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IGLTA honors ITB Berlin for its commitment to LGBT+ travel segment

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The reward for promoting awareness and acceptance of the LGBT+ Community in the global tourism industry: at the Annual Global Convention, which will take place from 24 to 27 April at the Hilton Midtown New York City, the International LGBT+ Travel Association (IGLTA) will present ITB Berlin with the Vanguard Award.

Every year, together with the IGLTA Foundation (www.iglta.org/The-IGLTA-Foundation), the public charity subsidiary of the IGLTA, the directors’ board presents the IGLTA Honors. The recipients are individuals, companies or organizations who have improved relations within the tourism community and raised awareness of LGBT+ travel around the world. The LGBT Travel Pavilion of ITB Berlin celebrated its debut back in 2010, and since then has become a highly-regarded role model for the presentation of the gay and lesbian travel segment at an international travel show. In addition to the extensive display area with its own conference venue, supporting events such as the LGBT+ Media Brunch, networking events, informative lectures, the LGBT+ ITB Convention Seminar – which since 2 years also includes the bestowal of an ITB Pioneer Award -, and, as of this year the International LGBT+ Leadership Summit, attract many visitors.

ITB’s commitment has made it possible to also position this segment at ITB Asia in Singapore and organize international ITB Academies on this topic as recently in Malta and Japan.

”ITB Berlin is proud to occupy a pioneering role in this important subject, and to be the recipient of such a prestigious award for its continuing efforts to promote international recognition of LGBT+ travel“, said Rika Jean-François, CSR officer of ITB Berlin and responsible for this segment. ”What began as a few community pioneers exhibiting here and there around ITB Berlin has over the years become a recognized platform. Together with our partner Diversity Tourism we have created a globally unique forum.“

”We have got to the point now where at ITB Berlin we have created one of the liveliest and most diverse LGBT+ Travel Pavilions possible, with exhibitors and people taking part in discussion rounds from around the world“, is how Thomas Bömkes, LGBT+ consultant for ITB Berlin and Managing Director of Diversity Tourism GmbH described this market’s rising prospects. Rika Jean-François added: ”This award will give us the strength to continue defending LGBT+ travelers against discrimination in every country in the world and to ensure that they, just like any other travelers, can visit places where also local people are respected regardless of their sexual orientation.” Thomas Bömkes pointed out, that the economic potential of this travel market cannot be underestimated: “Studies have shown that accepting diversity can contribute significantly to a destination’s economic success.“

LGBT tourism has been represented at ITB Berlin since the Nineties. As a result of ITB Berlin’s CSR policy which promotes diversity and defends human rights in tourism and due to the keen interest expressed by exhibitors and visitors, Gay & Lesbian Travel was officially declared a segment in its own right at ITB Berlin 2010. Openness, creativity and lively interaction are the dominant features of this segment that has become one of the most wide-ranging at ITB Berlin. The LGBT Travel Pavilion currently boasts the world’s largest display of products for the gay and lesbian travel market of any trade show in the world.

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Pride Group of Hotels unveils Pride Resort and Convention Centre Rajkot

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The Pride Group of Hotels, which manages 14 Hotels and Resorts across India announced the inclusion of “Pride Resort and Convention Centre Rajkot” as the 15th property under the Pride Umbrella. The resort is conveniently located on Rataiya Road, Ishwariya, Rajkot. It is well connected through Rail, Road and Air to all major cities. Pride Resort and Convention Centre Rajkot will bring in a True Indian Touch in the Hospitality Industry in the City and will soon become the preferred venue for leisure & business travelers, conventions and events.

Announcing the launch, SP Jain, Managing Director, Pride Hotels Ltd. says, “We are extremely pleased to unveil Pride Resort and Convention Centre at Rajkot, our 15th property in the country. This is also our third property in the State of Gujarat. We are extremely upbeat on the growth prospects in the region having successfully managed our properties in Ahmedabad and Vadodara. The city of Rajkot has seen steady growth in inflow of travelers from India and across the world. Pride Resort Rajkot with its imposing ambience, banqueting& conferencing facilities and host of hospitality services will appeal to guests looking for the ideal destination for Business Meets, MICE, Theme Weddings and Leisure”.

Located in a serene ambience surrounded by lush greenery, Pride Resort and Convention Centre Rajkot offers 99 spacious rooms that encompass 31 deluxe rooms, 31 Executive rooms, 31 Premium rooms and 6 suite rooms.

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What is the discussion at the UNWTO / ICAO Ministerial Conference on Tourism and Air Transport?

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A Panel discussion is ongoing and a packed program are planned today for delegates in Sai Island, Cabo Verde attending the First UNWTO/ ICAO Ministerial Conference Tourism and Air Transport.

