Airlines & airports Frankfurt to Doha STARTING from 10 January, Lufthansa will be offering three weekly flights from Frankfurt to Doha in Qatar. The flights, with a modern 221-seat Airbus A330, will leave each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 12.55, and following a stopover in Kuwait, land in Doha at 22.10 local time following a journey of about seven hours. The return flights on the following days will leave Doha at 00.10 and arrive in Frankfurt at 06.30 in the morning. These times enable travellers to make optimal connections with flights to popular destinations in Europe and North America. Around 450,000 of the 800,000 inhabitants of Qatar live in the capital of Doha. According to the criteria of the World Bank, the country is one of the 10 richest nations in the world. This wealth is based mainly on the country's natural gas reserves and the production, export and further processing of natural gas and oil. With the inclusion of the flights to Doha, Lufthansa is consistently continuing its strategy of flights to the world's oil markets. In addition to Doha, for example, the airline serves important oil markets like Houston in the US, Port Harcourt in Nigeria, Stavanger in Norway as well as Algiers and Tripoli in North Africa. Hotels & resorts French evening in Cairo IN THE GARDENS of the French Embassy, Accor Hotels Egypt and Air France celebrated their annual "Beaujolais Noveau" party in an evening filled with the true feeling of the "Art de Vivre a la Française" under the patronage of Philippe Coste, the French ambassador. A tent was put up in the garden of the embassy which was decorated with great elegance for this special spectacular evening. Invitees enjoyed live entertainment by accordionist Didier Roman and dance performances by the Sofitel Hurghada animation team. In the presence of the French ambassador, all 800 guests were welcomed by Olivier Jallet, general manager of Air France Egypt and Libya and Jean Micheal Casse, county general manager of Accor Egypt. Guests included Minister of Tourism Ahmed El-Maghrabi and Mrs Maghrabi. Renaissance in Bahrain MARRIOTT International will manage a new 323-room, beachfront Renaissance Hotel in Bahrain under an agreement reached by Oasis Property Developers, BSC, the owner/ developer of the luxurious $1 billion Amwaj Islands project. The new Renaissance Bahrain Amwaj Island Hotel will be located on a series of man-made islands, reclaimed off the north coast of Muharraq Island, approximately five kilometres from Bahrain International Airport. It will be part of a three million square metre development consisting of residential apartments and villas, offices, a large waterfront shopping mall, an entertainment island, additional hotels, serviced apartment buildings and a 140-berth, 240-diametre circular marina. The hotel will open in 2008 as part of the project's second phase. The marina, shopping mall, entertainment and commercial centres and schools are also scheduled to open by then as well. In the Middle East, Renaissance Hotels and Resorts are located in Alexandria and Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt and Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. Wipe a tear WORK is under way at Sheraton Montazah Hotel and Lions East to launch a charity campaign called "Let's wipe a tear... let's put a smile" for sick and needy people in Alexandria. The campaign will include medical outreaches and distribution of clothes, blankets, shoes and food in addition to food bags. Miss Photo Poland HILTON Hurghada Long Beach Resort recently hosted the 2005 Miss Photo Poland competition on the resort's 1,100 square metre beach. Twenty-four contestants participated in the event with 500 cheering audience members enjoying the participants' performance and the entertainment programme which included a belly dancer and an African band. New man PETER Gooch was recently appointed the new director of sales and marketing for Semiramis InterContinental. Gooch began his career in 1987 with the Savoy Group PLC. He had previously worked for InterContinental in London as well as the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC. He returns to InterContinental Hotels Group in Egypt. Gooch studied at Oxford Brookes University Hotel School and Westminster College and is a fellow of The Hotel and Catering and International Management Association and a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Austrians visit IN AN EFFORT to support inbound tourism to Egypt, Conrad Cairo recently hosted a cultural Austrian delegation headed by Austrian Minister of Youth