USA: Lime Introduces Modern Transport In Cities

In the big cities in America, Europe and Asia, scooters and electric bikes are parked on the streets and people are allowed to use them to get to their destination.

For several months, Lime is a start-up company that aims to provide a viable solution to traffic congestion in urban cities.

The company supplied thousands of scooters in key cities allowing anyone who downloads an app to unlock and ride them across town for a small fee.

However, it seems that scooters are just the beginning as the company is reportedly developing transit pods to get people from various points to other destination points in the city.

The technology is still at an introductory stage.

Lime plans to build an enclosed, electric vehicle resembling a car or a golf cart that could hold one or two people, but will be autonomous.

According to Lime’s co-founder and chairman Brad Bao, the transit pods will course normal traffic with a top speed of 70kph.

Bao added that the two to three pods would fit in a single parking spot. Just like the scooters, users will access and unlock the pods through a sharing service available in the company’s app.

The autonomous transit pod is nothing new, especially in the United Arab Emirates, where initial tests of these pods were held.

The project has been developed by the Roads and Transport Authority in co-operation with Next Future Transportation.

The autonomous transit pods are designed to travel short and medium distances.

They run on dedicated lanes like bikes. They are augmented with a camera for security and electromechanical technologies to perform the coupling and detaching processes, which can be activated while in motion.

Each pod measures almost 3m in length and stands 2.8m high.

They weigh in at 1,500kg and they have the capacity to accommodate ten riders – six seated and four standing.

The autonomous pod is fitted with a battery that supports three hours of operation, and can be fully charged in six hours. Its average speed is 20kph.

If Lime will pursue the development of transit pods, they must pay attention to the parking of their products.

Not everyone is excited about the scooters littering the curbs. Honolulu collected the scooters scattered at city streets.

Cities are in need of transit pods for the time it takes to get from one place to another as fast as possible for as long as they are safe to use.

Most trips consist of a single person looking to travel three miles or less.

A good number of city people travel solo or in two’s.

Cars are no longer ideal but there is no product available to meet their needs.

Our goal is to be a leading multi-modal company, said Lime’s co-founder and chief executive Toby Sun.

Over the last several months a handful of startups have dropped hundreds or thousands of electric scooters on the sidewalks in cities like San Francisco, Austin, and San Diego.

Allowing anyone who downloads an app to unlock and ride them across town for a small fee. It’s a radical and controversial experiment in urban mobility. But scooters could be just the beginning.

Lime, a company that runs sharing services for scooters, pedal bikes and e-bikes, is developing a new type of vehicle known internally as a transit pod.

The concept is in early stages and the design is still in flux. But Lime’s plan is to build an enclosed, electric vehicle that could hold one or two people, resembling a smart car or a deluxe golf cart.

The vehicle wouldn’t be a car, exactly; it’s not even clear whether it would have three or four wheels.

But it would drive in normal street traffic, and could hit a top speed of about 40 miles an hour, said Brad Bao, Lime’s co-founder and chairman.

Unlike Lime’s scooters, which tend to end up littering the sidewalks and exasperating the non-scooting public, unused pods would be parked in street parking spots.

Bao predicts two or three of them would fit into a single spot. Customers would access the pods through a sharing service available in the company’s app, seeing them as another transportation option alongside scooters and electric and pedal bicycles.

Cities need pods because traditional cars are overkill for the bulk of urban driving, Bao said.

Most trips consist of a single person looking to travel three miles or less. They don’t need to have a five seater or a seven-seater, plus all that gasoline consumption, he said.

But there is no such product out there to meet their needs. he said. Our goal is to be a leading multimodal company, said Toby Sun, co-founder and CEO.

Lime isn’t the first company with a utopian plan for tiny, car-like vehicles that run on electricity. In the early 2000s, Ford made a line of similar vehicles it called TH!NK.

It discontinued them, and a company that subsequently attempted to build them as an independent venture failed.

Used models still float around Craigslist for a few thousand dollars. Arcimoto, a small, publicly traded company based in Eugene, Oregon, has been working on two-seat, three-wheeled electric vehicles for a decade, and began delivering its first shipments to customers.