Air Transport and Tourism Policies: Regulatory convergence to maximize and balance their benefits

Air Transport and tourism depend heavily on each other and are essential engines of trade and economic growth for both developed and developing countries.

Despite the synergies, there can be conflicts between aviation and tourism policies due to the difficulties of States in balancing the interests of their airlines and the optimum development of their tourism industries. Separate sectorial policies result in a fundamental disconnect, which constitutes a severe deterrent towards the development of both sectors. How do we enhance policy coherence between the two sectors, harmonize the regulatory frameworks, and prevent separate sectoral policies? How can we strike a balance to maximize the overall benefits of tourism and air transport in the national economy?

What is the current status of Africa’s regulatory framework and what is its impact on tourism and air transport (the Lomé Declaration and the related Action plans both for Air Transport and for Tourism?

How can Africa benefit from and implement the joint UNWTO and ICAO Medellín Statement on Tourism and Air Transport for Development? How can the African Governments promote cooperation and compatible decision-making among transport and tourism authorities and other ministries in charge of related portfolios, including finance, economic planning, energy, environment and trade?

What are the challenges encountered by tourism stakeholders in reflecting tourism business interests in national and regional air transport policies?

Connectivity and Seamless Travel: Best practices to serve tourists and passengers

Aviation and tourism are a customer-focused economic sector.

While there is no single definition of air connectivity, it can be viewed as the ability of a network to move passengers involving the minimum of transit points, which makes the trip as short as possible with optimal passenger satisfaction at the minimum price possible. The realization of seamless travel can improve overall travel experience, which in turn fuels tourism demand.

With the recent launching of the Single Africa Air Transport Market (SAATM), open skies over Africa may soon be a reality, building the necessary regulatory framework to increase international intra-Africa travel.

How do we optimize the flow of passenger traffic through the air transport system? How can we generate sufficient demand for direct air services between African sub-regions, especially between the East-West coasts?

How well do current air service agreements (ASAs) contribute to connectivity and what are the prospects of air transport liberalization? What constitute the bottlenecks and slowdowns of seamless travel in the air transport system? What regulatory schemes can be used or developed to assure essential air services to Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS)?

What are the existing best practices and how could they be extended and adapted to other regions? What are the factors influencing airline choices for different market segments (the intercultural dimension)?

Funding and Financing for Development: Pragmatic measures to build a transparent, stable and predictable investment climate

Infrastructure deficiencies in the aviation and tourism sectors have long been an issue in Africa. While plans are in place to develop and modernize aviation infrastructure, relief is years away at best.

In the meantime, there will be lost opportunities for creating jobs and spurring economic growth. Another issue is the proliferation of taxes on tourism and air transport despite the fact that the industry recovers a vast majority of its own infrastructure costs through payments of user charges, rather than being financed through taxation.

Revenue raised by taxes can often be outweighed by the relinquished economic benefits as a result of dampened demand for air travel.

This Session will focus on

a) the creation of good governance and enabling the environment to build business confidence and encourage investments, and

b) the consolidation of planning and development efforts for aviation and tourism infrastructure in multi-modal and urban planning initiatives. What are the challenges of financing development projects related to the tourism and air transport sectors, particularly in LDCs, LLDCs, and SIDS?

What are the success stories in financing tourism and air transport projects? How do consumers perceive taxes, charges, and others levies and how to ensure transparency of taxes and charges to passengers and tourists?

Why is the limited volume of international public finance and assistance for development currently available for aviation and tourism infrastructure projects?

Travel Facilitation: Advancing visa facilitation in supporting economic growth 

Travel facilitation aims at maximizing the efficiency of border clearance formalities while achieving and maintaining high-quality security and effective law enforcement. Allowing passengers/tourists to cross international borders safely and efficiently contributes significantly to stimulating demand, enhancing the competitiveness of States, creating jobs and fostering international understanding.

In spite of the great strides made in recent decades in facilitating tourist travel in Africa, there is still room for considerable progress. For example, electronic visa processes and delivery could make travel more accessible, convenient, and more efficient without a diminution of national security.

States should also look into increasing cooperation on bilateral, regional and international travel facilitation regimes. How can new technologies be used to make travel more accessible, convenient and efficient? How to define and implement policies which facilitate international travel and tourism while ensuring the security and integrity of traveler identification and border controls?

How well do e-passports, e-visas and other documentation deal with emergent threats to security? How could the African States learn from other effective best practices?