and Culture Alfred Kager, accompanied by prominent cultural and media personalities as well as youth representatives. During their stay, the delegation enjoyed fine hospitality as well as the upscale service provided by the hotel. Fashion in Sharm SHERATON Sharm Hotel, Resort & Villas has been chosen to host an international Russian fashion show in collaboration with the Egyptian ministries of education and culture, along with South Valley University. In a charming atmosphere the fashion show was held on the hotel's beach attended by more than 400 guests who expressed their admiration with the perfect organisation and decoration, in addition to the sumptuous candle dinner. EgyptAir contributed to the event as it was the main sponsor. All prizes given to the lucky winners were presented by EgyptAir. Reviving Abu Soma THE INTERCONTINENTAL Abu Soma Resort recently hosted a Pan Arab press delegation, part of the InterContinental Hotels and Resorts Group's strategy to energise Arab tourism between Egypt and other Arab countries. The delegation was impressed by the spectacular views, activities, services and architectural design of the property. John Lagos, general manager of the resort, invited the delegation for lunch at Kiriaco's, the Greek restaurant where they enjoyed the food and music. To the best CONRAD Hotels recently received the ultimate award, "World's Leading Luxury Hotel Brand", at the World Travel Awards ceremony held on the eve of the opening of the World Travel Market (WTM). The prestigious trophy was presented to Clem Barter, president of Conrad Hotels, during a dinner at the London Royal Opera House. Eight other distinctions were awarded to some of the brand hotels: the Conrad Istanbul collected the title of "Europe's Leading Business Hotel" and "Best Business Hotel in Turkey". The Conrad Bangkok was presented with "Thailand's Leading Business Hotel"; the Conrad Brussels received a trophy for "Belgium leading Hotel"; while the Conrad Bali Resort and Spa collected the award for "Indonesia's Leading Resort". The Conrad Treasury Brisbane had the voters support for "Australasia' s Leading Casino Resort". Two American properties were in the limelight. The Waldorf Towers, a Conrad in New York, was named "North America's Leading Boutique Hotel" and the Conrad Punta del Este Resort & Casino in Uruguay featured as "South America's Leading Casino Resort". Tens of thousands of travel professionals had cast their votes online to determine the winners in each category. Marriott corporate party MARRIOTT and Renaissance Hotels & Resorts Egypt held recently an impressive party in appreciation of its loyal corporate clients and co- partners. The general managers from all Marriott hotels in Egypt thanked the guests for their loyal patronage and announced several exciting initiatives which will take place in the coming year 2006. The event was held in Cairo Marriott Hotel in Aida ballroom that was decorated to the famous snow white night and the entertainment was memorable by the well-known singer Mai Selim, and WAMA band. News Visa statistics STATISTICS released by Visa International on spending trends by visitors to Egypt have revealed that tourist expenditure is on the increase. Egypt enjoyed the strongest increase in foreign Visa card spent across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) for June-August 2005, rising 40 per cent from the previous year to a total of $213 million. Visa's Vice-President and General Manager for Egypt Tareq El-Husseini said the latest statistics show that tourists from over 140 countries visited Egypt between June and August spending a total of $213 million from an approximately one million Visa transactions. Travellers came from France, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Malaysia, Argentina, Venezuela, Lebanon, Jordan, South Africa and many more. However, the most prolific Visa card spenders in Egypt this season were Saudi Arabians ($46m), Britons ($34.2m), Kuwaitis ($28m), Americans ($18m) and French ($10m). The least spending nation was Cambodia, with a total of $26 in expenditure. "We are delighted by these results because they confirm that Egypt is a great value-for-money destination," commented Chairman of the Egyptian Tourism Authority Ahmed Al-Khadem. This summer tourists chose to use their Visa and Visa Electron cards at ATMs as well as a wide range of retail outlets nation wide. The most prominent merchants were hotels, travel agents, jewellery stores, gift shops, sports clubs, duty- free stores, airlines, groceries and supermarkets. "Our latest second quarter