Electra Meccanica, a Canadian startup that makes three-wheelers that look like regular cars with the back half cut off, said recently it has begun delivering them to the United States.

For the last year, Lime has attempted to differentiate itself from other scooter and bike sharing companies like Bird, Spin, and Jump by offering a wider range of vehicles, and by playing a more active role in the manufacturing process.

It has operations in China that oversee the building of scooters and bicycles. Making pods would be a significantly larger design and manufacturing challenge.

The company is still in the testing phase and would need to find manufacturing partners. The timeline of the project and the number of pods Lime would try to produce is unclear.

One key design feature could be how many wheels the pods have, because that will impact the regulatory landscape.

The federal government has regulated low-speed motor vehicles since 1998, when it passed rules to allow people to drive their golf carts to run errands, so long as the vehicles met certain requirements.

The rules relate to four-wheeled vehicles weighing less than 3,000 pounds whose top speed is 20 to 25 miles per hour.

At the time, regulators were primarily concerned with retirement communities and other controlled environments — not downtown San Francisco. Three-wheeled vehicles are regulated as motorcycles.

Most states have also passed regulations for low-speed motor vehicles, generally limiting their use to roads with lower speed limits. Some cities also have their own regulations.

In Austin, for instance, low-speed vehicles can’t go faster than 25 miles per hour, must carry insurance, can’t carry more than six people, and have to be clearly marked.

The city code also includes a series of standards for low-power electric vehicles that serve as cabs. Some state laws would let cities ban low-speed motor vehicles altogether.

Bao said Lime would also pursue deals for the pods to be parked in on-street parking spots, akin to the car-sharing company Car2Go.

This would allow someone to pick up a pod, drive it across town, and leave it at her destination.

Programs to offer car-sharing companies city contracts for such arrangements are emerging; San Francisco approved its program last year, citing research that each shared car could result in 7 to 15 privately-owned vehicles being removed from the streets.

The city’s transportation department said it hadn’t received any requests for shared parking from companies utilizing such novel vehicles.

Sven Beiker, managing director of Silicon Valley Mobility, a transportation consultancy, predicts the economics will be tricky.

It seems you’re getting into a challenging business with car sharing, and a challenging business with low-volume manufacturing, he said.

As with many forms of alternative transport, a major difficulty is how they’d fit into a landscape dominated by traditional cars. People driving underpowered pods through streets filled with SUVs could feel uneasy.

The best chance for pods, said Beiker, would be more aggressive actions to ban full-sized cars from central cities.

We have to say, no, don’t bring your pickup truck downtown, he said.

LimeBike unveiled its new ebike and announced that it will add between 4,000 and 5,000 of the electric-assist bicycles to its fleet this year.

Called Lime-E, the service costs $1 to unlock and another $1 for every 10 minutes of riding.

Equipped with a rechargeable lithium battery and a 250-watt motor, the Lime-E electric-assist bikes have a top speed of 15 mph and a 62-mile maximum range.

The initial wave of Lime-E bikes will be launching this month in existing LimeBike markets, including Seattle, Miami, Scottsdale, Southern California, and the greater San Francisco Bay area.

The company will also be working hard with other cities and universities across the US to help deliver the service to as many communities as possible throughout 2018.

2018 is shaping up to be a landmark year for the global bikeshare movement, said CEO and co-founder Toby Sun.

Our electric-assist bike, Lime-E, will provide cities with a fast, efficient, equitable source of first-and-last mile transportation at absolutely no cost to taxpayers and minimal cost to riders.

Founded by Toby Sun and Brad Bao in January, 2017, the San Mateo-based company is backed by firms like Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue and GGV.

LimeBike has raised over $60 million in funding and is valued at $225 million after its most recent $50 million round.

Meanwhile,Taiwan Bicycle Association (TBA) has released draft figures of bicycle and e-bike exports from Taiwan during the first four months of 2018.

The figures show that although the quantity of traditional bicycles exported from the island are continuing to drop in quantity, the total value is increasing.

Additionally, e-bike exports are continuing to rise rapidly both in terms of volume and value.

