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Seychelles shines at Modetour Travel Mart 2019

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The Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) participated for the first time in the sixth Mode Tour Travel Mart exhibition from the September 5 to September 8, 2019, at COEX exhibition center, in Seoul South Korea. 

The four-day exhibition for the trade and consumers garnered the participation of 57 destinations, with 550 booths from 420 organizations and companies, including tourism boards, airlines and hotels.


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Mrs. Amia Jovanovic Desir, the STB Director for India, South Korea, Australia and South East Asia and Mrs. Judy Yun, Account manager of the STB Office in South Korea represented Seychelles at the exhibition.

The STB Director mentioned that the STB’s presence at the South Korean trade event follows the warm welcome received in the country as the STB team conducted a sales visit in June this year.

Team Seychelles had a prime marketing opportunity to market the destination to South Korean trade partners on the first event day, which was Business-to-Business event. 

As part of its strong strategic approach to further encourage selling the destination at the event, the STB team launched the sales contest; an initiative to reward the top three agents who have sold the most packages between October 1, 2019 and January 31, 2020 with an opportunity to conduct an educational familiarization trip to Seychelles.

The concept was received successfully as numerous partners and travel professionals who visited the STB stand showed strong interest to join the contest.

 The South Korean agents present at the exhibition also received a copy of the list of the Destination Management Companies, (DMCs) in Seychelles.

The last three days of the fair were dedicated for individual consumers. Reiterating the success encountered on the first day with the trade partners, the STB team witnessed with pleasure positive response on the consumer Spinning Roulette Event initiative organized at the STB stand to catch the attention of visitors.

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 The fun based initiative require for each participant to say the word “Seychelles” out loud and spinning the roulette to receive a branded item from STB including a water bottle or sports towels.

As members of the public waited to spin the roulette, they had the chance to view Seychelles destination videos as well as the different promotional materials, which the team distributed to them.

Speaking about the success of the three consumer days, Mrs. Jovanovic Desir mentioned that the STB stand received over 1500 visitors including families, couples and children, who enjoyed the roulette and at the same time got the chance to learn about Seychelles.

“We had an opportunity to engage visitors planning to visit and explore our islands on their next holiday, they had the opportunity to seek additional information and queried of how to best to organize their visit. It is essential to add that there is a broad range and balance of segmented interest, apart from the usual thinking that Seychelles is only a honeymoon destination for the South Koreans,” said the STB Director at the event.

MEDIA CONTACT: STB News Bureau, Tel: +248 4 671 354 / +248 4 671 313, stbnews@seychelles.travel  www.seychelles.travel

Christophe Berger Named Director of Conventions Malta

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Christophe Berger, newly appointed Director of Conventions Malta, brings with him extensive experience in the Hospitality and M.I.C.E. market sectors. As Malta’s tourism has been on a tremendous growth path, especially from the North American market, it is also gaining considerable momentum as a popular M.I.C.E. market destination.

According to Berger, “Malta’s tourism industry has enjoyed great success in recent years, and Malta is now striving to boost this success even further by expanding the international appeal of its incomparable M.I.C.E. product, with spectacular settings at competitive prices.”

Malta, with its 7000 years of history and steeped in historic event venues, is a M.I.C.E. planner’s paradise. This Mediterranean archipelago offers a diverse number of magnificent castles, palazzos and forts to choose from. Other unique settings include theme parks, village squares, luxury yachts and exclusive sea-front facilities.
Malta’s multitude of conference hotels or venues can accommodate any size event. This includes the iconic 16th century building, once considered the most advanced hospital in Europe, which is now the state-of-the-art Mediterranean Conference Center.

Berger noted that what adds to the “wow” factor for the M.I.C.E market, and tourism in general, is that “Malta has become one of Europe’s most popular film and television locations – dubbed the Mediterranean’s mini-Hollywood by the London Times.” Malta, where Game of Thrones all began, is also home to many blockbuster film locations including Troy, Gladiator, World War Z, Assassin’s Creed, The Count of Monte Cristo and Murder on the Orient Express.

Born in France, Berger moved to Malta 20 years ago, where he has been working in various sectors of the hospitality and tourism industry. His professional background stems from hotel management and in Malta has held positions at the Grand Hotel Mercure Selmun Palace and at Intercontinental Malta as part of the M.I.C.E team, with responsibilities for overseas marketing the hotel and Malta as a destination. Berger also furthered his M.I.C.E experience while specializing in M.I.C.E. on behalf of a Maltese Destination Management Company (DMC).

