Archives for January 2022

To debut 2022, Tourism Seychelles and the Etihad Airways offices in Switzerland are launching an exciting joint activity to keep Seychelles visible to Swiss visitors.

The sales challenge is open to partners in Switzerland, more specifically all travel agents operating on Amadeus, and will run for one month as from January 31, 2022.

The campaign is aimed at rewarding the agent who has booked the most flight tickets to the Seychelles on Etihad Airways during the month.  The winner will win two Etihad Airways tickets (excluding taxes) with departures from either Geneva or Zurich to the Seychelles and will be valid for travel until 15th December 2022.

Speaking about the challenge, Director General for Destination Marketing Mrs. Bernadette Willemin stated that the destination is aiming at increasing its market performance in Switzerland, which has been the 6th leading market for the Seychelles in 2021 despite the brakes the pandemic put on travel last year.

“This challenge is a fun and creative way for Tourism Seychelles to encourage travel agents in Switzerland to book more visitors and help them discover the myriad aspects of this beautiful destination. Seychelles is more than just sun, sea and sand. Through this challenge we are hoping that travel agents can entice visitors who are interested in experiencing Seychelles nature, its culture and other activities,” said Mrs. Willemin.

The campaign aims at showcasing that Seychelles remains a perfect destination for all niches; “there is something for everyone – for nature lovers, the budget travelers, the lone wolves, the luxury travelers, the photographer, the rejuvenator to name a few,” Mrs. Willemin elaborated.

Etihad Airways currently flies daily from Geneva and Zurich and operates five times per week between Abu Dhabi and the Seychelles, thus allowing for good connections via Abu Dhabi to Seychelles on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Leaving Seychelles to Zurich on Mondays, Saturdays, and Sundays and on Mondays and Saturdays to Geneva.

More news about Seychelles

#seychelles

#etihad

MEDIA CONTACT: Tourism Seychelles, [email protected] 

Songtsam Hotels, Resorts & Tours, an award-winning boutique luxury hotel chain in the Tibet and Yunnan Provinces of China, is celebrating the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) on February 1, 2022 by offering their guests a nine-course Dian-style New Year’s Eve Gift Box which features fresh, local farm-to-table ingredients and delectable traditional style recipes accompanied by nostalgic flavors that will transport the taste buds back in time to celebrate The Year of the Tiger. 

In Chinese culture, the New Year’s Eve Feast represents a reward for the completion of a hardworking previous year and hopes for a better life in the coming year. On New Year’s Eve morning, farm fresh ingredients are purchased from the local market in preparation for the New Year’s Eve Feast. For people in the Yunnan province, the local wild matsutake mushrooms are the central, most important part of the New Year’s Eve feast, as they are preserved from the summer months. This dinner celebration calls for ingredients from all four seasons, including Dian-style preserved meats, braised pork ribs, yams, watercress, snow peas and carrots, fish head tofu pot, black truffle, pan-fried dumplings, bean stew with rice, and more.

Symbolism is key to the New Year’s Eve Dinner. It is a Chinese tradition to eat what is symbolic of how guests would like to welcome in the coming new year. If you eat fish, you will have prosperity; if you eat chicken, you will be lucky; eating dumplings brings fortune & treasures and eating sausages brings longevity.

In the New Year’s Eve Dinner, the utensils are equally as important as the delicacies on the table. Bronzeware, which is one of Songtsam’s iconic aesthetics, uses local pure red copper as raw material and is handcrafted by bronzeware masters in Heqing, Dali of the Yunnan province. The beautiful porcelain that graces the tabletop is hand-pulled from local clay and then fired in the traditional kiln in Chiang Mai, Thailand, making each piece’s shape unique and original; no two are exactly the same. 

After dinner, guests can watch the Spring Festival Gala while enjoying some celebratory snacks such as, dried plantain, broad bean heart, matsutake and highland barley biscuits, beef jerky, and walnut candy.

