and Europeans who patronise India’s luxury resorts.

The total of foreign tourists visiting, fell from 5.4m to 5.2m from 2008 to 2009, before recovering sharply last year to 5.5m.

Last week,  P R S Oberoi, the veteran hotelier whose family runs the luxury Oberoi chain, warned about the challenges facing the Indian economy in the aftermath of US debt downgrade and EU debt crisis. Oberoi told the company’s annual meeting in Kolkata:

There was an expectation that global economies would see a recovery in 2011.  Unfortunately, this is not happening. Global economies and the economic environment are volatile and the world is confronted with economic uncertainties which could impact the company’s business.

Oberoi added that domestic factors weren’t helping – he said inflation, escalating interest rates and corruption scandals had tarnished India’s reputation as a destination of choice for foreign direct investment.

India faces several challenges. Inflation needs to be curbed. Increasesin interest rates and the recent scandals do not augur well for foreign direct investment. Terrorism has emerged as a key challenge and could be a deterrent to the growth of the country’s travel and tourism industry.

But the hotel industry might still have a glimmer of hope in the form of domestic tourists. This industry has been flourishing as the sheer numbers of domestic tourists taking to travelling has been growing steadily to around 700m annually.

While many of these spend little, the government estimates that in some parts of India domestic travellers are starting to spend more than foreign visitors.

Digambar Kamat, chief minister of Goa, a state that receive a large number of foreign and domestic tourists, last week told a New Delhi tourism conference: “While the domestic travellers stayed in star hotels and participated in festivities, sports and held wedding functions, the foreign traveller ate in shacks.”

According to SME Times,  Subodh Kant Sahai, national tourism minister,  said, “Domestic tourism has witnessed annual growth of 10.1 percent over the previous year and this is good sign for entrepreneurs to grow especially for small players.”

He raised the growth target for domestic tourism from 9 percent to 12 percent in the next five years and said tourism companies must aim to double their businesses in the next five years by providing better facilities to tourists, entertainment and a glimpse of India’s spiritual and cultural life.

Srinivas said this creates opportunities for budget and mid-market hotels. “The demand from domestic tourists is in the mid-market segment and we will see a growth in the segment.”

But with a number of international hotel chains announcing ambitious expansion plans in India, the immediate outlook could be tricky,  especially if the downturn in foreign tourism materialises and extends beyond a few months. Srinivas said: “New supply, increasing competition combined with lower numbers of people coming in, all amounts to a challenge for the industry.”

But Oberoi, founded in 1934 by PRS Oberoi’s father MS Oberoi, has survived bigger upheavals in its long history.

Bulgarian Hotel Owners to Fight Alcohol Tourism by Blacklisting Tour Operators

Associations of hotel owners in Bulgarian Black Sea resorts have set about compiling a blacklist of tour operators bringing holidaymakers to Bulgaria on alcohol tourism.
The database of discredited tour operators, which will be prevented from signing contracts with local hotel owners for the 2012 summer season, already includes a number of small scale companies from Scandinavia, Great Britain and Germany, according to Stoyan Marinov, member of the board of the Varna Tourism Chamber.
Veselin Nalbantov, member of the managing board of the Bulgarian Hotel and Restaurant Association (BHRA), told journalists from Bulgarian 24 Hours daily that BHRA was also in the process of creating a similar list.
To prove his point, Marinov explained that Turkey had managed to get rid of alcohol tourism by denying bookings to blacklisted tour operators.
The BHRA executive said that hotel owners along the Black Sea coast were already warning travel agencies that alcohol tourists would not be welcome.
"Pub crawls, as the drinking sprees organized by tour operators are called, are against the law", Nalbantov added, specifying that many of the bars receiving the tourist groups had no classification and the groups themselves contained people below the legal drinking age.
The blacklist initiative was announced one week after hoteliers in Sunny Beach called for the introduction of a curfew.
Their call was backed by major tour operators, including local representatives of Thomas Cook and TUI.

ZTA awards to honour tourism industry

The awards will be presented to the media, business, public service and tourism industry at a lavish ceremony at Great Zimbabwe Hotel in Masvingo Province on September 27.