According to the TBA's released draft figures, 740,518 complete bicycles without electric-assist were exported from Taiwan in the first four months of this year, this is a drop of over 11% from the 839,107 bikes exported during the same four months of 2017.

The USA, the Netherlands, the UK and Sweden were the destinations which received the greatest quantity of traditional bicycle exports from Taiwan.

The average value of these bikes once again jumped sharply rising by 29.35% to US$ 588.33 per unit in the first four months of 2018, up from US$ 454.82 during the same period in 2017.

Similarly, the total value of exports during this period rose by over 14% from US$381,644,094 in 2017 to US$ 435,670,435.

Exports of electric-assist bicycles are continuing to grab a greater share of Taiwan's production capacity.

The TBA's figures show that in the first four months of the year exports of e-bikes from Taiwan increased in terms of quantity, value and average value compare with the same period in 2017.

According to the draft figures, a total of 82,920 units were shipped from Taiwan up to April 30th this year, this represents an increase of 34.35% from the 61,720 units shipped in the same period of 2017.

The average value of those exports rose to US$ 1,373.77, and the total value of exported e-bikes during this period was US$ 113,912,879—a huge 55% increase from the US$ 73,249,604 shipped in the same period of last year.

The destinations which received the greatest number of Taiwan's exported e-bikes were Germany, the Netherlands and the USA.


Tourism Observer

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines Acquires Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner

Boeing and Singapore Airlines celebrated the delivery of the first 787-10 airplane, the newest and largest member of the Dreamliner family and a jet that will set a new global standard for fuel efficiency.

About 3,000 people marked the milestone at Boeing’s facility in North Charleston, South Carolina where the latest 787 model is manufactured.

Like the other 787 Dreamliners, the 787-10 is designed with strong, lightweight composites, the most advanced systems, and comfortable cabin features.

The 787-10, though, features a longer fuselage which allows it to carry about 40 more passengers or a total of 330 seats in a standard two-class configuration.

With the additional capacity, the 787-10 provides airlines the lowest operating cost per seat of any widebody airplane in service today.

It is an honour for us to be the world’s first airline to take delivery of this amazing aircraft, said Mr. Goh Choon Phong, chief executive officer of Singapore Airlines, the 787-10 launch customer.

The 787-10 is a magnificent piece of engineering and truly a work of art. It will be an important element in our overall growth strategy, enabling us to expand our network and strengthen our operations.

Goh added that the 787-10 underscores Singapore Airlines’ longstanding commitment to operate a modern fleet, and marks the start of a new chapter in our shared story with Boeing.

Singapore Airlines – through its subsidiary Scoot – already flies the 787-8 and 787-9 Dreamliners. With today’s delivery the group will be the first to operate all three Dreamliner models.

Singapore Airlines has 68 additional Boeing widebody jets on order, including 48 additional 787-10s, and 20 of the new 777-9s.

This is a big day for all of us at Boeing and for our global supplier partners. We are thrilled to deliver the first 787-10 Dreamliner to Singapore Airlines, one of the world’s leading carriers.

And we are honored by Singapore’s partnership and trust, as reflected by their repeated orders for the Dreamliner, said Kevin McAllister, Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and chief executive officer.

The 787-10 will extend the Dreamliner effect that we are seeing across commercial aviation as the 787’s superior passenger experience and unmatched fuel efficiency helps airlines open new routes and achieve significant fuel savings and emission reduction.

The 787-10’s superior performance and high commonality with its Dreamliner siblings have attracted strong interest from around the world, including in Asia where the jet can connect all points within the region.

The 787-10 also offers Asian operators the flexibility to fly to Europe, Africa and Oceania.

Singapore Airlines plans to puts its 787-10s into scheduled service in May, with flights from Singapore to Osaka, Japan and Perth, Australia.

Prior to the introduction of these services, the aircraft will be operated on selected flights to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur for crew training purposes.



Tourism Observer

Top Ten International Mega Airports For Connectivity

London Heathrow has taken the number one spot in OAG’s annual list of the top 50 international megahubs, with the top three airports all hailing from Europe.

Frankfurt took second spot while Amsterdam is in third place.