Songtsam offers its guests New Year Gift Boxes that feature farm-to-table ingredients that follow Chinese New Year traditions: the cost is $108 

1. Shangri-La Matsutake Freeze Dried

2. Dian-style preserved meat

3. Dried plantain

4. Broad Bean

5. Pepper Porcini Sauce

6. Matsutake Highland Barley Biscuits

7. New Year Painting

8. Two Winning Tiger Chinese New Year Red Packets

About Songtsam 

Songtsam (“Paradise”) is an award-winning luxury boutique hotel group of Hotels Resorts & Tours located in Tibet and Yunnan Province, China. Founded in 2000 by Mr. Baima Duoji, a former Tibetan Documentary filmmaker, Songtsam is the only collection of luxury Tibetan-style retreats within the wellness space focusing on the concept of Tibetan meditation by combining physical and spiritual healing together.  The 12 unique properties can be found across the Tibetan Plateau, offering guests authenticity, within the context of refined design, modern amenities, and unobtrusive service in places of untouched natural beauty and cultural interest. Songtsam Tours is a Virtuoso Asia Pacific Preferred Supplier and provides guests an opportunity to curate their own experiences by combining stays at its different hotels and lodges designed to discover the region’s diverse culture, rich biodiversity, incredible scenic landscapes, and unique living heritage.  Songtsam was on the 2018 & 2019 Conde Nast Traveler Gold List China Edition, and the 2022 Conde Nast Traveler Gold List USA Edition. 

For more information, please click here.

About Songtsam Tours 

Songtsam Tours, a Virtuoso Asia Pacific Preferred Supplier, offers curated experiences by combining stays at its different hotels and lodges designed to discover the region’s diverse culture, rich biodiversity, incredible scenic landscapes, and unique living heritage. Songtsam currently offers two signature routes: the Songtsam Yunnan Circuit, which explores the “Three Parallel Rivers” area (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), and the new Songtsam Yunnan-Tibet Route, which merges the Ancient Tea Horse Road, G214 (Yunnan-Tibet highway), G318 (Sichuan-Tibet highway), and the Tibetan Plateau road tour into one, adding unprecedented comfort to the Tibetan travel experience. 

About Songtsam Mission 

Songtsam’s mission is to inspire their guests with the diverse ethnic groups and cultures of the region and to understand how the local people pursue and understand happiness, bringing Songtsam guests closer to discovering their own Shangri La. At the same time, Songtsam has a strong commitment to sustainability and the preservation of the essence of Tibetan culture by supporting the economic development of the local communities and the environmental conservation within Tibet and Yunnan.

More news about Songtsam

#songtsam

U.S. Contact for Songtsam:

Florence Li, Director of International Sales and Marketing

Email: [email protected] 

U.S. Editorial Contact for Songtsam:

The Bradford Group

Karen Hoffman/Amanda Marconi

Tel: (212) 447-0027

E-mail: [email protected]

The airport operator becomes the first fully integrated partner of the loyalty program at Frankfurt Airport. The merger forms the basis for the joint strategic expansion of the retail segment there.

From 31 January 2022, Fraport AG will be a strategic partner of Miles & More and then a co-publisher of the awards program at Germany’s largest aviation hub, Frankfurt Airport. In the future, the merger between Fraport and Europe’s leading loyalty program for people on the move will enable passengers to earn and redeem miles throughout the airport – whether at retail outlets or Fraport’s own service facilities. The integration of retailers and services will take place successively in the coming years. 

“With this unique partnership, we offer our customers special incentives to become a member of the Miles & More program as well as real added value within in the triad of the brands Lufthansa, Miles & More and Fraport”, says Christina Foerster, Member of the Executive Board as well as Chief Customer Officer of Deutsche Lufthansa AG. “We achieve this with personalized offers based on analyzed customer needs. For us, this joint strategic development creates differentiation and raises promising retail potential with a view to a more far-reaching partnership between Lufthansa and Fraport in the future.”