Berger, together with Michelle Buttigieg, Malta Tourism Authority Representative in North America, will be heading a public/private sector M.I.C.E. delegation from Malta to IMEX Las Vegas September 9-12, 2019.

For more information about planning Meetings and Incentive events in Malta visit www.conventionsmalta.com

About Malta

The sunny islands of Malta, in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, are home to a most remarkable concentration of intact built heritage, including the highest density of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in any nation-state anywhere.  Valletta built by the proud Knights of St. John is one of the UNESCO sites and was the European Capital of Culture for 2018. Malta’s patrimony in stone ranges from the oldest free-standing stone architecture in the world, to one of the British Empire’s most formidable defensive systems, and includes a rich mix of domestic, religious and military architecture from the ancient, medieval and early modern periods. With superbly sunny weather, attractive beaches, a thriving nightlife and 7,000 years of intriguing history, there is a great deal to see and do. www.visitmalta.com

For Further Information and Photography

Malta Tourism Authority:

Michelle Buttigieg

Tel: (212) 213-0944

Fax: (212) 213-0938

E-mail: michelle-margaret.buttigieg@visitmalta.com

MTA US Editorial Contact:

The Bradford Group

Karen Hoffman/ Bianca Pappas

Tel: (212) 447-0027

Fax: (212) 725 8253

E-mail: info@bradfordglobalmarketing.com

SITA: Tracking airline passenger bags drives 66% improvement in baggage delivery

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Airlines that are adding tracking at more points of the baggage journey are enjoying a huge improvement in bag delivery globally. The SITA 2019 Baggage IT Insights – officially launched at an event in Abu Dhabi International Airport today – shows that where tracking is done at check-in and loading onto the aircraft, the rate of improvement is as high as 66%.

These results come as the record drop in the baggage mishandling rate achieved globally over the past decade plateaus, with the rate steady at around 5.7 bags per thousand passengers over the past three years. In 2018, the rate was 5.69 per thousand passengers.

Over the past year, an increasing number of airlines and airports have started to introduce tracking at key points in the journey – check-in, loading onto the aircraft, transfers and arrival – to improve baggage management and further reduce the chances of a bag being mishandled. SITA’s research provides the first glimpse of the success of this tracking. It reveals that where bags were being tracked when loaded onto the aircraft, the rate of improvement ranged between 38% and 66% depending on the level of tracking introduced.

Peter Drummond, Director of Baggage at SITA, said: “While the mishandling rate has started to plateau over the past few years, this comes against a continued growth in passenger numbers and their bags. In 2018, 4.36 billion travelers checked in more than 4.27 billion bags. More bags makes things more challenging. Everyone across the industry needs to look beyond the process and technology improvements made in the past decade and adopt the latest technology such as tracking to make the next big cut in the rate of mishandled bags.”

Ahmed Juma Al Shamsi, Acting Chief Operations Officer at Abu Dhabi Airports, said: “For our passengers the timely delivery of baggage is key to ensuring a seamless passenger experience and therefore an area in which we continue to make further improvements. Looking forward, baggage tracking is fundamental to driving more accurate bag delivery not only at Abu Dhabi International Airport but across the entire passenger journey. We have led the way with the introduction of tracking on arrival and we have already seen significant improvements.”

Transferring baggage from one aircraft, or airline, to another remains a pinch point in the journey and in 2018 it was again the main reason for bags being mishandled. Transfer bags accounted for 46% of all mishandled bags.
Drummond added: “Transfer is by far the most difficult stage to track a bag as there are multiple airlines and airports involved. However, data from this year’s report shows that tracking at key points in the journey, such as transfers, will go a long way to eliminating mishandling and will allow airlines and their passengers to keep tabs on where their bags are at every step of the way.”

Over the past decade, total number of mishandled bags per annum has plummeted 47% from 46.9 million in 2007 to 24.8 million in 2018, while the annual bill footed by the industry has shrunk 43% to $2.4 billion, down from $4.22 billion in 2007.

