SCANDIC LANSERER SIGNATURHOTELLER

www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism and travel, the environment, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink. See also our travel blog at www.minbestereise.blogg.no – Contact us at [email protected]

Hotellkjeden Scandic styrker sitt tilbud når de nå lanserer en ny kolleksjon med signaturhoteller. Hotellene skal markedsføres under sitt eget navn med tillegget «by Scandic».

Det første hotellet blir Stockholms-hotellet Grand Central by Scandic (bildet), skriver www.travelnews.no

Med de nye hotellene vil kjeden møte etterspørselen hos reisende som søker de mer unike hotellopplevelsene.

Signaturhotellene vil preges av sin unike historie og karakter, samt være utformet som tydelige sosiale møteplasser.

Det første hotellet i kolleksjonen er nåværende Scandic Grand Central i Stockholm, som den 1. februar 2016 omprofileres til Grand Central by Scandic.

Selskapets store hotellsatsning i PUB-huset i Stockholm, Haymarket, vil også bli et av signaturhotellene når det åpnes våren 2016.

Scandic planlegger å øke med flere signaturhoteller i kolleksjonen, med en håndfull hoteller i Norden de neste årene. Dette skal gjøres både gjennom omprofilering av eksisterende hoteller og nyetableringer.

– Vårt gode kundetilbud er allerede attraktivt for både nordiske og internasjonale gjester på privat- eller jobbreise. Dette bekreftes av våre kundeundersøkelser og høye andel av gjester som kommer tilbake til våre hoteller. Ved å lansere en kolleksjon signaturhoteller, realiserer vi hotellenes fulle potensial med tanke på kundetilbud og lønnsomhet, sier Frank Fiskers, konsernsjef for Scandic Hotels.

Hotellkonseptet, HTL, som i dag driver fire hoteller i Stockholm og Oslo, kommer samtidig til å knyttes nærmere Scandics varemerke og bytte navn til HTL by Scandic i begynnelsen av 2016. Administrerende direktør i Scandic Norge, Svein Arild Steen-Mevold mener det blir et stort løft både for HTL og Scandic.

– HTL-hotellene får nå tilgang til en mye større distribusjon som vi har bygget opp gjennom 50 år. Scandic kan med dette tilby en enda mer komplett pakke jeg tror gjestene vil sette pris på, sier Steen-Mevold.

Kilde: www.travelnews.no – ekstern lenke til saken: www.travelnews.no/nyheter/scandic-lanserer-signaturhoteller

#By #Ferie #Hotell #Hovedstad #Oslo #Reise #Stockholm #Sverige #Turisme

BERLIN: 25 ÅR SIDEN GJENFORENINGEN

www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism and travel, the environment, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink. See also our travel blog at www.minbestereise.blogg.no – Contact us at [email protected]

Stor 25-års jubileumsfeiring ved Brandenburger Tor i Berlin. Foto: Sean Gallup, Getty Images.

I går, lørdag 3.oktober, feiret Tyskland sin nasjonaldag. Og feiringen var ekstra spesiell denne gangen, da det i år er 25 år siden den tyske gjenforeningen.

Dagen ble markert landet over, med hovedvekt på feiringen i Berlin, der både president Joachim Gauck og forbundskansler og hele det offisielle Tyskland deltok i jubileumsfesten med taler, kulturinnslag, lys-show og fyrverkeri, for å nevne noe.

#AngelaMerkel #Berlin #BrandenburgerTor #By #Ferie #Hovedstad #Merkel #Nasjonaldag #President #Reise #Statsminister #Turisme #Tyskland

KJEMPER OM VERDENS LENGSTE FLYRUTE

www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism and travel, the environment, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink. See also our travel blog at www.minbestereise.blogg.no – Contact us at [email protected]

Flyselskapene kappes nå om å fly verdens lengste flyrute. I forrige måned annonserte Emirates at de fra februar 2016 vil fly nonstop mellom Dubai i De forente arabiske emirater og Panama by – en tur på 13800 kilometer, som skal ta 17 timer og 35 minutter, skriver VG.

