www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism, travel, transport, the environment, politics, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink.
airBaltic on May 26, 2015, launched a new route between Riga and Dubrovnik, Croatia. The new route offers a new summer holiday destination for travellers from the Baltics, as well as, open convenient travel options to Riga and beyond to destinations in Scandinavia, the Baltics, and the CIS, the www.rustourismnews.com website reports.
Christophe Viatte, Chief Commercial Officer of airBaltic: “With its breath-taking Old Town, imposing city walls, and the shores of the Adriatic Sea, Dubrovnik is one of Europe’s top summer destinations. Adding it to our route map enables travellers from the Baltic region to conveniently reach this popular destination.”
Starting from May 26, 2015, airBaltic flies from Riga to Dubrovnik once a week. Passengers will board a Boeing 737-300 aircraft for a flight, that will last 2 hours and 40 minutes.
The price of a one-way ticket starts at EUR 99, including airport fees and transaction costs. A full schedule of airBaltic flights can be found on the company’s homepage at www.airBaltic.com.
airBaltic serves over 60 destinations from its home base in Riga, Latvia. From every one of these locations, airBaltic offers convenient connections via Riga to its network spanning Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, CIS and the Middle East. In addition, airBaltic also offers new direct flights from Tallinn, Vilnius and the Baltic seaside resort of Heringsdorf (Kaiserbad) in Germany.
www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism, travel, transport, the environment, politics, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink.
Carlson Rezidor enters Togo with a landmark Radisson Blu hotel in Lomé and is now present in 25 countries across Africa, the www.hospitalitynet.org website reports.
The Group holds the largest pipeline of hotels and rooms under development in Africa.
Carlson Rezidor, one of the largest and most dynamic hotel groups worldwide, further extends its African network and adds a new country to its growing portfolio: Togo.
The historic Radisson Blu Hotel du 2 Février in the capital of Lomé will feature 320 keys and is scheduled to open in late 2015. The hotel is currently undergoing a major renovation program with over 900 local employees on site executing the works.
Africa is one of Carlson Rezidor’s most important growth markets. The group operates and develops more than 50 hotels in 25 African countries, and has with 30 hotels and 6,300 rooms the largest pipeline of hotels and rooms under development on the African continent.
“We are delighted to arrive in Togo to develop and operate the Radisson Blu Hotel du 2 Février. This 102 meter-building is the tallest hotel in West Africa and a true landmark. It will further strengthen our presence in Africa, and at the same time provide economic and social contributions by becoming a social anchor in Lomé”, said Wolfgang M. Neumann, President & CEO of Rezidor at the International Hotel Investment Forum IHIF in Berlin.
The former “Hotel du 2 Février” in the heart of Lomé is currently undergoing an advanced renovation programme before re-opening as a 5-star Radisson Blu hotel in late 2015. It will offer 320 rooms and apartments, five food & drink outlets, meeting space of 3,600 square meters.
including two auditoriums, an outdoor swimming pool and terrace, a business centre, a business class lounge, a 375 square meter gym & spa area, tennis courts and a casino.
Carlson Rezidor’s asset-light, profitable and sustainable growth strategy puts a strong focus on the emerging market of Africa.
“We signed 10 hotels and more than 2,000 rooms in Africa in 2014, and continue to have the largest pipeline on the continent. We believe in the great potential of Africa and are committed to becoming a key player in the travel and tourism sector across the region”, commented Elie Younes, Executive Vice President & Chief Development Officer of Rezidor.
“Africa offers excellent opportunities due to its huge natural resources and workforces, improved infrastructure, and growing middle class. We want to grow further on the continent together with our strong partners. We also want to be a leading employer in Africa: By creating new jobs for local talent and by contributing to the communities where we operate in, we can make a huge difference”, added Younes.
Lome
Carlson Rezidor aims to establish its core brand Radisson Blu as the leading upper upscale brand in Africa – present in capital cities and financial & economic hubs – and to pursue the scaled growth of its mid-scale Park Inn by Radisson in high potential primary and secondary destinations.
The group’s new brands Quorvus Collection (luxury) and Radisson Red (lifestyle select) will offer additional potential to accelerate growth and to cover all market segments.
The group opened its first hotel in Africa in 2000, the Radisson Blu Waterfront Hotel, Cape Town (South Africa). Since then, the company has built up an impressive network of 50+ hotels in 25 countries.
During the past 12 months alone, Carlson Rezidor entered five new African nations and announced Radisson Blu hotels in Lomé/Togo, Juba/South Sudan, N’Djamena/Chad, Kampala/Uganda, and Accra/Ghana.
www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism, travel, transport, the environment, politics, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink.
Bridgetown, capital of Barbados
Barbados achieved a record 171,471 long stay visitor arrivals during the first quarter of this year, breaking a long standing 25-year figure, chairman of the Barbados Tourism Marketing, Inc (BTMI), Alvin Jemmott has said.
“This was a very strong winter season. The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) has predicted a five per cent increase in long stay arrivals for the region for the entire year and we believe our performance in this first quarter bodes well for us to comfortably exceed that target.”
