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Guam Visitors Bureau: Over 200 offers available in eighth year of Shop Guam e-Festival

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The Guam Visitors Bureau (GVB) is proud to announce that 142 local businesses are taking part in the eighth annual Shop Guam e-festival, providing 208 special offers to island residents and visitors. The GVB signature event launches on Thursday, November 10, 2019, and will run through Thursday, February 10, 2019.

“With over 200 exclusive offers every year from our local businesses, everyone can take part in the Shop Guam e-Festival, for free,” said GVB President and CEO Pilar Laguaña. “Shop Guam is the only campaign that our industry stakeholders can promote their products and services across our diverse source visitor markets. We encourage everyone to download the free app and take advantage of the different experiences and deals, especially during the holiday season.”

Inspired by Airbnb’s Experience Marketplace, GVB is also inviting all aspiring businesses or talents to host an event or experience through Shop Guam.

“Our most significant new focus this year is to bring Shop Guam into the 19 districts and 24 villages across Guam,” said GVB Director of Global Marketing Nadine Leon Guerrero. “We are actively recruiting small village vendors and entrepreneurs to be a part of Shop Guam. It supports GVB’s ongoing effort to extend tourism outside of Tumon and create an impact for Guam’s community at large.”

Shop Guam Ambassadors to promote e-Festival

Seven social media influencers from China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan are on the island this week to help boost the awareness of the e-Festival launch. These ambassadors, chosen by GVB, have over 2.6 million followers, across different social media platforms that include Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok, YouTube, Weibo, and Naver. They will also have a more immersive community experience hosted by some of Guam’s aspiring local talents. The 2019 Shop Guam e-Festival influencers are Po Yan (Hong Kong), So Hee Nam (Korea), Ayaka Kawaguchi (Japan), Karen Okajima (Japan), Peter Su (Taiwan), Ruo Guam Nian Hua (China) and An Lan (China).

Upcoming promotional features

The Shop Guam mobile app will continue to be the primary marketing toolkit to help GVB to promote our local attractions and offers. Since GVB launched the Shop Guam mobile app, it has achieved just nearly 200,000 total user downloads. The app will again come with the iBeacon Bluetooth enabled proximity marketing technology and QR Code to send push notifications to the app users when they are near a participating merchant. GVB is also producing social media micro-videos featuring all the merchants and their offers in the campaign throughout GVB’s global social media network, including GVB’s Instagram Stories and TikTok China channel.

Evolution of Shop Guam

The Shop Guam e-Festival began in 2012 with only 10 merchants and has now connected with more than 962 merchants promoting to global markets and tourists. The campaign has attracted 2.2 million visitors to Guam with the ability to reach GVB’s top source markets through innovative marketing technology.

The Shop Guam e-Festival mobile app received the 2017 Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold Award for the best mobile app category. In addition, the Shop Guam campaign supported GVB’s historic recognition as the first tourism office in the United States to win the prestigious President’s “E” Award for tourism export excellence.

For more information, contact GVB’s Shop Guam e-Festival liaison Robbie Gerrie S.N. Bautista at [email protected] or call (671) 797-9900.

MEDIA CONTACT: JOSH TYQUIENGCO, Public Information Officer, GUAM VISITORS BUREAU, Office: (671) 646-5278, [email protected]   

African Tourism Board applauds President Kenyatta of Kenya for co-chairing the Global Resilience and Crisis Management Center

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The President of the Republic of Kenya Uhuru Kenyatta has accepted Jamaica’s Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett’s invitation to be honorary co-chair representing Africa) on the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCM).

Cuthbert Ncube, chairman of the African Tourism Board issued the following statement:

” We want to congratulate the Honourable President of the Republic of Kenya His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta for his new role as the Honourary Co-Chair.

ATB applauds and acknowledges His Excellence for his efforts in implementing a well-coordinated and synchronized approach in sustainable Tourism in Kenya, his involvement with GTRCM will bring much-needed expertise and knowledge within the Global Community.”

The Hon. Minister of Tourism for Jamaica  Edmund Bartlett is a founding member of the African Tourism Board.

President Kenyatta joined the esteemed ranks of Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, former president of Malta, as GTRCM honorary co-chairs.

The African Tourism Board believes tourism is a catalyst for unity, peace, growth, prosperity, job creation for the People of Africa.

More information: www.africantourismboard.com 

MEDIA CONTACT: TravelMarketingNetwork, 954 Lexington Ave. #1037, New York, NY 10021 USA, PH: (+1) 718-374-6816, [email protected]   

Kenyan President confirmed as Tourism Resilience Center Honorary Co-Chair

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President of the Republic of Kenya, His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta, has accepted Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett’s invitation to be Honorary Co-Chair (representing Africa) of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Center (GTRCM).

Kenyan President confirmed as Tourism Resilience Center Honorary Co-Chair
Minister of Tourism, Hon. Edmund Bartlett (right) confirms the President of the Republic of Kenya, His Excellency Uhuru Kenyatta, as Honorary Co-Chair (representing Africa) of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCM). The announcement was made yesterday at a press briefing hosted by the Ministry of Tourism at the offices of Jamaica Tourist Board, New Kingston. Listening intently are (l-r) Professor the Hon. Ambassador Dr. Richard Bernal, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Global Affairs, University of the West Indies; Professor Lloyd Waller, GTRCM Executive Director; and Hon. Najib Balala, Kenya’s Minister of Tourism and Wildlife.

President Kenyatta joins the esteemed ranks of Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, former President of Malta, as GTRCM honorary co-chairs.

The announcement was made yesterday, at a press briefing hosted at the offices of the Jamaica Tourist Board, New Kingston, by Kenya’s Minister of Tourism and Wildlife, the Hon. Najib Balala.