Travel News | eTurboNews

Remember these factors for brochure printing

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Brochures and their usage in marketing for businesses is not necessarily a new subject of discussion. But, if you are new to the whole entrepreneur and marketing sphere, brochure printing can be a bit of a daunting task. In order to help you with the same, we do have some of the important factors that one definitely should keep into account when opting for this. Brochures can be used for businesses any size and shape and the versatility of this is what makes it an ideal choice for marketing and promotion.

In here, we are going to walk you through some of the effective tips that will come in handy when you are opting for printing brochures.

Put in some innovation

The very first and the primary factor that you definitely need to keep into account is to ensure that you are putting in your own thoughts and creativity. This helps ensure that your content stands out from the rest. There is not one brand that is not opting for brochures which is why it is crucial to do something that does make you stand out from the rest.

Rely on someone talented

If the brochure is going to be the face of your brand, it is important to ensure that you hire someone who would do justice to it. Don’t just hire anybody just for the sake of getting it done because the results won’t at all be good. It is important that you hire someone with experience and someone who knows what they are doing. This helps ensure that the end result is something that the audience takes well and connects with.

Take care of the stationary

Yet another important factor to ensure is to take care of the stationary as well. Whatever the prospects are, if you are delving all your time and devotion to it, it is actually very important to ensure that you invest a good amount of time and money into getting the right paper for the brochure. Don’t stick to a cheap quality material because these tend to not give off the best result altogether. Select one that screams professionalism.

Focus on the design and resolution

The last thing you want is to end up having a brochure with bad print quality and bad ink used for it. Looking after the design as well as the print resolution is very important and does help in ensuring that the final product looks professional and done from a good quality vendor and something you get for a cheap rate. Even if you spend less amount of money on getting them printed, don’t let it show on the final product.

Brochure printing and the entire process behind is actually very crucial when you look into it. Not only do you need to focus on the content and ensure its one of a kind, but you also need to ensure that the final product that you are getting is not something that turns out to be a complete waste of time and money.

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Reunion Island NRL viaduct: Now that’s a road trip!

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“The new NRL 974 – the Didier Robert Highway as it is referred to across the island – is a secure road far from the danger of falling stones … nearly 1500 jobs … innovations … ingenuity … perseverance and respect to preserve the environment of the island,” says remarks from social media about this massive Reunion Island project.

The work of the “Nouvelle Route du Littoral” (the new coastal road) is nearing its end on the north side. Motorists traveling along the coastal road watch every day the progress of the work of laying the big posts in the sea.

This Friday marks the last hours of mobilization of the huge machine “Zourite,” used for two years for the installation of the big posts at the bottom of the sea and the first parts of deck assembled in stages. Since the start of work at sea, the machine has reached the construction work at the rate of two of these big posts per month. The total height of these posts varies from 24 to 38 meters on the entire route at sea. The bases of the posts are between 12 and 15 meters below sea level, or between 3 and 8 m below the ocean floor.

48 posts in total

The route stretch of the deck, whose weight of the elements can go up to 670 tons and are conveyed by the “launcher” to be assembled. As for the route on supports, they are much heavier, they weigh up to 2400 tons and are routed and set up on site by Zourite. The height of the segments to be transported varies from 3.80 to 7.30 meters.

Zourite thus completes in this month of March 2019 the installation of the very last of the posts of the viaduct which includes 48 between the Large boat and the advancement at sea in Saint-Denis.

A progress report is made at this very moment on site by a delegation of the regional authority. Taking stock of the progress of the work, the President of the Region was also asked about the prospects for the other achievements that will follow the work of the NRL, starting with the guided regional transport network. “The first phase of 12 km will involve Saint-Denis and Sainte-Marie, plus 2 phases: a first towards Saint-Benoît, and the second towards the west since you know that the New Coastal Road provides for to be able to host a regional guided transport network,” said Didier Robert.

NEO after the NRL

As for the total delivery of the NRL, the president of the Region spoke about the schedule adopted to date. “We are on a 2022 perspective for the overall delivery of the project,” he said, also answering the question of the possibility of a partial delivery. “It’s part of the elements of reflection but it does not integrate today the approach of our community because it is a global work of 12 km, so the goal is to deliver this project on its entirety.”

The subject of NEO Saint-Denis was also mentioned. “For the past two or three years, we have been choosing to co-manage with the City of Saint-Denis for the Nouvelle Entrée Ouest, and we are working together to ensure that there is extension and that Saint-Denis can benefit from the regional commitment with a level of traffic that is more acceptable. It will be finalized in a first time the new bridge of the Saint-Denis River in 2020-2021, so at the same time as the finalization of the viaduct “which prefigures the” new face of Barachois “in a second time,” said the president of Reunion.

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