However, Heathrow was the only UK airport to feature in the top 50 list.

Measured through OAG’s connections analyser, the list looks at those airports with the highest ratio of possible scheduled international connections to the number of destinations served by the airport.

John Grant, senior analyst at OAG, said: While London Heathrow tops our connectivity index, it has the potential to cement its number one spot through more extended services within the UK but also by opening up to more low-cost airlines, which will inevitably happen when the third runway is operational.

On a single day in July there were over 72,000 possible international connections between flights arriving at London Heathrow and flights departing within a six-hour window.

Interestingly, only London Gatwick featured in OAG’s top 25 list of international low-cost megahubs, placing at number 20 with the list largely dominated by Asia-Pacific airports.

Grant said the importance of international connectivity has an obvious link to potential economic performance for those cities that have ranked among the most internationally connected and clearly, Heathrow is a convenient connecting airport for travellers from Eastern Europe and ASPAC looking to reach North and South America.

Top ten international mega hubs for connectivity:

- London Heathrow, UK.

- Frankfurt, Germany.

- Amsterdam, Netherlands.

- Chicago O’Hare, USA.

- Toronto, Canada.

- Changi Airport, Singapore.

- Jakarta, Indonesia.

- Atlanta, USA.

- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

- Paris Charles de Gaulle, France.



Tourism Observer

Ryanair Will Be Very Happy To Bid For The Whole Of Air Berlin

Ryanair CEO Ryan O’Leary has made it clear that subject to being provided with more information, and one major condition, Ryanair would be very interested in making a bid for the whole of the insolvent Air Berlin.

He has indicated that obtaining additional data on the airline’s finances was critical.

According to Mr. O’Leary, Ryanair would be very happy to bid for the whole of Air Berlin, which is generally a short-haul, domestic, intra-EU carrier.

But we don’t know how much restructuring it will take, how much money is it losing, why is it losing so much money in a market where we make money.

When Air Berlin first filed for insolvency protection, Lufthansa, Germany’s largest carrier, was given the right to open negotiations with the ailing carrier, much to the annoyance of Mr. O’Leary, who described the situation as a stitch up to help strengthen Lufthansa’s commercial position.

Mr O’Leary is quoted as saying: What’s going to be left by the time Lufthansa completes the discussions?

While Lufthansa announced last week that it was in negotiations with Air Berlin, Mr O’Leary has made one other condition with regard to any offer Ryanair might make for the insolvent carrier, and that is that it has to be for the entirety of the business, not just for what was left after Lufthansa had finished cherry-picking the more valuable assets.



Tourism Observer

UAE: Air Arabia Confirms Options For Five Airbus A320s

Sharjah-headquartered Air Arabia PJSC (AIRARABI:DFM), the largest low-cost carrier operator in the Middle East and North Africa, has confirmed options for five additional Airbus A320 aircraft. The delivery of original contract covering 44 firm orders and 5 options will be completed in 2017.

The five new Airbus A320 aircraft will be put into service starting second quarter 2017 backlog and have a book value of US$485 million. These new aircraft will join Air Arabia’s expanding fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft currently serving over 120 routes from five operational hubs.

Air Arabia has been constantly rewarded over the past years with the A320 Family Operational Excellence Award by Airbus for achieving the highest level of A320 family aircraft utilisation in the world with 99.8 percent operational reliability. In 2010, the carrier set a new world record achieving 30,000 flight hours in just six years with one of its CFM56-5B-powered A320 aircraft.

Founded in Sharjah, Air Arabia began operations in 2003 and currently operates a fleet of 46 Airbus A320 aircraft offering flights to over 120 destinations in 33 countries from five hubs across the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe.

The A320 Family, which includes the A318, A319, A320 and A321, is recognized as the benchmark single-aisle aircraft family in the world.

Sex Tourism Spreads And Booms

Portugal, Moldova and Ukraine in Europe, and Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in Asia have emerged as new child sex tourism destinations, prompting activists to call for governments to include measures to protect children in their tourism plans.

Sex tourism has spread around the world to countries that were previously inaccessible as tourism has boomed over the past 20 years and travelling has become cheaper, said a study published on Thursday by global child protection network ECPAT.

