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Sea cruise 2019-2020: What is the Italian trend?

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Sea cruising in Italy is starting to grow again, aligning itself with the international trend. This is the message of the president of Cemar Agency Network of Genoa, who presented – during the Seatrade Cruise Global in Miami – the 2019 and 2020 forecasts for the cruise sector in the Italian ports.

An increase of around 7.13% is expected in terms of passengers  (for a total of 11,911,000 of cruise passengers) and a further +7.88% is expected on 2020 with the expectation expected to total up to 13 million passengers.

“I believe that such a positive result must be mainly attributed to the new units that are becoming part of all the most important fleets of cruise ships,” reflects the president, Senesi. In detail, this year, the ships will increase to 4,860 units, while 149 ships will be in transit in Italian sea ports representing 46 shipping companies.

Among the 70 ports involved in cruise traffic, the primacy of Civitavecchia (Italy) will be confirmed in 2019, with 2,567,000 passengers (+5.13% compared to 2018). Venice will follow with 1,544,000 passengers (-1.06%) and Genoa in third place with an excellent result of 1,343,000 passengers (+32.79%).

It will then be the turn of Naples with 1,187,000 (+20.35%), followed by Livorno with 812,000 (+3.29%). The ranking of the top 10 Italian ports closes with Savona, Bari, La Spezia, Palermo, and Messina.

Among the companies that this year will handle the largest number of tourists in Italy’s sea ports, the podium is held by MSC Cruises (3,622,000 passengers), Costa Crociere (2,725,000 pax) and Norwegian Cruise Line (863,000 pax). Looking instead at the Cruise Groups, the first place goes to Carnival Corporation with 4,117,000 passengers, followed by MSC, Royal Caribbean with all its brands (including Silversea) with 2,115,000 pax, and NCL Holding with over 1 million cruise passengers.

The busiest months will be October (1,744,000 passengers and 781 stopovers), June (1,505,000 pax and 614 stopovers), September (1,497,000 pax and 627 stops), and May (1,488,000 pax and 687 stopovers), while the least trafficked will obviously be the winter ones, with February and January in the lead.

“The positive forecasts for the two-year period 2019-2020 must not lead us to lower our guard. Italy is in fact the first cruise destination in the Mediterranean, and thanks to the upcoming new ships being delivered during this two-year period, increasingly green ships, there will be further space for growth. The incognita remain on Venice which to date has not been resolved and which creates strong doubts about future planning for the entire Adriatic,” concluded Senesi.

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Boutique Venice Beach, Hotel Erwin, announces new GM

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Boutique hotel in Venice Beach, California, Hotel Erwin, recently announced the appointment of new General Manager, Derek Haug, to oversee all hotel operations and management.

Mr. Haug comes to Hotel Erwin with more than 20 years of hospitality experience and a well-rounded understanding of all facets of hotel management. Most recently, Derek held leadership roles with Loews Hotels for the past twelve years and comes to Hotel Erwin from Loews Santa Monica Beach. There he oversaw all food, beverage, conference, catering and spa operations for the resort, creating and launching new restaurant and bar concepts. He has more than six years of experience in Southern California in addition to hospitality experience in Tucson, Arizona, Snowmass Village, Colorado. Derek holds a degree in hospitality management from the University of Minnesota.

With his extensive knowledge and experience with lifestyle brands and resorts, Derek is a great asset to Hotel Erwin’s dedicated team of associates as they undergo concept changes and renovations to the unique property with unparalleled rooftop and signature restaurant. Derek strives to continue to provide guests with a memorable Venice experience and uphold the standards of excellence and effortless Venice beach culture Erwin himself has infused into the hotel.

“Hotel Erwin never gives the ‘normal’ experience. I am excited to join a team who truly embodies the colorful culture of Venice Beach. A team who is pushing the boundaries of what we can do to make a guest’s experience above the ordinary,” Derek said. “It’s evident that the dedicated team at Hotel Erwin takes pride in the mission and values of the culture ownership has created.”

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Delta resumes flights from Venice to NY and Atlanta

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Beginning March 31 Delta Air Lines will resume summer flight services from Marco Polo airport in Venice, Italy, with connections to JFK International Airport in New York and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia, USA, starting May 16.

The daily flights will be operated in collaboration with joint venture partners Delta-Air France, KLM, and Alitalia. Once in the United States, Italian passengers will be able to continue their journey with connecting flights to around 200 destinations throughout the United States, the Caribbean, and beyond.

“Italy is the third largest market for traffic between Europe and North America, with more than 5,500 passengers transported each day,” commented Frederic Schenk, Delta Regional Sales Manager for Southern Europe.

