August 2007
Corinthia Hotels appoint legal counsel • Harbour Air recruits second pilot • Cauchi appointed regional manager of Starwood Hotels • Corinthia's events team go tree planting • ChooseMalta sponsors triathlon championships • LAL Malta taps into lucrative Korean language market • FELTOM awards certificate of accreditation to Magister Academy • Senior employees complete service culture training • Air Malta assists the Malta Rugby Football Union

Corinthia Hotels appoint legal counsel

Floriana, 30/8/07 - Malta based Corinthia Hotels International has appointed Anika Psaila Savona as the company's legal counsel.

Psaila Savona is not new to Corinthia, as she was director for legal services of the parent company - Corinthia Palace Hotel Company for the last six and a half years. Previously she spent five years in Cape Town as a consultant and eventually managing director of the South African offices of Sovereign Trust.

Congratulating Psaila Savona on her appointment, CEO Tony Potter said "I am pleased to be able to welcome Anika to the senior executive team of CHI and know that as legal counsel and a key contributor in our development process, she will add a wealth of talent to the organisation and assist us in growing our business".

Psaila Savona has a doctorate of law from the University of Malta and a masters degree from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

Harbour Air recruits second pilot

Valletta, 30/08/07 - Harbour Air Seaplanes have hired a second pilot, Joe Henderson, "to cope with the heavy demand for flights from Valletta and Mgarr harbours".

Henderson was born in Edmonton, Canada, in 1972. He obtained his degree from the University of Alberta and completed his pilot's licence in 1996. He has 6,000 flight hours experience, mostly on float planes flying Cessnas, Beavers, Otters and Twin Otters.

Cauchi appointed regional manager of Starwood Hotels

St Julian's, 17/08/07 - Hans Cauchi has been appointed area manager for Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide in Sardinia's Costa Smeralda. He is now based at the luxurious Hotel Cala di Volpe at Porto Cervo.

As area manager Cauchi is responsible for eight properties - five in Italy and three in Malta: the five star Le Méridien St Julians, Le Méridien Phoenicia and the Westin Dragonara Resort, where he retains his title of general manager.

Michael Camilleri Kamsky, meantime, has been appointed hotel manager of the Westin Dragonara.

Camilleri Kamsky started his career with Starwood Hotels and Resorts as director of sales and marketing at the Westin Dragonara Resort in 2003, which was followed by area director of sales and marketing for Starwood Hotels and Resorts Malta encompassing Le Méridien St Julians and Le Méridien Phoenicia.

Corinthia's events team go tree planting

Floriana, 17/08/07 - Events@Corinthia - Corinthia Hotels International's dedicated meetings, incentives, conference and events programme - has teamed up with the Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment '34U campaign' to launch the Events@Corinthia initiative, encouraging visiting conference groups to reduce carbon emissions.

As part of the scheme, Corinthia Hotels International will be planting six trees for every conference group accommodated at any of its Malta hotels throughout the year.

Launching the scheme at the Salina aforestation site, where an initial donation of 50 trees were planted on behalf of Corinthia's Malta hotels, director of outbound sales and Events@Corinthia Shawn Pisani said "conscious of our duty towards society in general, Events@Corinthia is fully committed to supporting the 34U campaign which works towards reducing carbon in the atmosphere, producing more oxygen whilst simultaneously embellishing our country with indigenous trees, resulting in a greener, more attractive, destination".

Besides donating trees for each conference, Events@Corinthia will be encouraging visiting conferences to hold a tree-planting event of their own in one of the four 34U designated forestation areas on the island: Ta' Qali National Park, Mellieha, Salina and Xrobb l-Ghagin. Moreover, conference delegates will be presented with a memento of the occasion.

Welcoming Corinthia's initiative, 34U campaign coordinator Glenn Bugeja said "this very commendable effort by the Events@Corinthia team is a first for the local hospitality Industry in helping to make our island a better place to live in for both Maltese and visitors alike. We hope it will encourage other companies to take similar and other measures towards the betterment of our environment".