The number of international tourists almost doubled from 527 million in 1995 to 1.14 billion in 2014, it said.

In Asia, Thailand´s efforts to clean up its image as a sex tourism destination and crack down on the crime, has had the unintended effect of pushing sex tourists to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, it said.

In Europe, Moldova, Portugal and Ukraine have emerged as new sex tourism destinations.

"Many of these countries which are starting to open up - understandably they see tourism as a fantastic economic development sector," Mark Capaldi, ECPAT´s head of policy and research, said.

He said countries looking for economic opportunities from tourism often ignore the risks that some international tourists pose to children and lack the laws to protect them.

Countries need to assess the impact of tourism development projects from a child protection perspective before rushing into them, he said.

"It´s much more difficult to claw back and change the reputation of a place if it becomes seen as a hotbed of child sex tourism," Capaldi said in a phone interview.

The study said a lack of data makes it difficult to assess the scale of global child sex exploitation but the crime has outpaced attempts to curb it over the past two decades.

Capaldi said the growth in online bookings and private rental accommodation has contributed to the spread of sex tourism as this has made it easier for perpetrators to remain anonymous.

The study said children from minority groups, boys and young children are far more vulnerable to sex tourism than was previously thought, as are girls and children living in poverty.

Its recommendations include creating support systems for child victims of sex exploitation in all countries, curbing the online sale of children for sex, and creating systems to enable law enforcement agencies to share information about offenders.

Cheap Flights And Internet Encouraging Sex Tourism

Sex Tourism has “expanded” into new destinations across the world, claims a new report, which blames cheap flights and the Internet for creating a new generation of predators.

Opportunities for travellers to abuse women and children have “soared” in the past two decades, the Global Study on Sexual Exploitation of Children in Travel and Tourism said.

The report, which is considered the most comprehensive ever compiled on the sex tourism industry, also identifies countries which have emerged as new destinations for abusers.

These include Portugal, Moldova and the Ukraine in Europe, and also Burma, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia in Southeast Asia.

The report also said sex tourists are no longer being seen as wealthy, middle aged Westerners who travel to underdeveloped countries to seek children to abuse.

The UN-backed study says abusers are also often not tourists, but could be business travellers or expatriates who are ‘situational’ offenders, rather than paedophiles.

The study says the growth in opportunities for the abuse of children and women is directly linked to the boom in travel and the wider use of the Internet.

“The vulnerability of children has increased dramatically in the past 20 years as travel, tourism soared,” the report said.

“Although the precise scope is not yet measurable, there are alarming indicators that this crime is persistent and widespread.

“The Global Study has also demonstrated, undeniably, that the increasing use
 of the Internet has enabled offenders to groom children online, exchange information and advice on how to abuse children and avoid detection, and in some cases ‘book’ children in advance.”

The report, which was released by global child protection network ECPAT, charts the increase in sex tourism over the last two decades.

It was compiled with information from more than 70 global child protection agencies.

“Twenty years ago the offender was seen as a white, wealthy, middle-aged male peadophile from a developed country vacationing in a developing country with the intention of having sex with a child,” it adds.

“Now we understand that more children are being abused by tourists and travellers from their own country or region than by people who have travelled
 from other parts of the world.”

The report notes, for example, that Japanese, Chinese and South Korean tourists are now more likely to be offenders in Southeast Asia – a traditional sex tourism hotspot – because they travel through the region more regularly than Westerners.

The number of international tourists almost doubled from 527 million in 1995 to 1.14 billion in 2014, the report said.

“Despite 20 years of efforts, the sexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism has expanded across the globe and out-paced every attempt to respond at the international and national level,” it added.

World Travel Awards 2016 Nominees Unveiled

World Travel Awards has revealed the nominees for its Grand Tour 2016, with thousands of hospitality leaders from across the globe in the running for the prestigious titles.

Voting is now underway ahead of the Latin America, Europe, Caribbean & North America, and Asia & Australasia Gala Ceremonies, so make your voice heard by registering to vote here.

