SOUTH AFRICA: Michellene Leo Appointed To Board Of Cape Town Tourism

Michellene Leo, Marketing Manager at Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront, Cape Town, has been voted onto the board of Cape Town Tourism.

Following her nomination to the board, she was voted in at the Cape Town Tourism AGM held on October 29th in the Southern Sun hotel.

An 18 year veteran of the hotel and tourism industry, Michellene has previously worked at Protea Hotels and the Taj Resort and Palaces.

Commenting on her appointment she said, “I am delighted to be voted onto the board of Cape Town Tourism and I’m happy to be representing the hotel sector. Tourism is the life blood of Cape Town and Cape Town Tourism is one of the leading tourism bodies in the world. It’s a huge honour for me.

I see my contribution as one where I can contribute to selling and marketing Cape Town as the preferred destination in South Africa throughout the year for South Africans and also to visitors from wider afield in Southern Africa.

We have a beautiful city, but we cannot just rely on that. We have to work hard and smart to set ourselves apart from the competition. I’m excited for what lies ahead, and I’d like to thank everyone for their support.”

Michellene, apart from handling the marketing function for Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront, is also an expert in digital and social media. She prides herself in staying in front of the latest trends in tourism and hospitality.

“I see a huge advantage in having Michellene on the board of Cape Town Tourism,” said Debra Sivertsen, General Manager at Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront. “She will be the first to highlight the ever shifting trends in visitor attitudes and behaviour. This will be an invaluable aid as our city navigates its way through a sometimes challenging environment.”

The Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group promotes Woman in Leadership and Debra is the Champion for the WIL Programme the Sub Sahara and Africa region.

NIGERIA: Eko Hotel, Intercontinental, Wheat Baker, Emerge As Best Ranked Hotels in Lagos

Winners for the Top 100 Hotels in Lagos organized by Travellers Magazine, West African’s foremost travel journal have emerged after a 2 month long survey of Travellers and Travel trade practitioners in Nigeria.

Eko Hotel, emerged as the best ranked hotel in Lagos, while Intercontinental and Wheat Baker emerged second and third best ranked hotels respectively.

The survey for the top 100 hotels was done over two months through personal questionaire survey of Hotel managers and secret vote by Travel Journalists in Lagos and online voting.The online voting was done via the largest travel news website in Africa www.atqnews.com. Questionnaires were delivered as newsletters to over 25000 people globally and the votes were collated using the Survey Monkey software. Each voter was asked to rank the top 15 Hotels out of all the leading hotels in Lagos giving reasons for the ranking.

At the end of the survey, the hotels were now arranged according to the number of high ranks they had garnered. Eko hotel had the highest number of number one votes in all the collated votes while other hotels on the top 25 list did well as number 2 and number 3 ranked hotels. Other hotels that did very well in the ranking includes Oriental Hotel, 4 points by Sheraton, Southern Sun hotel, Sheraton Ikeja hotel, Federal Palace hotel, Radisson Blu,Bogobori Hotel Westwood, The Protea hotels and Golden Tulip Festac.

The ranking for these hospitality providers were based on the perceived service rendered, Location, facilities, and capacity of the hotels. The not so popular new players on the Top 25 list include The George in Ikoyi, Genesis Sojourner in Ikeja , Fahrenheit Maison in Victoria Island, Ibis Hotel Toyin street, The Best Western hotels, Welcome centre and Admiralty Hotel Lekki.

The Full results for the Top 100 hotel in Lagos will be published in the next edition of Travellers magazine, and will be carried on www.atqnews.com, It will also be shared on different social media platforms.

Travellers Magazine will be presenting certificates to the Top 100 Hotels at the Hospitality Day on the 24thNovember 2015 at the 11th AKWAABA Travel Market at Eko Hotel.

The presentation of certificate is a mark of Recognition and to encourage the hotels to maintain their standards and also to encourage other hotels not so choosen to up their games in the hospitality business and improve their appeal to the public.

Travellers Magazine started the Top 100 Hotels survey in 2001 and stopped the annual survey in 2006 when the then DG of NTDC Dr.Eborieme set up the national Hotel Classification committee to grade hotels in Nigeria. Because the Publisher of Travellers Mr. Ikechi Uko was co-opted as a member of the committee it suspended it’s annual survey in order not to confuse the public with it’s survey. Considering the new reality and the need to guide travellers and hotel guests aright Travellers decided to reintroduce it’s annual survey . It carried out the survey as part of its social services to travellers in Nigeria.It is the first travel Magazine in West Africa Published since 1996.The journal serves as a one stop shop for airlines, Hotels, Restaurants, Tour operators, Travel Agents, State Tourism Board etc. Travellers’ magazine is set to be the in-house magazine of over 100 hotels in Nigeria and Ghana. Already Guests of Holiday Inn Airport hotel Accra and La Palm Royal Beach Hotel Accra and Southern Sun hotel Lagos will be served copies of Travellers for their Reading comfort.

It is now an inflight magazine for Africa World Airlines that flies between Ghana and Nigeria and also within Ghana. AWA was voted as the best Domestic Airline in Ghana. AWA is the strategic partner to South African Airlines on the Accra/Washington DC route.

AWA is expected to carry all SAA passengers between Nigeria and Ghana. This partnership provides a huge opportunity for visibility. It was the inflight magazine for Virgin Nigeria before it stopped operating.