Guidelines

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Hotels and resorts

From Sheraton to Accor

ACCOR has announced, at a press conference held recently in Cairo, the takeover of the operations and management of Al-Gezirah Hotel Towers and Casino (previously Al-Gezirah Sheraton).

After an extensive renovation programme costing an estimated $21 million, the hotel will be re-branded "Sofitel Al-Gezirah, Cairo" in 2006.

Although the renovations will start in February 2005 with the first 80 rooms on four floors plus one buffer floor, the hotel will be still open for business. Renovation on the public areas and outlets will take place later in the year, and the grand opening will take place in early 2006.

The showpiece of renovation will be the contemporary interior design by the renowned and talented interior designer, Pierre-Yves Rochon. This will combine style and elegance with a warm, refined atmosphere and state of the art technology, creating, as Sherif El-Maghrabi, board chairman of owning company Al-Gezirah Company for Hotels and Tourism says, "l'art de vivre a la Française", the brand identity of Sofitel.

The hotel's accommodation will total 440 rooms including 36 junior suites, 12 diplomatic suites and two royal suites, all of which overlook the Nile. The extensive conference and banqueting facilities area will be available to meet all needs, offering 750 metre square of meeting and function space, with a total of four banquet halls which can cater for up to 800 participants.

Additional features of the hotel will include a business centre, a spa and fitness centre including a sauna, a traditional hammam, a Jacuzzi and an outdoor heated swimming pool. The hotel will also offer a beauty salon, boutiques, 24-hour banking, valet parking and limousine service amongst other luxury services.

It is worth mentioning that Accor's Holding Company owns 64.93 per cent of the shares of Al-Gezirah Hotels and Tourism Company, the owning company of Al-Gezirah Hotel.

Accor S A E was founded in 1980, with a network of 21 hotels and two floating restaurant cruise boats; Accor enjoys a substantial share in most sectors of the hotel market, ranging from the prestigious Sofitel Hotels to the mid-range of Novotel, Mercure and Coralia Club Hotels.

Valentine specials

 

THOSE who want to celebrate their love in style and to enjoy a s pecial night could choose from different programmes prepared by a number of hotels in Cairo. Semiramis InterContinental Hotel offers a variety of activities on Valentine's Day and even on the night before. On Valentine's Eve, you could enjoy a memorable romantic Valentine flashback evening at Cleopatra's ballroom. The Valentine Flash Back Eve is featuring music of the oldies (60s, 70s & 80s) in addition to a live performance of the legendary Abba Riginal for the first time in Egypt.

As for Valentine's Day you can bring your sweetheart to the grill for a romantic dinner and dance. If you prefer to celebrate Italian style, you can select Pane Vino for a special dinner with band entertainment and a rose for the lady. A different, yet traditional St Valentine's awaits you at the Night & Day where a Valentine Buffet menu will be served featuring a wide variety of international and oriental cuisines.

For a truly memorable night, you can celebrate Valentine's in Haroun Al-Rashid Nightclub, where oriental musicians and famous performers and stars will dazzle you.

Le Meridien Pyramids Hotel will have a four course candle light dinner for two on Valentine's day at Laredo Tex-Mex Restaurant as well as a four-course candle light dinner for two at the Med Bar & Restaurant; dinners will include heart shaped cakes and red roses for the women.

In Ramses Hilton Hotel, you can start your romantic evening in the Sherlock Holmes Pub where you can have the hotel's special "love without end cocktail", then you can choose between a candle lit dinner in the Citadel Grill Restaurant or a dinner in Windows on the World roof-top restaurant. Both have live entertainment.

In InterContinental Heliopolis Cairo Hotel, the Valentine party will be held at Al-Saraya ballroom under the title "Candles Night" bringing the best of Lebanon to Cairo. It will include live shows of Lebanese superstar Elissa and leading singer Ragheb Alama besides the Lebanese DJ Saeed Morad.

In Sheraton Royal Gardens you can spend a different, impressive, touching and romantic night in the Fire Place Restaurant and Bar with lots of fun and surprises.

Renovations in Conrad Hurghada

THE GENERAL manager of Conrad Red Sea Resorts, Ahmed Salama, announced that the renovation of the second wing in Conrad's Hurghada "Jasmin" has kicked off earlier this year following the complete renovation of the "Luxor" wing. With the completion of the Jasmin wing, the 260-room resort will be fully renovated featuring the highest levels of modern design, great comfort and high efficiency.

Sheraton Cairo customer party

IN A MATCHLESS and very stylish soirée, Sheraton Cairo management held its annual Customer's Party for year 2004 to celebrate a year of achievement and success and to express the management's gratitude for its customer's loyalty throughout the years. The decoration, ambiance, quality service and tasty food, complemented by the enchanting singing of Sadek Kelini, Sobhi Bedeir and DJ Yasser Shaker, certainly added to the pleasures of the evening.

Starwood website bookings

STARWOOD is launching new online marketing projects to promote direct bookings on their branded websites. These projects include online booking for Egyptians and residents, complimentary online room programme, and destination websites with booking engines.

For the first time in Egypt, both Egyptians and foreign residents will be able to book directly in local Egyptian currency for any of the Sheraton Hotels in Egypt.