results show that our acceptance network in Egypt has expanded by 21 per cent to reach 26,900 locations," El-Husseini said. "This is of course very important for further expanding the tourism industry in Egypt as well as for providing better services for Egyptians on a day-to- day basis. Tourists certainly find a destination more attractive if it has a good electronic payment acceptance environment, and Egyptians are increasingly demanding a better and wider electronic payment network to serve their daily needs. So either way, a larger and more efficient acceptance infrastructure is what we and our member banks are working to achieve in Egypt." Visa's summer statistics also show a marginal drop in Egyptian spending abroad to $57 million, a decrease of three per cent the previous year. The top five destinations for Egyptian tourist spending were the US ($9m), the United Kingdom ($6.7m), France ($6.3m), the United Arab Emirates ($6.2m) and Germany ($4.1m). The country where Egyptians spent least was Uruguay, with a total expenditure of only $9. Visa International is the world's leading payment organisation. Top travel firm FOR the ninth consecutive year, Travco won first prize for Best Egyptian Travel Company presented by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif in marking the annual Tourism Day. Travco was recognised for its leading role in facilitating and encouraging tourism in Egypt and for handling the largest number of inbound tourists numbering 593,094. General Manager of Sol Y Mar Pioneers in Kharga Oasis Tawfik El-Qadi also received an award for the resorts' environment-friendly policies and procedures. El-Qadi was the recipient of another award for the best resort in a remote location. Alpitour Group Egypt, a subsidiary of Travco, was sixth among travel agents with less than five years of existence in the Egyptian market. The Travco empire comprises 11,000 employees of the most skilled calibre in the tourism and hospitality field. Travco's properties boast an impressive 1,040 floating hotel rooms, 8,675 standard hotel rooms in addition to 800 vehicles. Show-jumping wins Olympic rider Khaled Al-Eid from Saudi Arabia, Karim El-Zoghbi and Mohamed Osama El-Boraei from Egypt have qualified for the World Equestrian Games after winning the third round of the Egyptian International Show- Jumping tournament. The Games will be held in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia in April 2006 and the World Equestrian games in Achen in Germany in June 2006. In Egypt, Egypt won the first round with El-Boraei taking first prize and Saudi Arabia the second and third rounds with Olympic rider Al-Eid. The rounds are part of 11 rounds in which riders accumulate the best six results in order to qualify to the World Cup. The fourth round will be held in Yanbu in Saudi Arabia. Yachting in Alexandria ALEXANDRIA has been chosen by the International Organisation for Water Contests to host the international yachting contest (ULM) in September 2006. Alexandria and a number of tourist cities east of the Mediterranean were in the running, however, Alexandria was selected due to its unique natural potential such as its beaches and moderate climate as well as a series of steps adopted lately by Egypt to develop yachting tourism. The selection of Alexandria to host the event took place during the First Class Beach Contest in Milan, Italy. The contest will be extensively covered by international media. Great for golf EGYPT was selected the best golf tourist destination in 2005 during the International Fair of Golf Tourism held recently in the Canary Islands. The fair is one of the most important events organised by the International Golf Federation in collaboration with tour operators and international companies specialised in incentive and conference tourism, international golf courses and airlines. The closing ceremony was held in Las Palmas, capital of the Canary Islands, which last year attracted 22 million tourists. Fathi Nour, minister of tourism consultant, received the prize and invited the attendees, in a short address, to visit Egypt and practise golf at the foot of the Pyramids. Sadat in Pharaonic Village To prepare for the official opening of the museum of former president Anwar El-Sadat in the Pharaonic Village, former first lady Mrs Gihan El-Sadat recently visited the museum under the supervision of Abdel-Salam Ragab, chairman of the Pharaonic Village. Mrs El-Sadat expressed her great satisfaction with the work in the museum before the official opening in mid-February which will be attended by several VIPs in Egypt.
