KENYA: Charter Flights To Kenya Will Boost Tourism

News that a European company will launch chartered flights to the Kenyan coast has excited players in the tourism industry.

Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala revealed the news of the flights to the region beginning this summer, renewing hopes of the sector’s recovery this season.

The industry, which has suffered a dip in the last three years has held on strongly and with such charter rotations, it is hoping for the best, said Kenya Association of Hotel Keepers and Caterers (Kahc) Coast branch chief executive officer Sam Ikwaye.

The latest deal was arrived at after consultations between Mr Balala, representatives of TUI Group, a multinational travel and tourism company and Kenya’s leading international tour operators.

It was agreed that TUI Poland charter will for the first time be flying tourists to the Kenyan coast during the European summer season from July to October 2016, with a capacity of 180 passengers. It will be operating to Mombasa weekly with a possibility of continuing through the winter period to April 2017.

TUI Europe and TUI UK also announced start of operations in the months of November and December.

The TUI representatives led by Harry Kingma, Tim Ramberg and Mateusz Maszkiewics are already in Mombasa on a five-day visit to inspect tourism products and engage stakeholders in business during this period.

While welcoming this announcement , Balala said the charter flights will benefit from the recently announced charter incentive programme that includes waiver of landing fees and a 30 US dollar subsidy for every passenger on the charter flights terminating in Mombasa and Malindi.

“This is a step in the right direction and a big boost to the tourism industry. We welcome these charter flights... the action by TUI Group is a strong indicator that we are on the right path to recovery,” said Balala.

Ikwaye said the expected arrival of TUI Polish charter during the tourism high season in June will serve to improve hotel occupancy rates. “We are optimistic of brighter things to come as the high season sets in after April,” Ikwaye said. In the meantime, Jambo Group of Hotels chairman Simon Ndolo has called for more government support to local investors in the industry to enable them remain buoyant.

Change At The Helm Of TUI Group

Fritz Joussen becomes sole CEO of TUI Group / Peter Long, Joint CEO up to the AGM, becomes Supervisory Board member.

As of the end of today’s Annual General Meeting, Fritz Joussen (52) will be sole CEO of TUI Group. Upon the close of the Annual General Meeting, the term of office of Peter Long (63) as Joint CEO will expire. Long was elected as new member of the Supervisory Board of TUI AG by the Annual General Meeting held in Hanover.

Until December 2014, Peter Long was CEO of TUI Travel PLC, TUI’s tourism subsidiary created through the merger between First Choice and TUI AG’s tourism division in 2007. Following the merger between the British subsidiary and the German parent company, he then became one of the two Joint CEOs of the newly formed TUI Group alongside Fritz Joussen in December 2014. When the merger was completed at the end of 2014, it was decided that Fritz Joussen was to become sole CEO after the end of a transitional year of joint management by two Co-CEOs, and that Peter Long was going to step down from his role on the Executive Board.

TUI is the world’s number one integrated tourism group. It employs 76,000 people in more than 100 countries. Apart from tour operators, 300 Group-owned hotels and clubs and six European airlines, TUI has three cruise lines currently operating 13 cruise ships. TUI has a European structure: It is domiciled in Germany (Berlin/Hanover), its shares are listed in the London Stock Exchange (FTSE 100) and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Open Market). In financial year 2014/15, the Group generated turnover of 20.01 billion euros.

The TUI GROUP Is A Company Of Opportunities

The TUI GROUP is a company of opportunities –
for its clients, shareholders, partners and employees. Under one roof, it unites TUI’s unique hotel portfolio, three cruise brands, six airlines and the sales strength of well-known tour operators, both online and through our 1,800 travel agencies across Europe. The guarantee of a consistent customer experience creates a unique economic advantage. Thanks to direct access to our customers, investments in hotels and modern cruise ships are made more predictable and ensure improved occupancy rates and capacity utilisation early on. This ensures that the TUI GROUP can grow faster and develop more exclusive holiday offerings for its customers.

With a total portfolio of more than 300 group and 50 partner hotels with some 245,000 beds in more than 25 countries, TUI Hotels & Resorts makes a significant contribution to the consolidated earnings of the TUI GROUP. With our leading leisure hotel brands RIU, ROBINSON, TUI Magic Life, TUI BLUE, Sensimar, Sensatori and Family Life, we are striving for significant growth in hotel properties, which is based on three major reasons to believe:

- For our customers, the hotel is the key decision factor when a customer makes a booking and it is key to customer loyalty
- For our industry, the leisure hotel segment is a stable and profitable business, with above-average growth prospects for our industry
- Therefore, expansion of our hotels and cruise ship business is one of the key strategic pillars of the oneTUI growth strategy for the TUI GROUP

This is where our potential lies: TUI Hotels & Resorts offers its guests individual hotel brands with a variety of concepts that allow them to find an offering that meets their needs and wishes. At our hotels, customer satisfaction and high quality are our top priority.