Kenya’s Tourism Minister was in Jamaica as a member of a Kenyan delegation, headed by President Kenyatta, on a three-day State visit.

The announcement follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Governments of the two countries on Monday to broaden cooperation in tourism. Among the many areas listed in the framework for cooperation are the promotion of safe, ethical and sustainable tourism; collaboration on addressing risk related to tourism resilience and crisis management, through research and development, policy advocacy and communication management, and training and capacity building; and the establishment of a satellite centre of the GTRCM in Kenya.

“We are excited that a new frontier beckons us and that is the African frontier,” said Minister Bartlett. Noting Jamaica has focussed largely on the United States and Europe for its visitors, he said Africa offered great opportunity as a source market. “Africa is the new development centre of the world; it is where the new middle class is and the capacity to travel is there. The desire to come to Jamaica is very strong,” he said. Africa is home to 1.2 billion people while Kenya is the third fastest growing economy on the continent.

“We see an urgent call for greater interaction and connectivity between the people of Kenya and Jamaica that can be fulfilled through tourism and this memorandum of understanding will go a far way in enhancing the opportunity for interaction,” Minister Bartlett continued.

Endorsing the GTRCM, Minister Balala said, “We are here today to support your vision and ideals of establishing a Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre. We in Kenya are committed to support this.”

He said Kenya pledged to work with Jamaica, the University of the West Indies and the University of Nairobi to create strategies to counter crises when they happen. Noting that crises can take place anytime and anywhere, he said, “We have the capacity now from lessons learned before on how to counter them.”

In his contribution, Executive Director of the GTRCM, Professor Lloyd Waller, stressed the importance of south-south cooperation as the key to development and noted that the Centre will play an important role where that is concerned. “There are not enough initiatives for south-south cooperation. A lot of the international development partners are in the developed world and it is important for us to identify a local south organization that will facilitate development. I think that the Centre can play that particular role.”

The GTRCM is dedicated to assisting with preparedness, management and recovery from disruptions and crises that impact tourism and threaten economies and livelihoods.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jamaica Ministry of Tourism, Corporate Communications, 64 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5, Tel: 920-4926-30, Fax: 920-4944

African Tourism Board President will speak at the IATA Regional Aviation Forum in Ghana

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The African Tourism Board knows the importance of connectivity for the growing travel and tourism industry to the continent.  African Tourism Board objective is to sell Africa as a shared destination. Airlines see there is money in serving routes to Africa, and more and more carriers establish routes. Africa is now also on all major airline networks in the world.

African Tourism Board announced  Alain St. Ange, president of the organization,  has been invited to speak at the IATA Regional Aviation Forum for West and Central Africa, taking place in Accra, Ghana on June 24 and 25.

Under the theme “Aviation: Business for Regional Prosperity”, this high-caliber event will bring together distinguished aviation decision makers and influencers, representing Governments, regulatory agencies, airlines, airports, air navigation service providers, tourism organizations, international and regional organizations, aviation suppliers and aircraft manufacturers from Africa, the Middle East and globally.

Ghana Minister of Aviation, Honourable Joseph Kofi Adda and IATA’s Regional Vice President for Africa & Middle East, Muhammad Ali Albakri, together with other senior IATA executives and aviation industry are expecting to welcome key aviation leaders to the event.

Amongst many other key topics, this regional aviation forum will focus on:

  • Aviation in National Economic Planning
  • Aviation supporting Regional Agro-Industry
  • Growing Political Will to drive the Aviation Agenda
  • Securing the Prosperity of Aviation Businesses in West and Central Africa
  • Aviation supporting Regional Tourism Growth
  • Removing Impediments to Slow Collaboration among African Airlines

Founded in 2018, the African Tourism Board an association that is internationally acclaimed for acting as a catalyst for the responsible development of travel and tourism to, from the African region. More on Africa Tourism Board and to join visit www.africantourismboard.com 

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Swiss-Belhotel brings special offers to Arabian Travel Market

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Swiss-Belhotel International has created exciting packages for wholesalers and tour operators that will be launched at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) taking place in Dubai from April 28 to May 1, 2019. Targeted at Middle East travelers, the group has put together a fabulous range of offers that will be available across its spectacular properties in New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

Laurent A. Voivenel, Senior Vice President, Operations and Development for the Middle East, Africa and India, Swiss-Belhotel International, said: “We are delighted to announce the launch of these exclusive packages that have been designed to provide unique experiences along with greater benefits and value to our Middle East partners as well as customers. We have superb properties located in some of the most sought-after destinations that attract large number of travelers from our region. With the summer holiday season around the corner, ATM presents us the ideal opportunity to launch these. Moreover, this year we are very excited about the ATM Holiday Shopper that we believe is a great addition to the show.”

The Special Packages offer a diverse choice of experiences at unbeatable rates: These include the following:

  • Special Golf Packages in Indonesia at various destinations – Jakarta, Batam, Bandung, Bali, Tarakan, Belitung, Surabaya, Jayapura, and in Vietnam in Da Lat.
  • Discounted wholesale rates for hotels in New Zealand and for hotels in Australia.
  • Early Bird discounts in the busiest destination in Australia, the hotel in Sydney offers 15% discounts for booking within April with stays valid till August and 10% for bookings until August with stays valid all throughout the year.
  • In Philippines, book at Makati and get a free room upgrade; and when you book at Manila get to enjoy the amazing introductory offer including breakfast for two.

Visitors to ATM can find Swiss-Belhotel International on stand HC0825 located in Sheikh Saeed Arena in Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

eTN is a media partner for ATM.

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