World Travel Awards President Graham Cooke said: “Revealing the nominees for our annual Grand Tour is always an exciting time of year for World Travel Awards.

“We have carefully selected the leaders in international hospitality, be that hotels, airlines, destinations, or operators, and offered our voters a chance to select the very best among them.

“Sign up now to make your voice heard as part of our Grand Tour 2016.”

Each year WTA covers the globe with a series of regional Gala Ceremonies staged to recognise and celebrate individual and collective successes within each key geographical region.

Each WTA Gala Ceremony offers unrivalled networking opportunities to members of the travel and tourism industry, with the events welcoming government and industry leaders as well as international print and broadcast media.

WTA was established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the tourism industry.

Today, the World Travel Awards brand is recognised globally as the ultimate hallmark of quality, with winners setting the benchmark to which all others aspire.

ZIMBABWE: African Airlines Association Meeting In November, Host Zimbabwe

Air Zimbabwe’s turnaround strategy is set to receive a major boost this year after the national airline won the right to host the 48th African Airlines Association (AFRAA) annual general assembly (AGA) in Victoria Falls later this year.

The event, which will take place from November 20 to November 22, is expected to attract 400 high profile delegates from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America.

AFRAA secretary-general Dr Elijah Chingosho, who was in the country on an advance visit and also witnessed the unveiling of the logo for the general assembly, yesterday said the general assembly was a unique opportunity for Air Zimbabwe to spread its wings as it is expected to play a major role in bringing delegates to the general assembly and taking them back to their countries.

“As the host airline, Air Zimbabwe is expected to play a pivotal role in the transportation of delegates to and from the country.

“The hosting of this event in Zimbabwe and the Victoria Falls in particular also presents an excellent opportunity to strengthen aviation in the country and the tourism sector because we are encouraging all the delegates to travel with their spouses so that they can sample what Zimbabwe has to offer.

“This is also a chance to show the visitors the business opportunities that exist in the country and to state clearly that Zimbabwe is open for business,” he said.

AFRAA president and Air Zimbabwe’s acting chief executive Mr Edmund Makona said Air Zimbabwe was geared for the challenge.

“The secretary general said the purpose of hosting the general assembly in a specific country and being hosted by a specific airline is meant to maximise benefits for that airline. As Air Zimbabwe we have taken note of that. Within Air Zimbabwe we have also said it cannot be a strategy without the attendant issue of growth and sustainability. So growth and sustainability are at the heart of what we are doing.

“So we really are geared to grow that route network. I do not want to pre-empt other than just to confess that it cannot be an airline without the attendant issues of growth otherwise there is no need for the management at Air Zimbabwe to preside over a still birth airline.

“We will be the host airline and carrier of choice during the general assembly and we cannot do that if we have not spread our wings. We want to assure you that by the time the AGA takes place we would have spread our wings beyond the thin route network that we are currently operating. We have started some initiatives but we would want to under promise and over perform,” he said.

Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Dr Joram Gumbo said hosting the AFRAA general assembly will be the best opportunity to look for partners to boost our Air Zimbabwe.

“We are busy talking to several airlines who want to partner with us to revitalise Air Zimbabwe so that we can come up with one because the shopping list of partners is long since many companies are approaching us from the Middle East, China and from Europe.

“We are expecting that in the next three to four years Air Zimbabwe will be back as a leading airline in the continent,” he said.

He added that the ministry is looking at bigger airplanes and small to complement the airline’s fleet so that it can resuscitate its old routes.

“I am looking at possibly engaging with partners before the end of the year and it’s a process, when you bring somebody to partner in such an industry which a number of countries are struggling to boost.

“We are we are aiming at bringing in new airlines and experts to revitalise Air Zimbabwe,” he said.

Meanwhile the general assembly would see delegates discussing issues on the development of air transport in Africa and development opportunities for African airlines in particular. AFRAA has a membership of 35 airlines that include all major intercontinental African operators.

The members also represent over 85 percent of total international traffic carried by African airlines. This is the third time that the annual general assembly is being held in the country.