This is the successful concept that will drive our planned growth. To strengthen our position in relation to the international competition and to further extend exclusivity for our customers, we will be expanding our hotel and club portfolio significantly in the coming years. Access to the strengths of the world‘s largest integrated tourism group promotes our growth and makes us the ideal link between tour operators and hotel partners. Our strong hotel brands also form the ideal starting point for capitalising on the opportunities presented by ongoing digitalisation.

This brochure is intended to provide insight into our hotel growth strategy, our different brands and their search profiles for new hotel properties and strong partnerships. Let us inspire you how the TUI GROUP can be your preferred partner for future hotel opportunities!

STRONGER TOGETHER – TUI HOTELS & RESORTS AS PART OF A FULLY INTEGRATED TOURISM GROUP

TUI GROUP – Who we are
TUI GROUP is the world's number one tourism business. In 2013/14 fiscal year, the TUI GROUP had 77,000 employees, recorded turnover of € 18.7 billion and an operating profit of € 869 million. United under one roof we operate a unique hotel portfolio, our cruise lines, six European airlines as well as tour operators, both online and through our broad travel retail network across Europe. This integrated approach enables us to provide our 30 million customers with an unmatched holiday experience at 180 destinations. We will therefore be able to shape market entry into new destinations ourselves, thus setting travel trends for the future.

STRATEGY – Where we are heading
The oneTUI strategy programme will help us strengthen TUI's position as the world's leading tourism group. We are in an excellent position, ready for growth: Having established a healthy financial footing for the Group, we are now launching the next phase of our oneTUI strategy programme.

In the next few years we plan to expand our portfolio by more than 60 exclusive new hotel projects that are to be developed and operated in prime locations as well as four new cruise ships. Through these strategic investments, TUI will shape the future world of travel and tomorrow's travel trends. This content-focused growth strategy will still be governed by the underlying principles of oneTUI: cash flow orientation and rigorous cost discipline.

TUI Hotels & Resorts – Where we want to grow
TUI Hotels & Resorts' leading leisure brand portfolio includes over 350 hotels with more than 245,000 beds in 28 destinations. The facilities run by our brands are located in top-class settings mainly in leisure holiday destinations – offering a variety of hotel formats with high standards of business performance, service quality and environmental management. The Group's hotel portfolio includes such well-known brands as RIU and the premium-market ROBINSON Clubs.

Being part of a fully integrated tourism group provides TUI Hotels & Resorts with access to a broad customer platform served by strong tour operators, 1,800 travel agencies and leading online portals, six airlines with more than 130 aircrafts and countless destination management companies in all major holiday destinations around the globe.

There is no other tourism group in the world that owns a hotel and cruise portfolio of this scope and is capable of designing an end-to-end travel experience for customers based on its own aircraft fleet.

Because we are stronger together, this unique network of business divisions along the entire tourism value chain allows TUI Hotels & Resorts and its hotel partners to achieve above average occupancy levels, room rates and significantly better customer satisfaction.

NETHERLANDS: Change At The Helm Of TUI Group

Fritz Joussen becomes sole CEO of TUI Group / Peter Long, Joint CEO up to the AGM, becomes Supervisory Board member.

As of the end of today’s Annual General Meeting, Fritz Joussen (52) will be sole CEO of TUI Group. Upon the close of the Annual General Meeting, the term of office of Peter Long (63) as Joint CEO will expire. Long was elected as new member of the Supervisory Board of TUI AG by the Annual General Meeting held in Hanover.

Until December 2014, Peter Long was CEO of TUI Travel PLC, TUI’s tourism subsidiary created through the merger between First Choice and TUI AG’s tourism division in 2007. Following the merger between the British subsidiary and the German parent company, he then became one of the two Joint CEOs of the newly formed TUI Group alongside Fritz Joussen in December 2014. When the merger was completed at the end of 2014, it was decided that Fritz Joussen was to become sole CEO after the end of a transitional year of joint management by two Co-CEOs, and that Peter Long was going to step down from his role on the Executive Board.

TUI is the world’s number one integrated tourism group. It employs 76,000 people in more than 100 countries. Apart from tour operators, 300 Group-owned hotels and clubs and six European airlines, TUI has three cruise lines currently operating 13 cruise ships. TUI has a European structure: It is domiciled in Germany (Berlin/Hanover), its shares are listed in the London Stock Exchange (FTSE 100) and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Open Market). In financial year 2014/15, the Group generated turnover of 20.01 billion euros.