Nå kommer Air India på banen og utfordrer Emirates. Sist helg bekjentgjorde inderne at de 2.desember starter opp nonstop-ruten New Dehli-San Francisco, som selskapet regner med å bruke 18 timer på å fly – selv om den er noe kortere rent avstandsmessig enn Emirates-ruten til Panama.

Times of India skriver at Air India vurderer å fly fra Bangalore alternativt til New Dehli. Ifølge avisen er verdens lengste flyrute per i dag det australske flyselskapet nonstop-flyging mellom Dallas-Fort Worth og Sydney – en tur på rundt 16 timer.

#Australia #By #California #Dallas #Dubai #Emirates #Ferie #Fly #Flyselskap #ForenteArabiskeEmirater #FortWorth #Hovedstad #India #NewDehli #Panama #Reise #SanFrancisco #Sydney #Turisme #USA #VG

BALEARENE VIL INNFØRE TURISTSKATT

www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism and travel, the environment, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink. See also our travel blog at www.minbestereise.blogg.no – Contact us at [email protected]

Ibiza by – hovedstaden på Ibiza

Balearene med øyene Mallorca, Ibiza, Formentera og Menorca vil trolig innføre turistskatt fra neste år, skriver nettstedet www.travelnews.no

Målet med den nye skatten, som er beregnet å ligge på mellom ti og tyve kroner dagen, skal ifølge forslagstillerne bidra til å forbedre forholdene på øyene.

Detaljene knyttet til skatten er fortsatt under vurdering, blant annet om den skal innføres før, etter eller under høysesongen, eller bare knyttes til sistnevnte.

I tillegg er det snakk om sette tak på beløpet.

Skatten vil omfatte alle besøkende til øyene, men barn blir trolig unntatt. Den blir sannsynligvis også satt ned utenom høysesongen.

Inntektene skal brukes til å ta vare på øyenes naturlandskap og kulturelle arv, i tillegg til utbedring av infrastrukturen.

Kritikerne har argumentert med at skatten vil drive turistene bort fra øyene, mens tilhengerne argumenterer med at da Barcelona, hovedstaden i regionen Katalonia, innførte en nattskatt på syv kroner hadde det liten innflytelse besøkstallene.

Kilde: www.travelnews.no – ekstern lenke til saken: travelnews.no/nyheter/turisme/mot-turistskatt-pa-Balearene

#Balearene #Barcelona #By #Ferie #Formentera #Hovedstad #Ibiza #Katalonia #Mallorca #Menorca #PalmaDeMallorca #Reise #Skatt #Spania #Turisme #Øy

RUSSIAN EMBASSY’S NEW KYIV ADDRESS

www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism and travel, the environment, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink. See also our travel blog at www.minbestereise.blogg.no – Contact us at [email protected]

Russian diplomats here will soon be needing new stationery. Photo: Dmitry Karpezo / Wikimedia Commons

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko has announced plans to rename the street where Russia has its embassy after Boris Nemtsov, the prominent Russian opposition leader who was shot to death near the Kremlin on 27 February, Transitions Online reported.

Nemtsov was a harsh critic of President Vladimir Putin and the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and Russian policy toward eastern Ukraine.

Klitschko, a former heavyweight boxing champion, made the announcement in Cologne, Germany, as he was presented an award given annually by German newspaper Express to socially and politically conscious athletes, Newsweek reports.

The Kyiv mayor said he had discussed the proposal earlier with Nemtsov’s daughter, Zhanna Nemtsova, who works for state broadcaster Deutsche Welle in Germany.

Klitschko said she welcomed the decision to honor her slain father by renaming Povitroflotskyi Avenue after him.
Kyiv city hall said the change would be implemented in the near future.

Russian parliamentarian Dmitry Gudkov, an independent, earlier this year asked the mayor of Moscow to honor Nemtsov with a memorial plaque but was told such a thing is possible only 10 years after a person’s death, Newsweek said.