Tourism Trade With Africa Benefits Few African Countries

LAST year, to much fanfare, 26 African nations signed off on a free-trade ‘super bloc’ that seeks to improve the absurdly low levels of intra-regional trade on the continent, at the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

In the same city at the Africa 2016 Forum last weekend, African Development Bank (AfDB) president Akinwumi Adesina painted a picture of just how insufficient trade with other African countries is.

African trade represents just 2% of the global total, and intra-African trade makes up 12% of the continent’s activity, compared to 60% in Europe and 35% in Asia.
“This is not acceptable,” Adesina said.

He added that AfDB will continue to invest heavily in regional infrastructure, especially rail, transnational highways, power interconnections, ICT, air and maritime transport, reducing the bottlenecks that cost the region billions in inefficiencies and lost opportunities.

While tariffs on the continent are high—according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) an African company making sales on the continent would pay more than three times the 2.5% average tariff rate elsewhere – non-tariff barriers tend to wreak more damage than levies.

Despite an abundance of trade blocs on the continent—17 at the moment—their poor internal workings has led potential benefits such as comparative advantage trading to be erased by red-tape heavy protectionist approaches.

African countries have also kept the same export-geared infrastructure, leaving the continent vulnerable to global market shifts.

One promising way of solving this is seen as ramping up regional trade in services—a model that has contributed to the booming growth in many Asian countries.

It may be already happening and could herald exciting possibilities.

The number of tourists visiting Kenya from neighbouring countries has increased over the past few months as the East African nation set off on promotions around the region to make up for dwindling numbers from its traditional source markets in Europe.

While tourists arriving at the nation’s two main airports dropped by 13% to 748,771 last year, the decline was less steep than the previous year’s reduction of 28%, according to the country’s statistics agency. Visitors have shied away from going on world-renowned safaris in the country or lounging on its white sandy beaches after a series of deadly attacks by al-Shabaab Islamists in the past few years.
The government targets annual tourist arrivals of 10 million in about a decade’s time. Visitor numbers are expected to rise now that France, the US and Britain have lifted travel bans to the country, which will allow tour operators to market the destination once again.

East African holidaymakers staying at Amani Tiwi Beach Resort on the Indian Ocean Coast more than doubled in the past three months, General Manager Aditya Mata said in Kwale County, at the Kenyan coast. “Forty five to 50% of our visitors have been from Kenya and the rest of the East African countries,” he said.

Bed occupancy improved to 85%, compared with 50% a year earlier, he said.

Diani Reef Beach Hotel in the same county received vacationers from Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia in the past six months, according to Chief Executive Officer Titus Kangangi. “Even Nigeria, which is a first for me,” he said. “I would put the number of regional visitors at around 10-15%, excluding Kenyans. It’s very good, it’s looking up.”

Carriers such as Ethiopian Airlines and RwandAir now have flights to the coastal resort city of Mombasa.
While cash remittances and agricultural exports have relegated tourism to third place in the hierarchy of leading foreign exchange sources, the industry is still key for the economy. As many as one million Kenyans depend on it for their livelihoods at the coast.

Regional visitors account for a third of arrivals with Uganda the second highest source market after South Africa, acting Kenya Tourism Board Chief Executive Jacinta Nzioka Mbithi said by e-mail.
It is perhaps no surprise that the East African Community bloc is seen as the regional grouping that has made the most trade gains on the continent.

If such chains continue to grow, concerns about external market performance could soon be a flash in the pan as the continent’s future growth is powered from within.

UAE: Emirates To Increase Flights To Africa And Europe

Emirates is set to enhance its on-board experience and increase capacity on its Zambia and Zimbabwe route with the deployment of a larger Boeing 777-300ER aircraft from February 1 2016.

The Boeing 777-300ER will replace the current Airbus A340-300 and offer an additional 97 Economy Class seats per flight. The aircraft will have eight private suites in First Class, 42 lie-flat seats in Business Class and 310 spacious seats in Economy Class.

“As Emirates we are constantly seeking ways to enhance our services, and the upgauge to the Boeing 777-300ER on the Lusaka-Harare route is part of our commitment to offer Zambian and Zimbabwean travellers even more comfort and entertainment on our daily service,” said Orhan Abbas, Emirates Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Latin America, Central and Southern Africa.

