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CHTAEF Scholarships
Relocation of Antigua and Barbuda Tourist Office in London
German Fam Trip
Taste Antigua - Online Gourmet Guide
Skyauction.com
Sustainable Tourism is good for business
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New Members 2009
- Wadadli Film Studios
- Indian Creek Executive Suites
- Pelican Isle Villas
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On the Move
Jean-Marc Rousseau, General Manager of Sandals Grand Antigua has been transfered to the Sandals Whitehouse in Jamaica. He has been replaced in Antigua by Gerard Christ.
Patrick McGeown is no longer General Manager at the Grand Royal Antiguan Resort
Sasha Mercer-Severin has replaced Marina Bonte as Assistant Manager at BlueWaters
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Average Hotel occupancies 2009 & 2008
2009 2008
January - 62.4% - 74.1%
February - 73.9% - 81.1%
March - 69.3% - 72.7%
April - 60.4% - 72.4%
2008
May - 63.7%
June - 57.3%
July - 58.2%
August - 57.8%
September - 42.1%
October - 50.9%
November - 63.8%
December - 58.1%
Total year 2008 - 63.1%
For more detailed information
For the latest CTO statistics on international arrivals to the Caribbean for 2008
(last update May 7th)
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Upcoming Events
TASTE of the Caribbean
San Juan, Puerto Rico
12th-14th June
Christian Valley Mango Festival 2009 -
15th & 16th August
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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
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Welcome to the Newsletter of the Antigua Hotels & Tourist Association. |
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CHTAEF Scholarship presentations |
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Last Friday four aspiring young hotel workers were presented with CHTA Education Foundation Scholarships by CHTAEF Trustee Louise John in a ceremony at Carlisle Bay. Two other recipients who could not be present will be honoured at a ceremony in Miami next month organized with Interval International.
Each year the CHTAEF gives the opportunity to young Caribbean nationals to further their careers by giving study scholarships. This year US$120.000 in awards was given to 41 promising professionals from 16 different Caribbean nations.
This year six of the eleven applicants from Antigua were successful. Special distinction goes to Tiffany Roberts of Carlisle Bay who was awarded the Virgin Holidays Scholarship to study at UWI Open Campus and to Roderick Beazer, the first ever applicant from Barbuda, who was awarded the Interval International Scholarship to study Culinary Arts at the Art Institute of Atlanta.
In addition Starwood Scholarships were awarded to Paul Collins of Carlisle Bay and Elizabeth Lawrence of Hermitage Bay who will be both going to study at the Culinary Institute of America. Joining them there will be Maureen Bowers, pastry chef from Hermitage Bay. Maureen is no stranger to the programme having already been a recipient twice in the past and is continuing her stunning career development.
Another recipent of an Interval International Scholarship is Koran Kong who is currently studying at Johnson & Wales University on a scholarship received last year and will be continuing her studies. Koran is originally from Trinidad but is an estimed member of the kitchen staff at Galley Bay.
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Relocation of the Antigua and Barbuda Tourist Office in London | |
The Antigua and Barbuda Tourist Office now the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority UK has relocated. The new address and contact details for the team are given below. Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority Suite UG.07 25 Floral Street Covent Garden London WC2E 9DS Telephone: 0207 031 8160 Fax: 0207 031 8170 E-mail: tourisminfo@aandbtourism.com
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This week the island is hosting a fam trip organized by the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority (ABTA) in Germany, and Condor Airlines along with the Willy-Scharnow-Stiftung Foundation. The group comprises of 12 agents representing prominent travel agencies and tour operators including Thomas Cook Reiseburo and TUI ReiseCentre.
Every effort is being made by ABTA in Germany to increase the passenger numbers on the summer flights of Condor Airlines. The objective of this fam trip is to give a first hand experience of the island to travel agents from all over Germany so that they can encourage more the Germans to make Antigua their destination of choice.
The German top agents arrived on island on Monday escorted by Sabrina Lutcke of the ABTA office in Germany, Hoess Gerhard of the William Scharnow Stiftung Foundation and Walther Jurgen of Condor Airlines. The group will be sharing their week’s stay between three of our members hotels: Hawksbill by rex resorts, Carlisle Bay and the Jolly Beach Resort from 18th – 25th May.