Partnership with great potential 

With their own digital co-brand service card from Miles & More and Fraport, new customers can register for the program directly at Frankfurt Airport and benefit from the program advantages. This will gradually include a variety of shops and restaurants, as well as the own service facilities of the airport operator Fraport.

“With this strategic partnership, we are establishing a world-renowned awards program at Frankfurt Airport that enhances the customer experience and covers the entire passenger travel chain”, emphasizes Anke Giesen, Member of the Executive Board Retail and Real Estate of Fraport AG. “The merger increases the attractiveness of our airport as a retail location, especially because we can actively recruit Miles & More members and thus build up our own customer base. This expands our retail segment in the long term.”

“Frankfurt Airport is the largest hub in Germany for our members. Through our partnership with Fraport, we are significantly optimizing the customer journey at the airport and making our program even more attractive”, says Dr Oliver Schmitt, Managing Director of Miles & More GmbH and Senior Vice President Loyalty & Ancillary Services at Lufthansa Group. “Our goal is to target additional retail potential through a more focused approach and individual offers on site and, above all, to ensure a special customer experience and increased loyalty in various areas for our members.”

SEEN IN PHOTO: Front row, L.t.r.: Dr. Oliver Schmitt (Managing Director Miles & More GmbH and Senior Vice President Loyalty & Ancillary Services at Lufthansa Group) and Anke Giesen (Member of the Executive Boars Retail und Real Estate of Fraport AG). L.t.r.: Jan-Dieter Schaap (Senior Vice President Retail & Properties at Fraport AG), Klaus Froese (Chief Executive Officer Lufthansa Airlines & Hub Management Frankfurt), Dirk Janzen (Vice President Ancillary & Retail Management at Lufthansa Group), Christiane Barthold (Manger Sales Development Miles & More GmbH), Karl-Heinz Dietrich (Senior Executive Vice President Retail & Properties at Fraport AG), Benjamin Ritschel (Vice President Retail Marketing at Fraport AG), Johann-Philipp Bruns (Senior Director Retail Management at Lufthansa Group) and Christina Foerster (Member of the Executive Board and Chief Customer Officer of Deutsche Lufthansa AG).

More news about Fraport.

#fraport

MEDIA CONTACT:

Jana Schäfer

Unternehmenskommunikation

Media Relations

Telefon +49 69 690-30714

[email protected]

Seychelles is welcoming a series of direct charters from Bulgaria as of January 29, 2022. The first Airbus A320 flight from Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, with 175 passengers on board, landed at Pointe Larue International Airport at 8am this morning and will be departing in the evening of February 5, 2022.

The operation, a successful collaboration between local destination management company 7° South, Tourism Seychelles with the active support of the Honorary Consul General of Seychelles in Bulgaria, Mr. Maxim Behar, as well as four Bulgarian tour operators – namely Planet Travel Centre, Luxutour, Marbro Tours and Exotic Holiday, is part of the destination’s efforts to increase the number of visitor arrivals from the Balkans as it seeks to diversify it visitor base.

The visitors, who will be vacationing in different establishments on Mahé and Praslin during their stay in the country, received a warm Seychellois welcome by local musicians and dancers outside the arrival lounge at the airport where they were greeted by the Tourism Seychelles Director General for Destination Marketing Mrs. Bernadette Willemin and the Managing Director of 7°South, Mrs Anna Butler-Payette and their respective teams.

In welcoming this new charter, Mrs. Butler Payette reiterated that Bulgarian visitors are seasoned travelers adding to the tourism arrival landscape of Seychelles.

“Our company is investing in this new market, and we have no doubt that it will provide excellent returns for Seychelles.” 

“We have organized a small VIP reception cognizant of the Public Health orders and are abiding by all health protocols, mandates and regulations set by the Public Health Authority and by the rules of the Seychelles Civil Aviation Authority. I believe it this is an opportune moment to showcase the best of Seychelles, by reinforcing the first impression of the visitors on their arrival as we know that they are our best brand ambassadors to promote Seychelles to their affluent friends and acquaintances back in Bulgaria,” said Mrs. Butler-Payette. The charters from Bulgaria follow similar charters from Romania, which 7° South also collaborated on to organize last year she elaborated.

