N°3 - June 10th, 2008

In this edition
Peter Odle visits Antigua
 
British Airways raises fuel surcharges 
 
Swalings First Aid Course
 
Lighthouse Bay Resort
 
Sailing Week video on CNBC Europe
 
Reduced price Romantic Rhythms tickets for AHTA hotel employees
 
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New Members June 2008
 
Associate
-Swalings Antigua Ltd.
 
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Hotel closures Summer 2008
Grand Royal - 12th May - 11th August
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
Galleon Beach - May 31st -
Long Bay - May 6th - November 1st
Hermitage Bay - September 1st - October 6th
The Inn - May 1st - November 1st
AYCM Resort - September 1st - November 1st.
 
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Hermitage Bay was covered by MACO-Destinations Magazine in their latest edition.
 
 
 
 
Average Hotel occupancies 2008
 
January - 74.1%
February - 81.1%
March - 72.7%
April - 72.4%
 
Please remember to send in your May Occupancy figures as early as possible
 
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 Upcoming Events
 
First Annual Caribbean Tourism Summit (ACTS)
June 21st-24th
Washington, DC
 
Magic Mango Menu Cook-Off
- 6th July
 
Christian Valley Magic Mango Fest -
16th & 17th August
 
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 Books for Books
 
 
Guests regularly leave their read paperback books in their hotel rooms. Every Housekeeping office has piles of these books laying around. We are asking for your help by donating these books to the AHTA.
 
In every school the library plays a key role in the students education. This is no different at the Antigua & Barbuda Hospitality Training Institute but the library is sorely lacking in up-to-date literature on our industry. If we can collect enough books left behind by our guests we can arrange a book sale at Woods mall and raise money towards new books for our future young hotel workers.
 
Please help us to help them, drop of any books you can at the AHTA office on Newgate Street. 
 
 

Welcome to the third Newsletter of the Antigua Hotels & Tourist Association.

Peter Odle, CHA President visits Antigua

 
 
Last Thursday June 5th Peter Odle, President of CHA visited Antigua. After a meeting with Minister Harold Lovell and a short site visit of the new Sandals Grand Antigua, Peter Odle addressed a group of hotel and associate members of the AHTA at a specially arranged luncheon at the Verandah Resort.
 
Peter Odle outlined the restructuring of the CHA under his leadership to become a leaner and more efficient organisation. The main functions of the CHA have been moved from Puerto Rico to Miami and the staffing of the organisation greatly reduced.  The organisation will be known as the CHTA (Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association) after the upcoming AGM later this month in an effort to better represent the overall tourism industry.
 
Mr Odle also spoke about the upcoming Annual Caribbean Tourism Summit (ACTS) to take place in Washington later this month. This summit starts on June 21st and is a joint initiative of the CHA and CTO and effectively replaces the CHIC Conference held previously. This meeting will be held in Washington to give the Caribbean industry leaders an opportunity to meet with and lobby influential persons in the US who can actually effect change in the Caribbean. The keynote speaker is Chairman of the Federal Reserve Dr Alan Greenspan. For more information on the summit visit www.actsdc.com .
 
The time has come for the region's tourism leaders to join forces to revitalise and promote the industry. Under Peter's reign the CHA and CTO have created a joint company CTDC (Caribbean Tourism Development Company) to market and promote the Caribbean as a brand. A theme that will be put to the CARICOM heads at their upcoming meeting in Antigua in July. 

 raises fuel surcharge

British Airways is to increase its fuel surcharges on all tickets issued from 3rd June. Passengers on long-haul flights over nine hours will face the biggest ever fuel surcharge increase in BA history.

Long-haul flights of less than nine hours will increase by £15 per flight to £78 per flight. The surcharge for long-haul flights of more than nine hours will rise by £30 per flight to £109 per flight.
 
More... http://www.caribbeannewsdigital.com/ENGLISH/News.aspx?Id=11355  
Swalings Antigua
First Aid Course
Swalings Antigua is the most recent member of the AHTA and offers First Aid and Lifeguard Training and Swimming lessons.
 
Swalings will be running two Immediate Aid courses exclusively for AHTA members on Tuesday June 24th and Tuesday August 26th at a special rate of EC$350 per person.
Places are limited and there are only 16 available for each session. The immediate aid course is an internationally recognized first aid course that is valid 3 years. It teaches candidates how to act in an emergency and to deal with certain injuries such as Adult, Child and Infant CPR, how to deal with bleeding, broken bones, and bandages as well as other illnesses such as diabetes and how to put people in the recovery position.
 
To sign up call 561.0707 or e-mail: info@swalings.com
For more information visit www.swalings.com 
 

Lighthouse Bay Resort - Barbuda

 
The latest hotel member of the AHTA is a brand new small luxury hotel on Barbuda, the Lighthouse Bay Resort.
 
After 5 years of hard work, Mike Branker the owner of Lighthouse Bay resort has completed his dream to built a Boutique hotel where once his father had a little vacation home 40 years ago. Every piece of material to complete this unique resort had to be shipped from Antigua to Barbuda, a long tedious process, now completed. The resort is situated on the pristine Caribbean beachfront of Low Bay on Barbuda’s extreme Northwest shore. It is accessible only by helicopter or boat on a strip of land separated from the main island by a shallow island lagoon. This gives Lighthouse Bay guests the ultimate in private getaways. The Lighthouse Bay resort offeres ultra modern luxury suites just steps away from where the sea meets the sand. Some of the suite amenities include 500 threat sheets, a hot tub, wireless internet in all the rooms as well as a lab top computers, flat screen TV’s and surround stereo systems all just a step away from the blue waters and soft sand of the Caribbean Sea. The resort is built for families, couples or singles to enjoy high standard hotel living and simple beautiful island living alike.
 
For further information on the hotel check out;  www.lighthousebayresort.com

Sailing Week video to air on CNBC Europe this week 
During this year's Sailing Week our video crew produced a 30 minute TV programme to be aired on CNBC Europe as part of their series "Luxury living" The programme will be aired three times this week starting on Wednesday at 22.30 CET and then Saturday and Sunday at 20.30 CET
 
CNBC Europe is a cable/satellite channel that is estimated to reach 100 million homes across Europe, Middle East and Africa and also around 350.000 five star hotel rooms.
 
Within a couple of weeks the programme should also be available on www.theluxurychannel.com
 
In the meantime check out video of the 2008 Stanford Antigua Sailing week on our website at:
           
 
 Reduced price for Romantic Rhythms Tickets for AHTA Hotel Employees 
 
 
The organisers of the first Antigua International Music Festival are offering a special price of US$40 to all hotel employees. These tickets are on sale at the AHTA office.
 
The line up starts on Friday 13th June with Lionel Ritchie, Brian McKnight, Maxi Priest and Elakru featuring Tizzy
 
Saturday night 14th June features Kenny Rogers, Keyshia Cole, Musiq Soulchild,  Destra, Taxik featuring Claudette Peters and the Burning Flames
 
and Sunday 15th June features Damian Marley, Heather Headley and Shaggy.
Our website www.antiguahoteljobs.com  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
 
 

 

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