34U campaign co-ordinator Glenn Bugeja can be reached at: glenn.bugeja@gov.mt

ChooseMalta sponsors triathlon championships

Pieta, 17/08/07 - The Malta Triathlon Association (MTA) has secured a three-year sponsorship deal with ChooseMalta.com, a Pieta-based online travel site. Thanks to this agreement, the ChooseMalta.com National Triathlon Championship, due to be held on 7 October, has been upgraded to an international event.

As part of the sponsorship agreement, Air Malta, the official carrier of the event, will be offering special airfares to athletes who wish to participate in the race.

"The race has potential to grow into an international event due to Malta's attractiveness as a destination", says managing director of ChooseMalta.com Jonathan Shaw.

"We are committed to assist the Triathlon Association by supporting the event financially, but also by obtaining leverage through our strong international marketing presence and expertise".

MTA president Manuel Azzopardi expressed his delight that the National Triathlon Championship had managed to attract such a favourable partnership, adding that he looked forward to the next three years with the hope that the race would grow not only on an international level but also locally.

LAL Malta taps into lucrative Korean language market

Sliema, 17/08/07 - English language school LAL Malta recently organised a language holiday for a group of 22 South Korean students from Seoul's Parangse Open School. Four group leaders accompanied the children, aged between 9 and 14. The group was in Malta for four weeks and returned to Korea in mid-August.

The group attended a language programme at LAL Malta in Sliema in the mornings and spent the afternoons exploring different places in Malta.

"Malta is a new frontier for Korean students, and Korea is an untapped well of potential English-hungry students for Malta", said group leader Sungwan Ham. "Our experience has allowed us to confidently plan future language camps in Malta starting with this winter. I leave with higher hopes and expectations than when I first arrived. I cannot thank the Maltese people and especially all the people at the LAL Malta school enough for making the success of this camp possible", Ham added.

FELTOM awards certificate of accreditation to Magister Academy

St Julian's, 17/08/07 - The chairman of the Federation of English Language Teaching Organisations - Malta accreditation council, Mark Borg, recently presented a certificate of accreditation to Paul Fenech of Magister Academy in the presence of the administration staff and teachers at the school premises in St Julian's.

Borg announced that following FELTOM members' approval of the motion at the last AGM to waive the entrance fee for new members to join the federation in 2007, two schools have applied to join FELTOM this year.

Their membership is subject to accreditation and independent inspectors appointed by the accreditation council have already inspected one of the schools. Six FELTOM member schools applied for accreditation voluntarily this year to benefit from the 50 per cent discount on the accreditation fee before accreditation becomes mandatory for FELTOM schools as from 1 January 2008.

Some have already been inspected while the rest will have their inspections soon and the outcome of these inspections will be announced in the near future.

John Dimech, president of FELTOM and who was also present at the certificate award ceremony, remarked that FELTOM launched the accreditation scheme last year and two schools have already been accredited. Were it not for FELTOM, who has been behind the formulation of almost all legislation pertaining to the English language-teaching sector in Malta, this sector would not have grown to the size it is today.

Much of the legislation pertaining to language schools was originally instituted by FELTOM and then co-opted by the education authorities, although this accreditation scheme goes much further. In view of FELTOM's objective, which is to raise standards, it has taken the accreditation scheme upon itself, rather than expecting the authorities to do so.

Senior employees complete service culture training

Valletta, 17/08/07 - More than 175 senior employees in the tourism sector recently completed the service culture training programme organised by the Malta Tourism Authority as part of the tourism and support services training programme.

Minister for tourism and culture Francis Zammit Dimech announced this during a presentation of certificates held last week. The presentation of the certificates was held at some of the participants’ work places that included Heritage Malta, McDonalds, NSTS Aqua Centre and the Coastline Hotel.

Air Malta assists the Malta Rugby Football Union

Luqa, 17/08/07 - Air Malta is once again reaffirming its support of the Malta Rugby Football Union (MRFU). The airline will be assisting the MRFU with its travel requirements including the association's participation in overseas matches.

Juan Borg Manduca, president of the MFRU met Brian Bartolo, general manager marketing and product to sign the agreement. Speaking after the signing Bartolo said, "Air Malta has been at the forefront in supporting national sports associations especially with their participation in overseas tournaments and events. This agreement is another step in the fulfilment of the airline's committed to our community programme by promoting youth development through sport. It is another clear commitment of our corporate social responsibility aimed at the local Maltese community".