Shortly after his death, Nemtsov’s allies published a draft report he’d been working on that outlined in detail allegations of Russia’s direct military involvement in the war in Ukraine. Russia denies the allegations.

Opposition politicians in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg tried to rename a street after Nemtsov days after his murder. The proposal was not successful.

Source: www.tol.org

#Ambassade #Avis #Bokser #Boksing #Borgermester #By #Ferie #Hovedstad #Jekaterinburg #Kiev #Krim #Køln #Moskva #Ordfører #President #Putin #Radio #Reise #Russland #Turisme #Tyskland #Ukraina

#Boxer #Capital #City #Cologne #Crimea #Embassy #Germany #Holiday #Kyiv #Mayor #Moscow #Newspaper #Russia #Tourism #Travel #Ukraine #Yekaterinburg

BEIJING MOVE WILL COME AS A RELIEF FOR CAPITAL’S VISITORS

www.hovedsteder.blogg.no is a Norway-based blog about the capitals of the world, with a focus on tourism and travel, the environment, diplomatic affairs, lifestyle, culture and entertainment, food and drink. See also our travel blog at www.minbestereise.blogg.no – Contact us at [email protected]

Beijing’s Tiananmen Square is usually filled with flowers, pot plants and topiary, but yesterday there were some new installations – hundreds of toilets, shanghaidaily.com reported.

For tourists needing to answer a call of nature, there are now 445 portable toilets in eight locations in the square, as well as 132 assistants to point visitors in the right direction.

-We expect a huge number of tourists during Golden Week, so we have brought in these extra toilets, said Zhang Zhiqiang from the Beijing Environment Sanitation Engineering Group.

The weeklong National Day holiday began yesterday and more than 532 million domestic trips are expected to be made, according to the China Tourism Academy. Therefore, a variety of measures are being rolled out to ensure a safe, happy vacation for China’s tourists.

In Shanghai, for example, the local government has launched an app on the WeChat messaging service which allows visitors to check tourist flow during their visits.

The app provides suggestions for those wanting to go to the city’s top tourist destinations, such as opening times, how busy they are and their capacity.

Police have been stationed along the Bund, where 36 people died in a crush on December 31.

-I cannot wait for my trip to Shanghai, I would like to see the Bund and go to Xujiahui, said Chen Jie, a doctor from Sichuan Province in southwest China. -But I am concerned about the crowds.

More than 100 million passengers are expected to travel by rail during the holiday, China Railway Corp said earlier this week. A record 13.3 million passengers were due to take Trains yesterday, up 13.4 percent from the same day last year.

In Nanchang, one of the country’s busiest transport hubs, the local railway bureau has added 39 trains, including 31 bullet trains, to ease the pressure. The city in east China’s Jiangxi Province was expecting to transport 930,000 passengers by train yesterday.

Meanwhile, Guangzhou Railway Group Corp, which operates trains in migrant workers-concentrated Guangzhou and Shenzhen, has scheduled 39 extra trains to meet demand.

Many airlines said they had also increased the frequency of flights.

Even with these measures, however, many people still chose to travel by road and many major roads were congested. According to web portal Netease.com, traffic on many sections of the Beijing-Tibet Highway were slow yesterday. In the southern province of Guangdong, it said, 45 traffic accidents had been reported on 22 highways.

While many choose to spend the holidays in the country’s bustling cities, others prefer something a bit quieter.

Zhang Hongguang, a resident of Jinan, a city in east China’s Shandong Province, went to a rural outpost not far from where he lives to “get close to nature.”

-It is cheap to stay in Matao, and the locals are very kind, said Zhang. -I don’t understand why people choose to waste their vacations crammed into smelly, crowded Trains, Zhang said as he picked persimmons with his son.

Sources: www.shanghaidaily.com, Xinhua News Agency.

#Beijing #By #Ferie #Guangzhou #Hovedstad #Jernbane #Kina #Reise #Shanghai #TianmenSquare #Toalett #Tog #Turisme

#Capital #China #City #Holiday #Railway #Toilet #Tourism #Train #Travel