Marathon, FL – Adding to the resurgence in the Florida Keys, Banana Bay Resort & Marina in Marathon provides guests with their own personal oasis by adding pet-friendly offerings as well as onsite leisure and water sports activities. Located on 10 spacious acres along the Gulf Coast, the recently renovated tropical escape creates an authentic Marathon Key experience providing guests the amenities of a grand style resort, while tucked away in a quiet, intimate setting.

At Banana Bay, each of the hotel’s 59 deluxe guest rooms has been designed to welcome the ambiance of the Florida Keys with Zen-like décor and picturesque views of the marina bay or freshwater pool. If traveling by boat or have one in tow, the resort’s private marina has 34 transient slips for daily, weekly, and monthly rental with both boat trailer parking and launch access.

Visitors and locals alike will appreciate The Pointe at Banana Bay serving beer, wine and frozen daiquiris, complete with sunset views, waterfront seating, and hammocks. Located on the sand, the bar is open daily from 5 p.m. – 10 p.m. with happy hour specials and live music Thursday through Saturday from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.

To further the experience, Banana Bay Resort & Marina has partnered with Better Than Most Water Sports to offer onsite kayaks, paddleboards, dive and snorkeling trips, sunset cruises and more. The resort also incorporates a pool and hot tub, tennis courts, a barbecue area with firepit, bike rentals, and horseshoes.

At Banana Bay Resort & Marina, furry friends no longer go unnoticed, as the property unleashes a pet-friendly program, which is ideal for short and long-term guests. Guests can travel with their pet and enjoy special hotel amenities upon checking into their room, including food and drink bowls, plush bed, and toys. Pet lovers must notify the hotel of plans to bring their pet when they make a reservation. Dogs must weigh under 65 pounds and will require a non-refundable cleaning fee upon check-in.

Travelers can now take advantage of the Live Like a Local offer and save up to 35% off when booked before August 31, 2018. For more information or to book a stay at Banana Bay Resort & Marina, please visit bananabay.com or contact the resort at 866.559.1032.

About Banana Bay Resort & Marina
Situated in the middle of the Florida Keys in Marathon (Mile Marker 45.9,) Banana Bay Resort & Marina is just minutes from local attractions, five minutes from the Marathon Airport and less than one hour from Key West. The resort’s refreshed guest accommodations boast a design inspired by the property’s serene waterside setting with modern boathouse décor and artwork subtly inspired by the tropical destination and laid-back vibes. Guest room amenities include complimentary Wi-Fi, mini refrigerator, 50-inch flat screen TV, coffee maker and state of the art bathroom fixtures. Banana Bay also features a full-service private marina for short- and long-term rental including 34 slips and more.

It is One Day Farmer’s third time this year to attend Singapore Tourism Exposition to promote the interesting and passionate agricultural travel in Kaohsiung. For the past year, the number of tourists going agricultural travel in Kaohsiung has exceeded 1700 people. This year, Agriculture Bureau brings a new tour package to attract many travel agencies and tourists.

This year, One Day Farmer promotes “Agriculture x Craftsman” series to take tourists to experience the agriculture and fishery in coastal towns, visit the craftsmen in remote regions, visit pottery and wood art studios, play with clay and make wood works by themselves. Besides local craftsmanship, One Day Farmer also works with the peculiar indigenous culture in Kaohsiung to promote Maolin Culture Tour. In the Tour, the tourists can walk on Duona Suspension Bridge, the highest in Southeast Asia, taste millet wine flavor aiyu jelly and indigenous cuisine, visit stone-board houses, and try leather carving and make rice cake, etc. Because the tour package is so special that many people on the site check out more information online and ask the staff for details.