The event coincides with the Annual World Tourism Day.

ZTA’s public relations, events and protocols head Sugar Chagonda said the nomination process would end on August 31.

"This year the ZTA is honouring Zimbabwe's leading organisations and personalities in the tourism industry," Changonda said.

"The awards are to thank the tourism and hospitality sector for its resilience over the years, which has seen it contributing significantly to Zimbabwe even under very unfavourable economic conditions," Changonda said.

The tourism industry, which used to be among the top foreign currency earners, took a deep plunge after the introduction of the controversial Land Resettlement Programme in 2000.

Foreigners, especially from Europe and America, were deterred after government travel warnings were issued advising caution when travelling in Zimbabwe.

There are nine categories in the new awards, including: accommodation, restaurants, best airline, best car hire, best travel agent, best tour operator, best training institution, best conference facility, and best environmentally conscious facility.

Other awards will include Tourism Image Builder of the Year, Tourism Entrepreneur of the Year, Tourism Woman of the Year and Tourism Personality of the Year.

Changona said local media would be acknowledged with awards for Reporter of the Year (Print), Reporter of the Year (Electronic) and Reporter of the Year (Online) to deserving journalists for their tourism and hospitality coverage in 2011.

He said other awards included the Minister's Award, Social Responsibility Award, and the Patron's Award.

"The objective of the awards is to strengthen tourism management and upgrade service standards," Changoda said.

"They are also meant to help conserve the industry's rich heritage sites while strongly supporting the prospective and able ones, provide a platform for Zimbabweans to appreciate tourism facilities and services in their country, as well as to recognise the efforts of the tourism and hospitality industry."- Ngoni Chanakira

ALLOWING the building of apartments on the site of the demolished Fortfield Hotel, could signal the end of other Sidmouth hotels.

ALLOWING the building of apartments on the site of the demolished Fortfield Hotel, could signal the end of other Sidmouth hotels.

This warning was made by Mark Seward, owner of two seafront hotels, at Wednesday’s breakfast meeting of Sidmouth Chamber of Commerce.

He hosted the meeting at Dukes, and told guest speaker Kate Little, head of economy, planning and countryside services at East Devon District Council: “If this is allowed on a viability basis then there are hoteliers in this town who will be able to interpret this viability clause and manufacture a similar situation, and so our hotel stock will diminish considerably.”

EDDC’s development management committee will consider an application by ZeroC developers to build 31 apartments on the Fortfield Hotel site when it meets on Tuesday, August 23.

The company has an option to buy the site from owner Andrew Torjussen.

Mrs Little suggested the site was on the “cusp” of the boundary of an area covered by EDDC’s policy to include a tourism element on new developments within that area.

She was left in no doubt how the town’s hoteliers and traders felt about possibly losing the site for tourism after telling them: “There is no market there (for a hotel) at the moment.”

Mr Seward believes others in Sidmouth’s tourism industry could stop refurbishing their hotels and let them become dilapidated if this tourism inclusion policy is ignored, setting a precedent.

“Guests won’t return, it becomes less viable, makes less profit and then the case is argued that mid-market hotels are not viable,” he said.

Chamber chairman, Richard Eley, said the Fortfield Hotel had never been put on the market for sale as a hotel, so it was impossible to judge whether it would have been viable.

Businessman Edward Willis Fleming said Sidmouth High Street was robust because the town had good hotel stock, bringing in a good turnover of people into its shops.

Losing hotels would, he said: “diminish the quality of the High Street”.

Mr Seward added: “Fields has people coming in from our hotels on a weekly basis. If there are residents in flats (on the Fortfield site) they will not spend anything like the money in the retail environment.”

Mrs Little, who advised the hospitality association and chamber to put their views to next month’s planning committee, said if the application was refused she had no doubt evidence would be produced to a planning inspector by the applicant that the site had not been viable for many years.

*ZeroC has said it is committed to helping ensure £1.5million would be spent in Sidmouth on tourism, affordable housing, schools and public open spaces, if permission is granted.