“The summer months are traditionally a time of travel for the Italians, who [are] also from the Veneto region and neighboring areas set out to discover the United States and the American continent. Conversely, there are many Americans who choose Venice and its region for a trip to Italy, and Delta is proud to support the local economy every year, favoring the arrival of US visitors.”

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Gambling is big business in tourism

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The gambling industry, which happens to be a really big one worldwide, is one of the most popular in terms of tourism. That’s why casino tourism is such a big thing these days.

Many countries have been developing big casinos in various regions within their bounds in order to get more tourists to come in. Obviously, a more robust tourism environment is good for the economy as it brings in not only more money but also more recognition and possible investors.

Here is a look at the impact casinos have on tourism and how they help with the overall economy of a country.

Evidence of a Correlation Between Casino and Tourism

Just by taking a look at the biggest casinos around the world, we can actually observe how tourism is boosted by casinos in some countries. These countries include the USA, Macau, and Australia. Just to give you an idea, Las Vegas, Nevada alone was able to bring in over 40 million tourists in 2016. And that’s not very surprising simply because Las Vegas is THE place to go if you want to make a lot of casino money and have fun. Sure, the tourist attractions and the beautiful nightlights also attract the tourists. However, it’s the overall gambling experience and ambiance that really bring them in.

A strong competitor of Las Vegas is none other than Macau, which is a region in China’s territory that was made into one of the world’s biggest gambling hubs. Macau became such a giant in the gambling industry that they were even able to overtake Las Vegas in gambling receipts back in 2010. Just like in Vegas, Macau also focused their efforts on providing the high spending clients with VIP services. This included golden member privileges, private gambling rooms, amazing amenities, and more. This allowed them to bring in so many rich tourists in 2013. The high rollers eventually made up 66% of the overall casino profit that year. Of course, this sudden increase was stopped short in 2014 by the anti-corruption crackdown from Xi Jinping’s government. Eventually, Macau was able to stabilize because the casinos also targeted the mass market instead of just high rollers.

Even though the Macau casinos were able to hold their ground, a number of Chinese gamblers were not satisfied. This is why they went over to Australia instead. Because of Australia’s huge casino developments, around 1 million of these Chinese gamblers switched out to Australia. In fact, casinos became one of Australia’s biggest attractions rivaling even Vegas and Macau alike with 10 million visitors in recent years.

And it’s not only these big countries who have seen surges in their tourism sectors because of casinos. Other smaller countries such as Singapore, Philippines, Monaco, and Cambodia all have boasted of strong revenues from tourists who visit those countries to play in casinos. The growth of the gambling industry in these countries already can give us an idea of how much of an impact casinos have on a country’s tourism.

How Casino Tourism Impacts Other Industries

The great thing about casino tourism is that it can bring in a large number of people from various countries and concentrate them in one location. Since there are a lot of people around casinos, other industries can also benefit from that. The hospitality industry is one such that really benefits from casino tourism. Where there is a casino, there would usually be hotels, resorts, and restaurants. That is why partnerships between hotels, casinos, and restaurants are very common.

Not only hotels and restaurants would flourish, but even other tourist attractions around the area as well. Local restaurants would receive a flock of foreign visitors who came from the casinos. These foreigners would then get a chance to try the local cuisines. This further contributes to the country’s tourism.

In a sense, casino tourism also encourages diversity. This is exactly what happened after Macau’s corruption crackdown. The Chinese government decided to diversify Macau to make it more than just another big time gambling hub like the big Venice canal lookalike.

We can also see such an example in Singapore– one of their biggest casinos, Resortsworld, is located in Sentosa near other tourist attractions by the Sentosa bay. Due to that, a lot of gamblers have also been visiting the tourist spots in the area. Finally, Manila has also been enjoying strong tourism due to the presence of their casinos concentrated in one area.

With that, we can see that location is key if a country would want to make their casino tourism venture successful. By strategic location and immense marketing, casinos can directly impact tourism and also impact other industries and the economy at large.

The Presence of Overseas Workers

The presence of a more diverse crowd also comes the presence of more overseas workers. Let’s take the Australian casinos for example. Because of the influx of Chinese high rollers flocking into their casinos, the demand for Mandarin speaking dealers also increased. What some casinos do is that they employ staff who either speak Mandarin or staff that come from Mandarin speaking countries like Taiwan. This allows the Chinese high rollers to feel more at home in the casino, thus encouraging them to bring in more Chinese gamblers to play.