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Moscow selected to host annual GSMA Mobile 360 Series event

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Eurasia conference, a regional event held as part of the activities of GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association), will be held in Moscow, October 8-9 2019.

The decision to host the event in Moscow was adopted as a result of an active work of the Russian Convention Bureau which provided the proposal for venues, and organized an inspection visit for representatives of the international association.

The event will be held in Moscow for the second time, following the successful launch in 2018 which gathered over 600 attendees from 21 countries and 52% were Director-level and above.

In 2019, the conference and exhibition will bring together over 600 policymakers, regulatory authorities, international organisations, Mobile Network Operators, mobile technology solution providers and broader ICT ecosystem players from Russia, the CIS region and the international market leaders in 5G technology. The event will be held at the Lotte Hotel Moscow.

Anton Kobyakov, Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation, said: “The sphere of mobile and high technologies plays a key role in stimulating economic growth, attracting foreign investments and increasing global competitiveness through development of science and technology. Adding more industries to the list of events organized by the Russian Convention Bureau will not only facilitate the development of corresponding areas of the real economy sector but also help create the image of the country on the international arena as one of the most meaningful players on the market of the event industry.”

Alexey Kalachev, Director of the Russian Convention Bureau, said: “We use various tools of working with international associations as we work to attract various business events to Russia. We are ready to offer universal and customized solutions that will correspond to the needs and expectations of conference organizers of various scale in different industries.”

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State of the Air: Hawaii boasts some of the best air quality in the nation

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The American Lung Association’s 2019 “State of the Air” report found that Hawaii has some of the cleanest air in the U.S. and Honolulu and Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina are two of the cleanest areas in the country. Honolulu County had a new record low for an annual average of particle pollution, and less than half the highest ever level recorded in 2009-2011.

Each year the “State of the Air” provides a report card on the two most widespread outdoor air pollutants, ozone pollution, also known as smog, and particle pollution, also called soot. The report analyzes particle pollution in two ways: through average annual particle pollution levels and short-term spikes in particle pollution. Both ozone and particle pollution are dangerous to public health and can increase the risk of premature death and other serious health effects such as lung cancer, asthma attacks, cardiovascular damage, and developmental and reproductive harm.

“People in Hawaii are breathing some of the cleanest air in the nation, but increasing climate change is threatening our air quality,” said Kahala Howser, Executive Director for the American Lung Association in Hawaii. “While we are very happy with this report, Hawaiians must remain vigilant when we have vog episodes. Additionally, more than four in 10 Americans are living with unhealthy air, and we’re heading in the wrong direction when it comes to protecting public health and people’s lives.”

Honolulu had no unhealthy air days for ozone pollution. Nationally, this year’s report showed that ozone levels increased in most cities nationwide, in large part due to the record-breaking global heat experienced in the three years tracked in the report.

While the report examined data from 2015-2017, this 20th annual report online provides information on air pollution trends back to the first report. Learn more about Hawaii’s rankings, as well as air quality across and the nation, in the 2019 “State of the Air” report at Lung.org/sota. For media interested in speaking with an expert about lung health, healthy air, and threats to air quality, contact Holly Harvey at Holly.Harvey@Lung.org or 206-512-3292.

2019 Cleanest Cities

Cleanest cities in the U.S (on all three categories of cleanest cities described below)

• Bangor, ME
• Burlington-South Burlington, VT
• Honolulu, HI
• Lincoln-Beatrice, NE
• Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL
• Wilmington, NC

Cleanest for Ozone Pollution (zero unhealthy air days – all counties)

• Anchorage, AK
• Bellingham, WA
• Casper, WY
• Fairbanks, AK
• Idaho Falls-Rexburg-Blackfoot, ID
• Honolulu, HI

Cleanest for Short-term Particle Pollution (zero unhealthy air days – all counties)

• Honolulu, HI

Cleanest Cities for Year-Round Particle Pollution (twenty-five cities with the lowest annual levels)

1. Cheyenne, WY (tie)
1. Honolulu, HI (tie)
1. Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina, HI (tie)
4. Casper, WY (tie)
4. St. George, UT (tie)
6. Elmira-Corning, NY
7. Duluth, MN-WI (tie)
7. Pueblo-Canon City, CO (tie)
9. Bismarck, ND (tie)
10. Bellingham, WA (tie)
10. Syracuse-Auburn, NY (tie)

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