Jemmott said there were record arrivals in each of the first three months of 2015 and attributed this milestone performance to a number of factors including increased airlift capacity negotiated by the BTMI; healthy economic conditions in key markets, a commitment to developing new source markets, Barbados’ strong reputation among its global partners and the agency’s solid promotional strategies for reaching the travel trade, media and consumers in each market.
BTMI chief executive officer, William Griffith, said that a comprehensive review effort has begun to ensure that the BTMI’s policies support their new mandate as a private entity.
“I am pleased to say that we have begun the process of updating a number of critical polices in the areas of human resources, marketing and finance in keeping with our commitment to increasing employee engagement and productivity; maximizing our return on marketing investment, and achieving greater levels of fiscal prudence.”
He said in line with these changes, a comprehensive marketing plan featuring traditional and digital marketing programmes has also been developed to guide the organization in resource allocation and monitoring of its various marketing programmes.
According to the figures released by the BTMI, arrivals from the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Latin American grew by 12.9 per cent, 27.7 per cent, 28.4 per cent and 10.6 per cent, respectively.
The figures also showed that arrivals from Germany also grew by 23.6 per cent.
The BTMI said that these strong performances, including a 17.7 per cent rise in arrivals from “other CARICOM” countries overshadowed the 2.4 per cent decline in the Trinidad and Tobago market and the dip in arrivals from “other Europe” by 27.3 per cent.
While the cruise sector declined by 6.1 per cent to 217,139 passengers, there was a welcomed increase in home porting, resulting in ships purchasing goods and services from local dairy, retail and other suppliers. There is also a trend being observed with smaller ships being replaced by larger vessels, some with the capacity to carry of over 4,000 passengers.
Griffith said that the island’s total airlift capacity for the May 1 – October 31, 2015 summer period was set to rise by 3.6 per cent, largely driven by additional flights and the use of larger aircraft by the island?s airline partners.
The BTMI is projecting a successful summer period for the island, banking on the fact that “there is increasing alignment between our internal operations and structure, and our global strategic marketing efforts”
www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism, travel, transport, the environment, politics, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink.
Fredag ble det kjent at Oslo Lufthavn er plukket ut som én av ti flyplasser globalt som skal gå inn i et prosjekt ledet av «US Customs and Border Protection», skriver www.boarding.no
Hensikten er å se på muligheten til å etablere «US Preclearance» ved Norges hovedflyplass.
– Vi gleder oss over å være én av ti flyplasser som går inn i dette prosjektet. Nå ser vi frem til veien videre for å se om blir en flyplass med «US Preclearance»-status, sier administrerende direktør Øyvind Hasaas ved Oslo Lufthavn i en pressemelding.
«US Preclearance» betyr at man gjør unna toll- og passkontroll på avreiseflyplassen før man går ombord i flyet til USA. Dermed regnes man som en innlandspassasjer når man lander i USA, og unngår å bruke tid i immigrasjons- og tollkontroll ved ankomst.
– Per i dag kan denne prosessen oppleves som ganske tidkrevende, sier Hasaas.
I dag finnes det 15 flyplasser i verden som har denne statusen. Shannon Airport og Dublin Airport i Irland er de to eneste i Europa. Abu Dhabi har også denne statusen, og de resterende 12 flyplassene ligger i Canada og Karibia.
– Dette er et veldig spennende prosjekt som kan gi oss muligheten til å gjøre reisen fra Oslo Lufthavn til USA enklere for passasjerene. Vi gleder oss til veien videre og er spente på konklusjonen, avslutter Hasaas.
Det er for øyeblikket ikke klart når en slik ordning eventuelt kan være på plass ved Oslo Lufthavn.
www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism, travel, transport, the environment, politics, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink.
Estonian public broadcaster ERR said it’s the first time in 65 years that Estonia has no passenger rail connections with Russia, according to Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty – www.rferl.org
Estonian railway company GoRail spokeswoman Kersti Gorstov said the last overnight train from Moscow arrived at Tallinn’s main train station on May 19.
European Union sanctions against Russia have led to a sharp reduction in the number of Russians visiting Estonia, making the Moscow-Tallinn route unprofitable.
GoRail, which had operated the Tallinn-Moscow route continuously since 1998, also dropped service to St. Petersburg earlier this month.
www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism, travel, transport, the environment, politics, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink.
Any hope that the love locks clinging to Paris’ famed Pont des Arts bridge would last forever will be unromantically dashed by the city council’s plan to dismantle them Monday — for good, the AP News agency reports.
The padlocks – signed and locked by lovers on the metal grills on the bridge’s sides by lovers — are widely regarded as an eyesore on Paris’ most picturesque bridge, which overlooks the Eiffel Tower.
Last summer, they also became symbol of danger after a chunk of fencing fell off under their weight.
The city council said this week that the several hundred thousand padlocks in places around Paris cause “long-term heritage degradation and a risk for visitors’ security.”
Padlock-proof plexiglass panels will soon replace the Pont des Arts bridge’s metal grills.
www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism, travel, transport, the environment, politics, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink.
Taipei, the capital of Taiwan (Republic of China) introduces taxi tours and 24-hour toll-free interpretation services for foreign tourists, the www.rocketnews24.com website reports.