With a packed itinerary, the group will be visiting many of our member hotels for site inspections, lunches and dinners and on Sunday, a trip to the infamous Shirley Heights Lookout overlooking the Falmouth Harbour for their famous Barbeque dinner. Additional trips to the Rain Forest Canopy Tour, a visit to St John’s City with a tour of the Anglican Cathedral and shopping in Hermitage and Redcliffe Quays are some of the other activities that are planned. The AHTA would like to thank all the members who are making this fam trip possible. |
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TASTE ANTIGUA, Online Gourmet Guide for Antigua and Barbuda |
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When it comes to wining and dining in Antigua and Barbuda, there is a dazzling choice of restaurants and cuisines available to diners. Search Antigua Inc, leading Web Development and E-marketing Company, created the online Gourmet Guide for Antigua and Barbuda, Taste Antigua, www.TasteAntigua.com . Taste Antigua is an innovative online marketing strategy for the restaurants on the cutting edge of technology that is revolutionizing the way that Restaurants advertise and attract customers online.
In these slow economic times, the competition between restaurants increases as customers become much more careful about their spending. This might mean an increase in prices, etc however it is vital for each restaurant to have a plan and embrace new technologies to bring their restaurant into the modern world with Taste Antigua.com
Recent marketing reports estimate that 75% of restaurants world wide will have a web presence by the end of 2009. While technological advances like online reservations, menus were once considered unnecessary; many restaurant owners are finding that they need an online presence to reach their targeted audience.
Taste Antigua’s creator, Ken Shipley, says “Taste Antigua maintains the most complete list of Restaurants along with their most up-to-date information possible including promotional videos, food events and their Menus for their customers. Our best features provide a way that is unsurpassed for Antiguan and Barbudan Restaurants to increase business while dramatically reducing the cost for advertising.”
Shipley continues, “Modern customers expect information at the click of a button. They want to be able to find a restaurant online, see the menu, and make a reservation without ever needing to pick up the phone”
Ken Shipley is the Managing Director of Search Antigua Inc and recently received an award for Young Entrepreneur of 2008.
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Pay your AHTA dues with SkyAuction |
In these hard financial times when cash is scarce, use you empty rooms to pay your AHTA or CHTA dues using Skyauction. Skyauction will take your empty rooms and convert them into cash. Let Skyauction know how much you want or need to pay, the minimum transaction is US$1000, they will then determine a nightly value using information researched from your website, Expedia, Orbitz etc and inform you of the number of room nights that will be needed to be auctioned to reach the required amount. Once agreed, the roomnights will be auctioned on www.skyauctions.com and the AHTA or CHTA receives payment.
Not only does skyauction help you settle your debts, it additionally gives each hotel its own mini website including a click-through to the hotel's own website creating incremental traffic for the hotel.
Skyauction.com receives over 10 million page views monthly, has 1.5 million members and is still growing. Over 600 Caribbean hotels have or are using Skyauction.
For more information contact the AHTA office |
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Sustainable Tourism is
good for business |
In this newsletter we will be giving you each week some simple tips that could make a big difference to your operation.
3. Reuse towels and bed linen
Up to 70% of laundry in hotels is towels and bed linen used for one day only. Take action to reduce towels and linen sent to the laundry to avoid wasting water, energy,chemicals and effort
How
- Put in place a voluntary towel reuse programme
- Change linen every 2-3 days if contractual obligations with operators allow or set up a means of letting guests decide to use linen for more than one day.
- Effectively communicate the voluntary programmes to guests
- Train and retrain staff about procedures so that they can repsect guests' decisions.
- Track each towel and linen usage to monitor the effectiveness of the programmes.
Reward
Impact of implementing a towel reuse programme and a three day linen change in a typical 100 room hotel
- Reduce the amount of material processed in the laundry by 39600kg per year
- Reduce 20kg loads processed in the washers and dryers by 1980 per year
- Reduce consumption of laundry chemicals by 22%
- Extend the life of linen and laundry equipment
- Reduce maintenance and labour requirements |
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No.05/2009 - 20th May, 2009
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