Impact on Across Border Markets

We all know that there are some countries that make gambling illegal. Of course, this doesn’t deter the citizens of the country who want to gamble. What they would do is that they would either travel to the country nearest to them that legalizes gambling or search for a list of PayPal online casinos wherein they can internationally transact and gamble. By giving something the locals of a country want that their own home country cannot provide, you will be opening up new markets for opportunity by making that “want” accessible.

In Conclusion

All of these points will show that there is definitely a relationship between casinos and overall tourism. Through this discussion, we can definitely say that the casino industry can have a big positive impact on the overall tourism situation of an economy. Of course, there is the problem of an economy relying too much on the gambling industry for attracting tourists.

That is why many countries are also diversifying their tourist attractions and putting various tourist spots near casinos. This will give the foreign gamblers a reason to explore a bit and see the sights. This will encourage them to want to go back to the country even more if they already get sick of the casino. This was actually a problem with Macau since Macau didn’t really have much to brag about except their casino. That is why a lot of the former customers fled to Australia after the crackdown. However, the Chinese government decided that they wanted to diversify in order to attract other markets aside from the high rollers. That is one of the ways that lead to Macau’s stabilization.

While casinos can surely boost tourism, it shouldn’t be the sole reason for a country’s tourism growth. It should be one of the reasons supplemented by other attractions that can make tourists want to keep on coming back.

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Italy travel: Extraordinary opening of hidden treasures to the world

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An extraordinary opening is about to take place of over 1,100 sites in 430 locations in Italy, from the Palazzo della Consulta in Rome to the Castle of Melegnano (MI), from the Center for Space Geodesy in Matera to the city of Pontremoli (MS). This is the Italian Environmental Fund (FAI), the National Trust of Italy.

The organization was founded in 1975 on the model of the British National Trust. It is a private non-profit organization with 60,000 members in early 2005. Its purpose is to protect elements of the Italian physical heritage that could otherwise be lost.

The splendid paradox of Italian beauty is being together both every day and extraordinary, sometimes sumptuous and explicit, others hidden and wounded, but always so deeply Italy’s as to define who the country is and remind of the countless plots that have woven the nation’s origins, leaving footprints in Italy’s cultural heritage as if they are clues.

On Saturday and Sunday, March 23 and 24, 2019, the FAI invites everyone to participate in the FAI Spring Days to look at Italy as never done before and build an ideal bridge between cultures that will make travel around the world a goal and a delight.

Now in its 27th edition, the event has turned into a grandiose mobile party for a vast public, which awaits every year to take part in this extraordinary collective ceremony, an unrepeatable appointment in the cultural panorama that since 1993 has enthralled almost 11 million visitors.

Year after year, the FAI Spring Days exceed themselves: this edition will see 1,100 places open in 430 locations in all regions, thanks to the organizational thrust of the 325 groups of delegates scattered in all regions – regional, provincial, and youth group delegations – and thanks to the 40,000 Cicerone Apprentices.

Hundreds of sites and thousands of people that the soul of the FAI lights up, will take everyone by the hand and accompany the Italians to reflect themselves in the astonishing variety of the most beautiful country, opening places that are often inaccessible and exceptionally open to visitors this weekend, during which it is possible to support the Foundation with an optional contribution or with registration.

For 2019, the novelty of the largest square festival dedicated to the cultural heritage of Italy will be a FAI bridge between cultures, the FAI project that aims to amplify and tell the different foreign cultural influences scattered in open goods throughout Italy. Many of these places bear witness to the wealth derived from the encounter and the fusion between Italy’s tradition and that of European, Asian, American, and African countries.

This is why in some of these sites and in some FAI assets the visits will be handled by over a hundred volunteers of foreign origin who will tell the historical, artistic, and architectural aspects typical of their culture of origin which, in contact with Italy’s, contributed to give life to the country’s heritage.

Examples are the Carlo Viganò Library of the Catholic University in Brescia, a “journey” between the Latin, Greek, Arabic, and vernacular languages through manuscripts, sixteenth-century works, and printed works that document the development of algebra, astronomy, the physics, and other sciences.

There is the Piazza Sett’Angeli in Palermo, an open book where one can read the millennial history of the city, and the Chinese Cabinet of Palazzo Reale in Turin, covered with lacquered panels  from China. Also, there is the connection between Venice and the Dalmatian School of Saints George and Trifone, which still maintains the spiritual and cultural bond between the Dalmatians and Venice.

The catalog of goods that can be visited during the FAI Spring Days is available at giornatefai.it and contains a proposal so varied and original that it is impossible to summarize.

