No.12 - September 4th, 2008

 

In this edition
Direct flights from Miami
 
XL to cease flights to Antigua
 
September Luncheon
 
Safety and Security Audit
 
Internet Marketing Conference
 
Visit of Mount St John's Medical Centre
 
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New Members September 2008
 
Mosaique Ltd (Tanya Edwards)
 
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On the Move
 
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Hotel closures Summer 2008
Sunsail Colonna - May - October 17th
Jumby Bay - June 6th - 2009
Carlisle Bay - August 30th - October 10th
Curtain Bluff - August 23rd - November 1st
Admiral's Inn - August 12th - October 18th
Galleon Beach - May 31st -
Long Bay - May 6th - November 1st
Hermitage Bay - September 1st - October 6th
The Inn - May 1st - November 1st
Blue Heron by rex resorts -
August 5th - December 5th
LightHouse Bay Resort 
1st Sept - 25th October
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Average Hotel occupancies 2008
 
January - 74.1%
February - 81.1%
March - 72.7%
April - 72.4%
May - 63.7%
June - 57.3%
July - 58.2%
 
For more detailed information
click here
 
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 Upcoming Events
 
September AHTA Members Luncheon
Vyviens Restaurant - Bluewaters
- 11th September
 
Moonlight Street Fair
Lower St Mary's Street
- 13th September
 
1st Annual Francis Nunes Jr. Memorial Fishing Tournament and Seafood Festival 
Catamaran Marina, 
-27th September
 
Marriott St Kitts
- 1st - 3rd October
 
Antigua Literary Festival
Jolly Beach Resort
- 7th-9th November
 
World Travel Market
                
 - 10th - 13th November
 
 

Multi Purpose Centre
- 29th November
 
Saint Lucia
- 18 - 20th January
 
Antigua Culinary Festival
- 27th - 29th March 2009
 
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is at your service to help you fill those vacant positions. At no cost we will post any vacant positions to the website.
 
Just send in the details to the AHTA Office
Welcome to the  Newsletter of the Antigua Hotels & Tourist Association.

Direct flights from Miami to start Saturday 6th September

ThIs Saturday American Airlines will commence direct services from Miami International to Antigua with a Boeing 737-800. Until November 2nd this flight will operate every Saturday and Sunday at which stage the flight will become daily.

Flight AA1906 will leave Miami at 10.25am arriving in Antigua at 1.30pm. Flight AA1907 will return to Miami at 2.35pm arriving at 5.45pm.

This flight will facilitate smooth connections from many major US and Canadian gateway cities including Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York, Toronto, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Atlanta and Houston.
 XL to cease flights to Antigua
XL announced this week that they will be ceasing all flights to the Caribbean as of the first week of November 2008. XL has been serving Antigua with a Boeing 767 flight out of Gatwick every Monday. The flight out of Gatwick stopped in St Kitts before arriving in Antigua. The other airlines serving Antigua out of the UK have no intentions to reduce capacity at this time.

September Luncheon
Thursday 11th
 

The September luncheon will once again be in the Vyvien's Restaurant at Blue Waters on Thursday 11th September at midday. There will be a cover charge of EC$100 payable at the door. The speaker this month will be Mr Uton Bright of Royal Marine Insurance Group from Miami

Uton will be presenting a new insurance product called Storm Tracker. This provides insurance coverage for business losses occurring when a named hurricane comes within 50 miles of an insured location, even there is no physical damage to the insured property.
Safety and Security Audits
 
The health safety and security audit of the island's hotel properties started yesterday Wednesday 3rd September when the audit team for the Northern zone audited the Airport Hotel and the Amaryllis Hotel. The Grand Pineapple Beach Resort is being audited today Thursday 4th September. Over the next month all the 45 registered properties will be visited by one of the three audit teams.
 
The audit teams are made from representatives from the Fire Department, CBH, NODS, DCA, ABDF or ONDCP and the Hotel Association.
 
Following a check list based on the FTO (Federation of Tour Operators) guidelines the teams will be verifying the health and safety standards in each property. Following the audit a list of recommendations will be submitted and discussed with each general manager or owner.
 
It is hoped that after this exercise that if the recommendations are followed we can expect to see an upgrade in the hotel facilities. 
Internet Marketing Conference 
 
Following on the success of the Online Revealed series of annual Canadian based conferences established in 2006 in association with the Canadian Tourism Commission, the highly sought after Tourism Internet Marketing Conference is coming to the Caribbean for the first time.

Recognised as a must attend event for Hospitality professionals, destinations, and agencies looking to learn best practices and to understand how the Internet has changed Tourism Marketing, the event will be held at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan Puerto Rico from September 17-19, 2008.

With a mission to bring hands-on learning and practical applications to tourism professionals, Online Revealed Caribbean’s mission is to assist Caribbean tourism operators be successful in what has become a global and ever changing marketplace.

The two day internet marketing conference is designed to provide a forum for sharing information with industry professionals on pertinent topics such as social media, web 2.0, search marketing, website strategy, selling Caribbean destinations in a global marketplace and other implications of the Internet as a critical marketing and distribution vertical to the Caribbean.

The Conference is being sponsored by a host of the most well respected Internet Marketing companies in the field and will include keynote addresses, workshops and panel discussions with confirmed presenters from high profile organizations such as Expedia, World Hotels, POWERi Technologies, A Couple of Chicks e-marketing and VFM Interactive.

Strategic sponsor POWERi Technologies will be presenting at the Conference and sees its involvement as part of its strategy to assist Caribbean tourism stakeholders in mastering the Internet as a tool to market their destination in a global economy.

For further Information, contact Lorraine Headley at 764.2133 or headley@poweri.com

            

 
Visit of Mount St John's  
Medical Centre
 
The Management of the new Mount St John's Medical Centre is inviting Hotel General Managers and owners to visit the new facility on Tuesday 9th September at 9am. This will be a great opportunity to learn about the services that will be provided.
 
Please report to the Security Booth and you will be directed to the Administration office.
 
If you have any questions please call 720-4651 or 720-4650

 

Antigua Hotels & Tourist Association
PO Box 454, Island House, Newgate Street
St John's
Antigua
 E-mail: neil@antiguahotels.org
http://www.antiguahotels.org