October/December 2007
New appointments at Riu Seabank • Seatrade winter cruising forum planned for Malta • UNWTO conference on tourism and religions slated for Cordoba • Tour operators to showcase wares at GEM • MTA holds best practice conference • FELTOM appoint exec officer • New phone numbers for Air Malta's baggage service

New appointments at Riu Seabank

Mellieha, 22/10/07 - After a year's sabbatical Pierre Ebejer has been appointed sales and marketing executive at the Riu Seabank Hotel.

Boyan Yordanov, meanwhile, who was a night auditor at the four star Seabank for the past 18 months, has been promoted to reservations officer.

Trixie van der Kooi and Karl Abela remain part of the sales and marketing department, and have been there respectively for the past three years and two years.

Seatrade winter cruising forum planned for Malta

Valletta, 22/10/07 - Cruising is now a year-round product with the number of ships deployed in the Mediterranean outside the traditional summer season significant and growing. There are many other examples around the world of deployments that break out of the familiar seasonal pattern with ships based in New York year round, and Christmas cruise itineraries in northern Europe.

With interest in winter cruising growing, Seatrade, publisher and events organiser for the maritime industries, is set to launch the Seatrade Winter Cruising Forum. Between 17 and 18 January 2008, a cross section of the stakeholders in this still new cruise concept will come together in Malta to discuss how its huge potential can be realised.

Malta will be the location for the inaugural event, the principal sponsor of which will be the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA).

MTA chairman Sam Mifsud welcomed the news that Seatrade selected Malta as the venue to launch its winter cruising forum and hoped that this event will be followed by other international, high-calibre initiatives revolving around the cruising and maritime industries. The Malta Tourism Authority immediately recognised the event's potential and came on board as main sponsor.

Supported and endorsed by Cruise Europe, the European Cruise Council and MedCruise, the event will consist of a one and a half day conference along with a half-day workshop on Mediterranean destinations.

Leading, high profile speakers will come together to discuss the latest trends and developments in winter cruising including: itinerary selection, shorex programmes, marketing and distributing the product, navigation and routing, ship design and construction for winter cruising and onboard revenue generation. Accompanying the conference and workshop will be a full social programme.

For more information go to: www.seatrade-europe.com/malta

UNWTO conference on tourism and religions slated for Cordoba

Madrid, 22/10/07 - Tourism is well established as one of the most dynamic economic sectors and also represents an important social phenomenon of our time. Tourism not only fosters economic development, but also has also vast potential to contribute to the improvement of relations among different nations, peoples, cultures and religions. These issues will be highlighted during the Conference on Religions and Dialogue of Cultures to be held in Cordoba, Spain, from 29 to 31 October, convened by the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) with the support of the government of Spain.

International tourism flows are experiencing continued growth at the same time that tourism destinations are diversifying geographically, reaching all cultures and civilizations.

Between 2000 and 2006 alone, international tourism grew from 684 million to 846 million arrivals and UNWTO forecasts nearly 1.6 billion in 2020. At the same time, religions motivate people to travel, and trips for religious reasons have multiplied over the past decades thanks to the facilitation of transport and the expansion of hotel accommodation that has accompanied the development of tourism in the late 20th and early 21st century.

Religious motivations that generate tourism trips include pilgrimages, the fulfilment of pledges, religious celebrations, visits to notable buildings or monuments of a religious nature and offerings to divinities, among others.

In a geopolitical context with no shortage of international tensions, which in many cases are precisely the result of lacking cultural and religious understanding, tourism can make an effective contribution as one of the few sectors that interacts both with sustainable development and international understanding.

"Tourism is a mechanism that makes person-to-person encounters possible; these in turn foster understanding of the differences among societies. Tourism makes it possible to establish bonds among persons who would otherwise continue to view each other with wariness and mistrust. In short, tourism is capable of contributing to a dialogue of civilizations that can lead to a world of stable and lasting peace", said UNWTO secretary-general Francesco Frangialli.

As an activity that cuts across the majority of economic sectors, tourism can serve as a common social denominator. The underlying intercultural exchange contributes to the enrichment of civilizations and can close the gaps that separate people and their points of view.

All of this lies at the centre of the international Cordoba meeting, which will bring together public and private stakeholders, the academic community and religious leaders from all faiths, which have already confirmed their participation. The Conference on Religions and Dialogue of Cultures aims at:
• Analyzing the relationships between tourism and religion and how to optimize their synergies and interactions by harnessing tourism's potential to stimulate and facilitate dialogue among civilizations, cultures and religions.
• Offering orientations and recommendations to governments, religious authorities and tourism operators for the sustainable development and management of tourism motivated by religious purposes or associated with religious heritage sites, as well as regarding how to optimize the benefits that such tourism can generate.

Tour operators to showcase wares at GEM

London, 22/10/07 - On 9 November the European inbound travel industry will be meeting at the Global European Marketplace (GEM) in London's Earls Court. The event, organised by the European Tour Operators Association (ETOA), is already set to be 20 per cent larger than it was last year.

The launch of GEM coincides with a move to hold the annual conference and workshop alongside each other on one day.

"We had to recognise that the industry is changing", said Tom Jenkins, executive director of ETOA. "When the association was founded, there were clear divisions between tour operators (who had something to buy) and suppliers (who were trying to sell). Now relationships are much more complex: as businesses need to buy and sell simultaneously, the ability to network becomes more important.