Taipei’s city government has been working with the leading local taxi companies to roll out some city tour packages and 24-hour interpretation services to make travelling around Taipei easier for foreign tourists.
Taipei has a well-established public transport infrastructure that is both convenient and economical, but there are times when taking a taxi is much more convenient in the sense that you can hop on and alight just about anywhere without having to walk to find a station or fret about buying tickets, and you?re guaranteed a seat on-board.
To help foreign tourists get around more easily, the Taipei city government recently started providing 24-hour toll-free interpretation services so that tourists and taxi drivers can seek help if they’re having trouble communicating. Simply dial the Taipei resident service hotline at 1999 for English- or Japanese-to-Mandarin interpretation. Korean-speaking tourists can call the Tourism Bureau for interpretation assistance at their toll-free hotline: 0800-011765.
The Taipei city government has also joined hands with three local taxi companies, METRO Taxi Co., Ltd, Taiwan Taxi Co., Ltd and Crown GPS Taxi Co., Ltd, bringing together a pool of approximately 70 drivers who are trained to provide a selection of city tours that will take tourists around some of Taipei?s most popular sightseeing locations.
Foreign tourists can also request a driver who speaks foreign languages when making a tour booking.
www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism, travel, transport, the environment, politics, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink.
With the expansion complete, the BVI cruise pier in Road Town, Tortola, is now 1,039 feet long and 60 feet wide. Mooring dolphins provide another 273 feet, giving a grand total of 1,312 feet of berthing space. Now the pier can safely berth two ships up to 180,000 tons each, the www.cruiseindustrynews.com website reported.
The British Virgin Islands welcomed the 153,000-ton Norwegian Getaway on its inaugural visit, arriving with more than 4,000 passengers and 1,600 crew, as the first ship to dock at the expanded pier. The Getaway is scheduled to call on Tortola every Wednesday throughout the season, according to the Virgin Islands Daily News. Photo: virginislandsdailynews.com
Road Town, capital of the British Virgin Islands
The pier completion was recognised with an official ceremony and celebration on April 29, the same day Norwegian Cruise Line’s Getaway made its inaugural call.
Since the pier is complete, the BVI Ports Authority has turned its focus to Tortola Pier Park, the adjacent landside development, which will feature retail and entertainment Spaces.
www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism, travel, transport, the environment, politics, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink.
Nuuk has a large tourism potential, and this should be developed. Nuuk has never been prioritized before as a tourist destination. One reason for this argument was that tourists would rather experience the “real” Greenland. But this is precisely the reason to market Nuuk.
“In Nuuk we can show tourists an exciting and modern Greenland. We can show them an Arctic metropolis with urban life and culture that is very much a part of modern Greenland. The Colourful Nuuk brand must be built upon to make the world aware of the many things our capital has to offer,” says Anders Stenbakken, Managing Director of Visit Greenland. Sermersooq Business Council and Visit Greenland created the brand ‘Colourful Nuuk’ year, but until now it has only been used in limited ways, and lacking still a very important ingredient. Namely, citizen input.
Therefore, a new campaign is being launched to give city residents the opportunity to show what Nuuk means to them – so that the tourists who are interested in Greenland, get a sense of what the ‘real’ Nuuk is
Nuuk
Share your #ColourfulNuuk campaign
Throughout the month of June, there will be focus on raising citizen awareness on #ColourfulNuuk. It is an open-source campaign where locals are encouraged to tell us why and what they love about Nuuk in words and photos on social media.
Throughout the month, all involved in the #ColourfulNuuk campaign will also go into the draw for many exciting gifts that show the best of Nuuk. It may be a tourist experiences as sailing into the fjord sponsored by Touring Greenland and Tupilak Travel, an overnight stay in Kangi Ski Center and Inuk Hostels or a barbecue package from Pisiffik – or just something nice to have, on a summer day in Nuuk – eg. sunglasses.
The campaign starts on June 1 and runs a month, and for more information check the website at next week.
While many in other countries are used to social media marketing, ‘Share you #ColourfulNuuk’ is the first time Greenland’s tourism industry is using social media in an awareness and marketing campaign such. This is an exciting development for Sermersooq Business Council and Visit Greenland and it will be interesting to see the results.
www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism, travel, transport, the environment, politics, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink.
Image: YLE
The high-speed train Allegro between Helsinki and St. Petersburg, Russia had a 25 percent decline in passenger numbers so far this year. Finland?s state-owned VR Group which runs the trains has started to sell tickets at reduced prices, the Finnish state broadcaster YLE reports (www.yle.fi)
Allegro’s declining passenger number trend appears to be continuing. During the spring this year ticket sales have gone down by about 25 percent, compared with the same time last year.
Allegro?s high speed rail service started at the end of 2010 and saw its biggest passenger numbers in 2013, when VR sold about half a million tickets.
Last year Allegro had a total of about 400,000 passengers.
After the Allegro trains were introduced, the travel time between Helsinki and St. Petersburg was cut to about three and a half hours, or about two hours less than the old trains.
Cruise passenger numbers between Helsinki and St. Petersburg are also down by about a third compared with last year