Confirming the destination’s commitment to diversify its source markets, Tourism Seychelles Director General for Destination Marketing, Bernadette Willemin affirmed that the Balkans is a market with much potential, and which had been showing constant growth over the years until the pandemic hit two years ago.

“This new charter operation will help maintain the momentum and is another opportunity to make Seychelles accessible for visitors in this Eastern part of Europe. It would not have been possible without the persistence of our partners in Seychelles and in Bulgaria; we are grateful that our efforts in marketing our destination are supported by our partners,” said Mrs. Willemin.

More news about Seychelles

#seychelles

MEDIA CONTACT: Tourism Seychelles, [email protected] 

Jamaica Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, is encouraging members of the Diaspora to invest in the local tourism sector, which continues to drive Jamaica’s economic recovery.

Speaking yesterday during the ‘Let’s Connect with Ambassador Marks’ online series, Bartlett noted that: “We have a Diaspora with enormous wealth, experience, capabilities, talent, skill, and connectivity with communities. We need to be investing in capital formation and new enterprises in Jamaica so that Jamaica can build its capacity to respond to the demand that tourism brings.”

He disclosed that one key sector that needs investment is agriculture. He also shared that Jamaica has not been able to produce the required agricultural supplies in the numbers, volume, consistency and at the price point required to supply the hotels.

“The next element that we are moving in on very strongly is to build out the capacity of Jamaica in this current and post COVID-19 period to deliver more on the demand of tourism. We argue that tourism is an extractive industry because we have not been able to supply the agricultural demands of the industry,” said Bartlett.

“It is important that the highest level of production and output be available at all times. When that is not so, it must be had regardless, and therein lies the problem of leakages within the economy. We bring together the potential for increasing the production patterns within our country, which has to be driven by investments or public-private partnerships. So, we also need investments in the manufacturing of various goods that are utilized in the industry,” he added.

“When we look at other services, such as energy, communication, financial, insurance, health, and transportation, billions of dollars are spent on transfers of visitors from airports to hotels and attractions. Investment is also needed in attractions because tourism fulfils the passions of people, and they travel to do just that,” said the Minister.

During his presentation, he also disclosed that the Jamaican Government will be targeting more high-end investments in the sector.

“I think we have reached the level in room count for mass tourism, and we are moving now to high-end. So, it will be lower density and higher-end, with higher average daily rates and stronger input on value-added,” he said.

He also announced that Jamaica would be pioneering Global Tourism Resilience Day in Dubai in the coming weeks, endorsed by major international stakeholders.

“Jamaica is also suggesting to the world that on the 17th of February, starting this year, the world should pause and reflect on the critical importance of building resilience. So, we will be establishing in Dubai, during Jamaica Week, the first-ever Global Tourism Resilience Day. We have had the endorsement of the great gatekeepers of tourism in the world – UNWTO, WTTC, PATA, and the OAS,” he said.

‘Let’s Connect with Ambassador Marks’ enables members of the Diaspora to communicate directly with the Ambassador about mutually beneficial issues and to stay informed about the Government’s policies and programmes, as well as the Embassy’s activities. Jamaican Ambassador to the United States, Audrey Marks is occasionally joined by various distinguished guests, including government ministers, US government officials, key players in various local and international organizations, and prominent members of the Jamaican Diaspora.

More news about Jamaica

#jamaica

MEDIA CONTACT:

Corporate Communications Division

Ministry of Tourism

64 Knutsford Boulevard

Kingston 5

Tel: (876) 920-4926-30

Or

Kingsley Roberts

Senior Director, Corporate Communications

Ministry of Tourism

64 Knutsford Boulevard

Kingston 5

Tel: 920-4926-30, ext.: 5990

Cell: (876) 505-6118

Fax: 920-4944