"We will continue to have the largest spread of purchasing tables in Europe, and an extremely dense schedule of pre-set appointments. If booking trends continue, we should have nearly 180 tables of tour operators, handling over 5,400 appointments with suppliers. This is what we have always done.

"In addition, we are creating time and space for networking with a conference taking place alongside the workshop. There we will be discussing matters of crucial concern to all aspects of the industry - supplier, wholesaler, online intermediary and inbound alike. Those attending the conference will be encouraged to network in the workshop, and those at the workshop will be encouraged to take part in the conference.

"I am delighted that the European industry has been so enthusiastic about this event. It is not an easy time for tour operators, e-commerce or wholesalers. Some origin markets are softening, hotels are achieving record prices in many important centres and new regulations (particularly concerning working time) have proved to be as expensive and complicated to implement as we had feared. The healthy level of bookings for GEM reflects the need to keep abreast of developments in a very fast-changing market and a real hunger to find new ideas and new partners".

ETOA's Global European Marketplace is the most important gathering of the European inbound tourism industry. It takes place on Friday, 9 November at the Brompton Hall, Earl's Court, London, immediately before World Travel Market in London and all the major players participate, including Accor, Amadeus, American Express, British Airways Holidays, Cosmos, Ebookers, Eurostar, Expedia, Globus, Gullivers, Hilton, Historic Royal Palaces, InterContinental, Kempinski, Kuoni, Marriott, Sixt, Sol Melia, Starwood, Tauck World Discovery and Tussauds Group.

The event comprises a conference, workshop, exhibition and black tie dinner at the Café Royale with entertainment provided by the Moulin Rouge. More than 100 top executives, high-level consultants and the media attend the conference. The workshop facilitates approximately 7,500 one-on-one meetings between senior-level buyers and sellers, with the buyers seated at tables and sellers circulating to meet them.

MTA holds best practice conference

St Julian's, 22/10/07 - The Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) recently hosted a half-day conference at the Hilton where the findings of a study on successful human resources practices in the tourism industry were presented. The study was conducted by MISCO following interviews with personnel in the tourism industry involved in staff recruitment and development, travel and catering services. This conference also served to exchange information and provide insight into successful human resources practices in the tourism industry.

The study formed part of the Good Practice for Good Business benchmarking exercise that is part financed by the European Union.

The conference was opened by MTA's consultant George Micallef who in his address said that, "the MTA has always recognized the importance of the development of HR within the hospitality sector, and that the service component is crucially a very important and integral part of the tourism product on offer. The quality assurance and HR development will continue to focus and support a quality service culture, and this division is now in the phase of completing an action plan to take it through 2010, which will complement MTA's marketing plan.

"These two plans together represent MTA's the strategy and direction in the coming years. HR development is at the heart of these plans and focuses on raising the quality of service amongst other objectives. The aims of this conference fit perfectly with MTA's strategy in this regard. MTA is also raising awareness of the benefits of a work-life balance that can be achieved through good practices.

"Work-life balance affects each and every one of us, and should be at the heart of our human resource development. In an increasingly competitive world market, the way to increase efficiency, profitability and productivity is to attract and retain talented and committed people who feel happy and motivated at their place of work. The potential and significant cost of bad and/or inadequate work practices should not be underestimated".

Commenting on the findings of the study, MTA's head of HR development Joseph Tanti said "the tourism industry contributes significantly to the Maltese economy. For this reason, businesses operating within the industry must ensure that they make the best use of their human resources. Good HR practices translate directly into higher levels of employee satisfaction, decreased staff turnover and improvements in the service offered to clients. This combination of factors in turn leads to enhanced customer satisfaction, higher levels of customer loyalty and repeat business - factors which are critical for a player to survive and succeed in a dynamic environment".

Irish speaker Deirdre Fitzsimons, who presented a company specific case study and an overview of tourism best practices in Ireland, also addressed the conference.

The MTA's head of EU Affairs, policy development and programme implementation Marie Louise Mangion, spoke about EU funding opportunities for the tourism industry and how this is assisting the industry to invest in training and staff development thereby enhancing the level of service.  

The conference came to an end with an address by Aiden Harte about his experience of the local tourism industry during this training period together with a summing up of the morning's proceedings. This was followed by a presentation of certificates to participants in the training support for tourism SME by the chairman of the Malta Tourism Authority, Sam Mifsud.

FELTOM appoint exec officer

Sliema, 08/10/07 - The Federation of English Language Teaching Organisations - Malta (FELTOM) has hired Isabelle Pace Warrington on a full-time basis as an executive officer.

Pace Warrington, a graduate of the University of London, has several years experience in the field of education. After relocating to Malta, she taught in one of the country's schools, as well as in an English language teaching institution.

She joins FELTOM after serving as European Computer Driving Licence programme manager at the Computer Society of Malta.

In her new role Pace Warrington will be working closely with the FELTOM executive board, assuming all administrative aspects.

New phone numbers for Air Malta's baggage services

Luqa, 08/10/07 - Air Malta's baggage services office may now be contacted on the following telephone numbers:

• on a 24-hour basis - 23696063, 23696064 and 23696070

• during office hours (from 08:00hrs to 16:30hrs) - 23696213, 23696237 and 2369 6114.

Meantime, in a recent survey issued by the Association of European Airlines for the second quarter of 2007, Air Malta was Europe's best performing airline with passengers less likely to lose their bags or have their flight cancelled compared to any other member of the association.

The quarterly report compiled by the Association of European Airlines reported that just 3.2 Air Malta passengers for every 1,000 travellers arrive at their final destination without their luggage.