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Festival de Lanaudière: International stars and prestigious beginnings

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The Festival de Lanaudière’s Artistic Director Renaud Loranger has announced four new concerts in the artistic programming of the 42nd edition of the Festival de Lanaudière. They feature the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM), Orchestre Métropolitain (OM), Venice Baroque Orchestra, and violinist Christian Tetzlaff. The Festival runs from July 5 to August 4 this year.

The OSM has been invited to give the Festival’s opening concert on Friday, July 5. Renowned French conductor Alain Altinoglu makes a return appearance at the helm of the OSM after his highly acclaimed performance with this orchestra last fall. Pianist Francesco Piemontesi, who began his career performing throughout Quebec and notably at Lanaudière, is the featured soloist. Some of the great literary classics have inspired the works on this program: Felix Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Piano Concerto No. 1, Richard Wagner’s Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, and Till Eulenspiegel by Richard Strauss.

On Saturday, July 6, the Amphithéâtre Fernand-Lindsay welcomes the OM and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, along with a great lady of French opera, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham. Audiences will be treated to nineteenth-century composer Louise Farrenc’s Symphony No. 2, after which Susan Graham will join forces with the orchestra to transport us to the world of mythical and legendary characters, with a performance of La mort de Cléopâtre by Hector Berlioz. The concert will conclude with excerpts from Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette and will be the first event in the season to mark the 150th anniversary of Berlioz’s death (#Berlioz150). An evening of pure Romanticism!

On Sunday, July 7, the exceptional Venice Baroque Orchestra makes a long-awaited return to Quebec, leading audiences on a journey from Naples to Venice at the time of Vivaldi. The ensemble will explore the flamboyant beauty of this composer’s works, including the famous Four Seasons, as well as those of his contemporaries. Nothing less than explosive!

Finally, German violinist Christian Tetzlaff will perform at the Église de la Purification in Repentigny on Monday, July 29, in what will be his only summer season concert on Canadian soil. His programme features several essential works from the repertoire for unaccompanied violin: a Sonata for Solo Violin by Eugène Ysaÿe, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonata for Solo Violin No. 3, several pieces by György Kurtág, as well as Béla Bartók’s Sonata for Solo Violin.

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Alitalia airline: The ongoing medley

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The journey of Gianfranco Battisti, CEO of Ferrovie Dello Stato Italiane (FS), to the United States would have borne its first fruits in the definition of the new company for Alitalia, but so far nothing is definite.

Delta Airlines, in fact, should officially join the new Alitalia, but with an initial share of only 10%. The commitment signed with the managing director of FS doubles over the next four years to satisfy the industrial plan still being defined.

The managing director of Delta, Ed Bastian, would, therefore, have confirmed the interest for a percentage of shares similar to those already held in Air France-KLM, even if now FS will have to increase its participation up to 40%.

The US carrier, in fact, will guarantee its gradual investment to the point of controlling 20% as long as the new company makes profits, a scheme that follows the operation that Delta has already successfully experienced with Aeroméxico (from 19 to 49% in the past few years.)

According to the Italian press, the Battisti-Bastian confrontation would have focused on the shares of the new team, its shareholders, and governance, while the definition of the industrial aspects of the plan will need more time. As a result, a further postponement of the presentation of the Alitalia business plan is expected to be scheduled for next March 31.

easyJet’s second thought

In a peremptory tone through a press release, easyJet definitively closes the door on a possible entry into Alitalia. “Following the conversations with FS and Delta Air Lines for the creation of a consortium that evaluated the options for future Alitalia operations, easyJet decided to withdraw. However, the airline told the Adnkronos agency of its intentions to confirm its commitment to Italy and to continue to invest in the three airports of Milan, Naples, and Venice as done in recent years, adding routes and capabilities.”

The NewCo scheme

In the new Alitalia, therefore, 50% would be controlled by FS and Delta and another 15% would be due to MEF (the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finances) through the conversion of a bridge loan. It remains to be clarified how the remaining 35% would be divided. According to the newspaper Il Messaggero, in fact, Battisti would have obtained from the Treasury the availability of Fincantieri to cover 10-15%, while an additional 20% would remain to be covered (there are talks again of CDP – Italian National Promotional Institution) or Poste ( the state mail company) through some subsidiary companies. The new Alitalia could start with a capital requirement of around 1 billion euros.

While waiting for its future to be defined, Alitalia states to have recorded a 2.7% increase in passenger numbers on intercontinental routes compared to the same month of the previous year. And passenger revenue traffic is up by 1.2% on long-haul flights compared to the same period in 2018.

February cargo revenue, as stated by Alitalia, also increased by 4.9%. The results obtained on intercontinental routes have contributed to overall revenues, allowing Alitalia to record for the fifteenth consecutive month, growth in total passenger traffic turnover.

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