For the seventh time in succession, Vienna has topped the world-wide rankings as a destination for international congresses. The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) published its 2011 congress statistics almost simultaneously with a ceremony held at the City Hall by the City of Vienna to honor Vienna’s 2011 congress organizers. This produced an unexpected bombshell during the celebrations.
Vienna almost seems to have taken out a permanent lease on first place as a destination for international congresses. According to the ICCA statistics, the Austrian capital staged 181 such events in 2011, putting it at the top of the worldwide league for the seventh time in succession. It was followed by Paris with 174 international congresses and Barcelona with 150. The other cities in the top ten were Berlin (147), Singapore (142), Madrid (130), London (115), Amsterdam (114), Istanbul (113) and Beijing (111). Austria was in 10th place in the countries ranking, headed – also almost by tradition – by the USA (759). Not fewer than 68% of Austria’s 267 international congresses took place in Vienna. The best placed countries after the USA were Germany (577) and Spain (463).
Selmun Palace Hotel should be sold by the end of the year following an international advertising campaign to be launched this week, Air Malta said.
The hotel, a subsidiary of Air Malta, was closed down last year after accumulating debts of €13 million. The decision formed part of the national airline’s restructuring plan, which led to the dismissal of some 58 hotel employees.
In collaboration with the government, the airline will step up efforts through the international advertising campaign, Air Malta said in a statement.
“The campaign is aimed to communicate the full potential of this property and inject new vigour in this sale process after previous attempts did not match the airline’s expectations,” Air Malta said.
Prospective bidders will be given the opportunity to acquire the 154-roomed property and a temporary grant of the adjacent 18th century castle.
Air Malta appointed CBRE Hotels – a leading international group that specialises in the hospitality industry and provides sales advisory services – to manage the marketing and sale of the property.
“I want a Billionaires Club in Spain” said Flavio Briatore and he has made his wish come true! The club will open July, 5th in Marbella’s Golden Mile. Briatore has always been a fan of the Spanish lifestyle and its gastronomy and so he has created an exclusive club at which to spend time in the cosmopolitan town of Marbella… Typical customers of the billionaire’s establishments are people like Beyonce, Lenny Kravitz, Mariah Carey, Phil Collins, Ronaldo, Fabio Cannavaro, Bruce Willis, Naomi Campbell, Paris Hilton and many more …
Seabank Hotel in Mellieha Bay is currently closed and undergoing a major extension which will see it grow to 500 rooms, making it one of the biggest in Malta. It had been planned to reopen in May.
The famous “Marbella Luxury Weekend” takes place in Puerto Banus, June 1st – 3rd, with the most exclusive boutiques such as Bang & Olufsen, Bulgari, Salvatore Ferregamo and Versace opening their doors for special events and exhibitions. The sofa which Michael Jackson ordered for his comeback concert in London will be on show at the renowned jewellers Gomez & Molina.
With 59 scheduled airlines and 104 direct destinations, including 65 European cities, Nice Côte d’Azur Airport continues to develop and is constantly introducing new direct air services. Find out all about them now.
Nice Côte d’Azur is France’s second biggest airport with 10.4 million passengers in 2011. It is also the only regional airport to offer a daily flight to New York and Dubai and the leading provincial low-cost airport, with over 3.4 million passengers and 17 airlines. It also accommodates a large business aviation clientele (Europe’s 3rd biggest airport after Le Bourget and Geneva) in a dedicated terminal.
The capital’s new airport, Berlin Brandenburg (BER) will now open on 17 March 2013 after the opening scheduled for 3 June 2012 was postponed due to technical problems in the field of fire protection engineering.
The delayed opening will not have a foreseeable impact on the existing tourism and congress business. However, visitBerlin fears that it could have an adverse effect on future longhaul destinations. The postponement of the opening of BER could also lead to delays in airlines committing to new intercontinental routes which are of great importance to Berlin as a congress location. Until the opening of the new airport all flights will operate through the existing airports, Schönefeld and Tegel as before. The extended summer flight schedules of the three largest airlines airberlin, Deutsche Lufthansa and EasyJet are being maintained.
“The ten-month postponement of the opening date is surprising and annoying,” says Burkhard Kieker, CEO of visitBerlin. “It is now top priority to ensure that the airport is well prepared for the launch. We look forward to the opening of BER as it will greatly improve the accessibility of our city.
The Palais de la Méditerranée, a magnificent contemporary hotel with a listed facade, has renovated some of its bedrooms in a modern, elegant style that includes art deco lines to echo the architecture of the building. Its reception rooms and lounges (Madison, Azur and Vénitien) have also been renovated. The hotel has also been an award-winner, for the third year running, in the “Traveller’s Choice Awards 2012”, in the “Top 25 luxury hotels in France” category.
Passengers flying from Dublin Airport will face additional security measures for a number of months after an EU audit identified two deficiencies in security. The European Commission has taken formal proceedings to get Dublin Airport to address the problems, and it will temporarily impose additional restrictions on flights out of the airport.
One of the two matters has already been addressed, but the Dublin Airport Authority said the second would take about two months to address due to its “technical” nature. The commission is imposing additional security procedures on aircraft leaving Dublin and arriving into other EU airports in the meantime, Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar confirmed. “These additional procedures are not expected to have any significant impact on passengers at Dublin Airport unless they are transferring through another EU airport en route to their final destination, in which case they will be required to undergo screening again,” he said. “This does not impact on other airports in the State.”
Mr Varadkar said he had taken steps to ensure any deficiencies were rectified swiftly, including by visiting officials at the airport on Monday. Neither the Minister nor the airport authority would give details of the nature of the problems for security reasons.
A spokeswoman for the European Commission said inspectors made 35-40 visits a year to member states’ airports to ensure they were abiding by the common security standard put in place in the wake of the September 11th, 2001, attacks on the United States. Common EU rules allow passengers to move freely because the different airport authorities recognise each other as applying the same security standards, the spokeswoman said. It was not unusual to find deficiencies during such an audit, but it was perhaps “a little bit unusual” that the commission had to issue formal proceedings in order to get the issues in Dublin addressed. She said this would mean “minor inconvenience” for passengers but also “reputational damage” for Ireland vis-a-vis the other airport authorities that would have to be informed.
A spokeswoman for the Dublin Airport Authority insisted that passengers initially flying out of Dublin would not be affected by the change and that it would not add to waiting times at security screening for these travellers and their luggage. “Passengers transferring through other European airports may be required to undergo further security screening,” the DAA said. Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said it was “unacceptable” that there had not been an “open, transparent and honest answer” about the security issues from either the Department of Transport or the Dublin Airport Authority. He said it had been confirmed that the authority knew of the security failure for more than a month, and it was “so serious that Dublin-originating aircraft will now be treated as the same security risk as flights originating from Afghanistan and Somalia”.
Aer Lingus said that while it was concerned at the “potential inconvenience” the issues may cause to its customers, its initial assessment was that such inconvenience could be minimised and it would “work closely with the relevant authorities to achieve this”.
The Renaissance Barcelona Hotel opened on 26th April 2012 in the heart of the city close to many of the historical sites. The hotel offers 211 bedrooms and 7 meeting rooms with almost 500sqm of event space including capacity for up to 140 theatre style. The hotel also boasts a “Roof Top Bar” which can be hired out on a private basis.
