Arabic website for Hamburg
The Hamburg Tourist Board has launched a new version of its website in Arabic, in order to further increase the number of Arabic speaking tourists who come here each year. Hamburg’s traffic free zones and traditional stores have made the city popular with shoppers particularly among GCC travellers. Hamburg has an official shopping brochure available in most hotels, which guides tourists to all the shopping hot spots, and ‘personal shopping consultants’ can also be hired to assist with selecting purchases.
New luxury travel show in Marrakech
A new global travel exhibition promoting exclusive meetings between the world’s finest private travel designers and suppliers in experiential travel will take place in Marrakech, November 16 to 19 next year. The exhibition known as Pure Life Experiences - Marrakech November 2009, was founded by Serge Dive and Sarah Ball of Beyond Luxury Media, both previously with ILTM. Exhibitors are expected to include lodges and retreats, discovery journeys, wilderness experiences, soft and extreme adventures, gastronomic and cultural escapes and events and festivals. “Already worth an estimated $40 billion and growing by 10 per cent a year, experiential travel is a niche yet lucrative area of the travel market and one which is fast becoming one of the most dominant. With this show we are creating and organising a new marketplace and that is very exciting,” said Dive.
Eurail Pass includes Czech, Bulgaria
The Eurail Group, owner of the Eurail passes for European rail travel, has announced further expansions to the product range. From January 1, 2009 the Czech Republic will be included in the Eurail global pass, as well as becoming a Eurail select pass member. In addition, Bulgaria has been added to the range of ‘one country passes’ on offer. The Eurail global pass, introduced simply as the “Eurailpass” in 1959 has seen many extensions over the years increasing from the original 13 countries to the 20 countries available today, following the inclusion of Croatia and Slovenia at the beginning of this year. The Czech Republic will therefore become the 21st member of this pass, giving customers more freedom and value for money. The Czech Republic receives over 6.5 million visitors annually. The dense railway structure links the capital, Prague with many local and international destinations.
Luxury Holiday Star Holiday Villas
The Middle East sees the launch of the first bespoke Luxury Holiday Property Rental company based in the region, providing high end private villas, castles and chateaus across the world. Star Holiday Villas target market is the top end of the expat and high net worth individuals across the region. Ronnie Middleton, managing director of Al Hilal Publishing Group, is one of the joint venture partners. He said, “Star Holiday Villas is a new subdivision of our very successful Star International Real Estate business. Through extensive research - we have identified a need for the regions expats and high net worth individuals to source and book luxury holiday properties locally and not have to depend on anonymous third party holiday property websites or rental agencies in countries outside of the region. Our eclectic mix of villas,private estates, chateaus and castles around the world will suit all tastes and most budgets. In addition to this we can provide a tailor made service including chefs, maid service,nannies,airport transfers, car hire, helicopter transfers,yacht hire,and private aviation.”