EK713 departs Dubai every day at 0925hrs, arriving in Lusaka at 1440hrs. The flight then departs Lusaka at 1610hrs, arriving in Harare at 1715hrs. The return flight, EK714 leaves Harare at 1850hrs, arriving Lusaka at 1955hrs. It departs Lusaka at 2140hrs and lands in Dubai at 0650hrs the next day.

Emirates has also announced an addition of a second daily flight to the Greek capital Athens from March 1 2016. The addition of a second daily service will take the total weekly Emirates flights serving Athens to 14. The flight will be linked to the existing Dubai-Larnaca route, allowing travellers to book tickets between the Cypriot city and Athens.

The Dubai-Larnaca-Athens service will be operated by a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft in a three-class configuration, with eight Private Suites in First Class, 42 lie flat seats in Business Class, and 310 spacious seats in Economy Class.

“Emirates started serving Athens in June 1996; since then we have carried over 2.2 million passengers on the route. Boasting a rich history and picturesque islands, Greece is a popular destination for travellers from the UAE, Australia, China and South Africa. The expanded schedule will also enable more seamless connections for business and leisure passengers travelling from Athens to key destinations like Dubai, Manila, Johannesburg, Dhaka, Melbourne, and Hong Kong,” commented Thierry Aucoc, Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations, Europe and Russia.

EK 107 will depart Dubai at 0750hrs, arriving in Larnaca at 1020hrs. It will then depart Larnaca at 1150hrs, arriving in Athens at 1335hrs. The return flight, EK 108, will leave Athens at 1615hrs, arriving in Larnaca at 1800hrs. It will then depart Larnaca at 1930hrs, and land in Dubai at 0125hrs the next day.

Halal Holidays – New Design For HalalBooking.com Website

Angel’s Peninsula Resort – Sandy Beach


HalalBooking.com – the world’s leading website for online booking of Halal Holidays – has recently re-launched its website with a completely new design. The website has an advanced hotel search and book functionality, while being very user-friendly and picture-rich. The website receives bookings from over 70 countries worldwide.

The website offers carefully selected holiday destinations, which cater for the needs of Muslim family holidaymakers. The following categories of holidays can be booked online:

Beach Resorts – family holidays with great facilities for kids and ladies
City Hotels – City Breaks with Daily Heritage Tours
Thermal Resorts – health holidays with thermal springs treatments
Private Villas – with swimming pools, offering full privacy for families

Resorts, hotels and villas have separate swimming pools, spa and leisure facilities for women-only and for families. Some resorts have mixed beach areas for families and some resorts feature women-only private beach areas. These resorts provide a wonderful atmosphere for a family to enjoy their holiday together in a suitable environment, while catering for children by their special clubs and games rooms. All entertainment programmes, which are within the norms of Islam, are enjoyable and family-friendly. Cafés and restaurants in these hotels serve halal food and non-alcoholic drinks. In private villas, guests can order halal grocery packs in advance. There are also daily heritage tours to explore the city.

Majority of customers of HalalBooking.com website are families with children. The website has some unique features, which make online searching and booking experience for families smoother. All prices on the website are total and calculated exactly for the whole family, taking into account both a number of guests and exact ages of all children. Besides this ‘Precise Total Family Pricing’ feature, the website also offers ‘Room Suitability Guarantee’. The website automatically determines and allows booking of those rooms in a hotel, which are suitable for a given family. These features save the customers’ time and help to avoid surprises when they arrive at the hotel and are asked to pay extras for a bigger room.

Among many other features of the website it is worth noting that the homepage always shows the best hotel offers for coming weeks. The hotels can be booked in 45 currencies and 7 languages, using all popular online payment cards. The website has easy-to-use Search Box to find hotels by date & number of guests. It can be used on touch-screen devices, and is supported by customer Call Centres in 20 countries worldwide.

The company actively works with many hoteliers and tourism bodies around the world (in Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, etc), helping them to develop their halal services, and regularly adds new holiday destinations to its website.

The company hopes its customers enjoy using the new website and always welcomes feedback from their customers.