At the Tourism Exposition, the participants can taste the specialties particularly brought from Kaohsiung. Organic dried pineapples, dried dates, plum essence candy are very popular. Section Chief of Agriculture Bureau Fang Qi-feng indicates that for tourists interested in the products, they would promote tours to pick pineapples, dates and plums in Jiaxian and Baolai to them. Among them, the pineapple picking tour is the most frequently asked. Because most of the pineapple picking sites are in Dashu, closer to central Kaohsiung, it is suitable to combine this tour with central Kaohsiung sightseeing or a trip to other cities for more than a day. One Ms. Chen happily said after eating the dried pineapple given by Agriculture Bureau, “This is it! I miss the taste so much!” Ms. Chen used to pick pineapples in Dashu before. She said that the fragrance of pineapples she picked at that time is like that. She has always missed it and would like to visit other rural villages in Kaohsiung and taste other fresh fruit.

With an international airport and port, Kaohsiung is the largest city in Southern Taiwan. It connects with other cities with THSR and railways. With a freeway connecting to rural villages from Central Kaohsiung, it takes only 30 minutes in minimum. It is very convenient to take a trip to a rural village for half a day, a day or two days. The information regarding the seasonal tours to rural villages is posted online. The service mailbox odfkcg@gmail.com is available in Chinese, English and Japanese. Tourists interested in One Day Farmer in Kaohsiung are welcomed to check out more information at the official website https://www.odfkcg.com or search One Day Farmer in Kaohsiung at Facebook. However, the best way to experience the charm of passionate Kaohsiung is to directly take a trip there.

Stakeholders of the Nepal Travel & Tourism industry received some great news from the Nepal Tourism Board today. Exponential growth has been observed in the international visitor arrivals to Nepal in the month of July 2018.  A total of 73,285 international tourists visited Nepal, a strong growth of 73.5 % as compared to the arrival figures of July 2017. With this, the arrival figures in January – July period reached 593,299; an overall increase of 18 % over the same period in 2017.

Tourist arrivals from India grew by 80.4 % this month in comparison to the figures of same month in 2017. Similarly, the overall arrivals from SAARC countries registered a similar growth of 66.1 % over the same month last year. However, the arrivals from the Bangladesh declined by 9 %.

Visitor’s arrivals from China have continued to soar up by an unprecedented growth of 125.4 % in comparison to the arrivals in the same month last year. Arrivals from Asia (other than SAARC) have also recorded robust growth of 86.2 %.  Likewise the visitors from Japan and South Korea to Nepal also increased by 36 % and 21.9 % respectively.

An overall increase of 54.1 % in July has been recorded from European source markets. Arrivals from the UK, Germany and Spain increased by 68.9%, 53.9 % and 41.2 % respectively. However, the arrivals from Austria declined by 72.6 %.

Australia and New Zealand have also witnessed tremendous growths of 113.9 % and 75.2 % in July 2018 as compared to the figures of 2017. The numbers of visitors from USA and Canada have also grown by 79.6 % and 73.3 % respectively in July 2018.

The strong growth in international arrivals to Nepal is attributed to many reasons. Nepal Tourism Board along with travel-trade sector has focused to increase the numbers by carrying out many travel trade related activities in the major source markets. Promotional programs targeted both at the consumers and trades have been regularly organized in India and China. Destination promotion, travel marts, sales missions, business to business (B2B) and business to consumers (B2C) are the major programs that have been continuously organized in major source markets.

Propelled by steady economic growth and burgeoning middle class, India and China have emerged as the key players in global tourism arena and an unprecedented growth in the outbound of these two countries have been observed. Considering this, Nepal Tourism Board has positioned Nepal as a destination for all seasons and the message has been taken positively by the prospective visitors as well as international tour operators. Further, events of international stature such as Himalayan Travel Mart have given much fillip to position Nepal as a premier holiday destination.

“In addition to the neighboring markets, the Asia Pacific region has seen rapid economic development and dynamic changes in recent time. The positive growth in visitor arrivals from all major markets are highly encouraging and undoubtedly present significant opportunities to travel trade sector and to the entire country. Government’s priority in infrastructure development and announcement of Visit Nepal Year 2020 (VNY 2020) is well received by the national as well as international travel trade” remarks Deepak Raj Joshi, the CEO of Nepal Tourism Board. He adds “We continue to work with the utmost conviction that tourism is fundamental to shepherding us into the brighter future where tourism contributes to a more responsible, sustainable and inclusive economy that benefits all level of our society.”