"Egyptians are showing an increased trend for travel during holidays and long weekends within Egypt, so our objective was to provide them with a convenient tool to help them choose and book their destinations in any Sheraton hotel in Egypt", says Noha Rizk, online marketing and distribution manager for Starwood Africa and Middle East. "Egyptians are currently within the top 10 if we rank online bookings by Geographic source for our properties in Egypt, and within the top 15 amongst our properties in Africa and the Middle East. There is a great potential to further expand online bookings in Egypt. Egypt was the first country to initiate the "free Internet" which has given a tremendous boost to Internet usage in Egypt", Rizk adds.

Winter bargains

THOMAS Cook travel agency (+202 696 5000) offers special packages for winter vacationers. If you are vying for the Red Sea, then you can have a lucrative deal in the Akassia Resort in Marsa Alam where you can spend three nights/four days for LE510 per person in a double room and LE480 per person in a triple room on half board basis. Offer is valid until the end of February.

And if you are more interested in Upper Egypt, you could choose between two offers: one in Basma Hotel in Aswan where you could spend a three night/four day holiday for LE399 per person in a double room or LE384 per person in triple, or you could spend three nights/ four days in Pavillion Winter in Luxor for LE345 per person in double or LE321 per person in triple. Both packages are based on bed and breakfast and are valid until the end of April.

News

Minister of Tourism in PA

IN HIS FIRST statement before the Committee of Culture, Media and Tourism at the People's Assembly, Minister of Tourism Ahmed El-Maghrabi said that the Ministry of Tourism is working to attract 16 million tourists by 2014 which will open up 1.6 million new job opportunities, improve investment revenues and increase the urban area in Egypt. El-Maghrabi stressed Egypt's need to have a comprehensive plan for sustainable tourism which outlines its priorities for the development and promotion fields and to create an awareness programme for locals to help them get acquainted with the importance of tourism. He also mentioned the ministry's plans to develop docks in Luxor and behind Lake Nasser.

El-Maghrabi argues that the significance of the tourist industry is not only in its being the main source of hard currency in Egypt but also because it is an industry that creates job opportunities because every million tourists generate about 200,000 opportunities.

At the end, the minister explained the objective behind the ministry's new trend of targeting the main markets of the east such as India and China. About 150 million tourists, according to El-Maghrabi, will come out of these two particular markets in 2020 and thus Egypt's good image has to exist and be well marketed in India and China.

Training programmes of ETAA

IN AN ATTEMPT to develop the technical standard of workers in travel agencies and their quality performance, the Egyptian Travel Agents Association (ETAA) held a number of training programmes in the following fields: preparation and pricing of tourist programmes, secretarial work, drivers' training, e- marketing, development of religious tourism and incentive tourism. According to Mohamed Othman, head of the ETAA, about 1078 trainees participated in these programmes which are expected to enhance their performance, thus resulting in tourists repeatedly returning to Egypt.

In the air

Family travel made easy

BRITISH Airway's re-launching of the family travel brand Skyflyers should make family travel more fun in the future. Skyflyersâ first introduced in 1988, makes air travel easy and more enjoyable for families, with lots of goodies and services designed to smooth the family journey and delight children every time they fly.

The airline has also introduced its first ever animated characters, SkyflyerBravo and SkyflyerAlpha, which have been created to help parents and kids identify the airline's family friendly products and services throughout the journey. There are new Skyflyer kids packs and activity books, family-friendly meal options, and early check-in at London Gatwick Airport allowing families to check-in from 6pm the day before departure.

The new Skyflyers activity packs are available on international flights over three hours, and include a fun backpack for children aged three to five years, and funky shoulder packs for children aged six to 12 years. The packs contain a variety of goodies, from cuddly Skyflyer toys and sticker books to electronic games and top trump cards. On international flights over one hour, children receive a Skyflyers activity book and pen.

For more information on Skyflyers, log on to www.ba.com/skyflyers.

Frankfurt upgrade

STARTING from mid-January, Lufthansa will be upgrading its fleet operating on the Cairo-Frankfurt route, replacing the existing aircraft with state-of-the-art A330s. "Egypt will be among the first countries in the region to receive the new aircraft, giving strategic importance to the Egyptian aviation market," said Lufthansa's Regional Manager Peter Emmerich, addressing a gathering of key travel and aviation writers. He added that Lufthansa has lately introduced to Egypt a package of brand new services topped by the so-called HON system, providing unique services to top senator-designated customers, ranging from their executive use of a special terminal in Frankfurt equipped with all luxury facilities, up to personal assistants who will carry out all customs, migration and security checks on their behalf.

Emmerich elaborated on Lufthansa's commitment to Egypt, and its plans to upgrade the services offered to Egyptian passengers. "Lufthansa intends to maintain its current flights from and to Egypt, now reaching 17 weekly flights, including two daily flights on the Cairo-Frankfurt route, in addition to three weekly flights connecting Frankfurt to Alexandria," he noted. Emmerich predicted that Egypt would witness a tourism boom during the coming period, hailing the measures taken by the Egyptian government to upgrade the country's airports and tourist facilities.