NETHERLANDS: TUI Airlines Netherlands

TUI Airlines Netherlands (formerly Arkefly and shortened to Arke in the corporate design to match the travel agency)is a Dutch charter airline headquartered in Schiphol-Rijk on the grounds of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in Haarlemmermeer, Netherlands. It is the charter carrier of the Dutch arm of the German travel conglomerate TUI Group and its main base is Schiphol Airport.

TUI Airlines Netherlands, before Arkelfy traced its roots to Air Holland, which was founded in 1981. After financial problems Air Holland was taken over by the Exel Aviation Group and took a new start as HollandExel in March 2004. In May 2005 the Exel Aviation Group was declared bankrupt. The German TUI Group took over the airline's activities and renamed it ArkeFly. It is now wholly owned by the TUI Group. Its name was based on the biggest Dutch tour operator, Arke, which is also a subsidiary of the TUI Group. The newly reorganised airline operated its first flight in September 2005.

Operations in Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, began on 15 July 2004 as DutchCaribbeanExel, which was originally part of the Exel Aviation Group, but was later taken over, together with parent airline, HollandExel, by the TUI Group, and renamed ArkeFly Curaçao.ArkeFly started weekly flights to St. Maarten from Amsterdam on 2 December 2007, but discontinued this service in November 2008. TUI holds that flights may resume if the volume of tourists travelling to St. Maarten increases. Operations to Orlando, Miami and Israel began in 2011.

In October 2013, Arkefly changed its marketing name to Arke to reflect the partnership with the travel agency of the same name.

On 13 May 2015, it was announced by the TUI Group that all five of TUI's airline subsidiaries will be named TUI, whilst keeping their separate Air Operator's Certificate, taking over three years to complete. Arke was the first to undergo the change, and was renamed TUI on 1 October 2015.

TUI Airlines Netherlands carries out regular and chartered flights, although most of the chartered flights are operated for the Dutch tour operator Arke. It operates to destinations in the Mediterranean, Canary Islands, Red Sea, Mexico, Caribbean, United States, Canada, Africa, Asia, Brazil and the Dutch Caribbean.

JAMAICA: US$500-m Tourism Investment - 3,000 New Hotel Rooms Under Construction,

JUST under 3,000 new hotel rooms are now being constructed in Jamaica in what Tourism Minister Dr Wykeham McNeill described as "a massive wave" of investment in the sector valued at US$500 million.

"This investment in new rooms is larger than any other in the history of the industry," McNeill told senior journalists at his New Kingston office yesterday.

The 2,694 rooms are split between new properties and expansion on existing hotels in Negril, Montego Bay, Trelawny, St Ann, and Kingston.

McNeill said they will account for approximately 7,000 jobs in the construction phase, and between 4,000 and 5,000 permanent positions when the hotels are fully operational.

He attributed the investments to strong partnerships created over the past three years, particularly in the United States, and with the world's largest tour operator, TUI Group.

"What you have happening is people doing business in Jamaica being successful and investing in a real way," McNeill said.

Jamaica Tourist Board Chairman Dennis Morrison said the investments were also influenced by amendments to the Hotel Incentives Act which now grant tax breaks to hoteliers for refurbishing.

"The tax system that has been put in place meets a demand that has been made for many years of government," Morrison said.

Previously, the Act provided a 10-year relief from general consumption tax, income tax, and import duty to new hotels, existing hotels adding a minimum of 10 rooms or 30 per cent of the existing number of rooms (whichever is greater), and existing hotels that have done or intend to do substantial structural alteration.

In addition, approved convention hotels with 350 or more bedrooms are entitled to income tax and import duty relief ranging from 11 to 15 years.

"The new regime allows the operator to renew and refresh his property every three or five years, and they will tell you that is the biggest thing, because what you have done is take the taxes off their operating expenses," Morrison said.

McNeill pointed out that another 2,500 rooms are to be built by Chinese investors, and the planned casino resort on the North Coast will add more rooms to the product.

"What you're seeing is a massive wave," he said.

Just over a decade ago, Spanish investors figured prominently on a list of 15 tourism projects which, at the time, was the largest combined investment in the sector with capital of US$400 million and employment capacity of 4,700 jobs.

TUNISIA: Victims Of Gun Attack Start Legal Proceedings Against Travel Firm

A group of Britons who were victims of a beach gun attack in Tunisia have started legal action against holiday company Thomson, claiming that the operator, part of TUI Group, failed to provide adequate security at its hotel.

Thirty Britons were killed in June at a hotel in Sousse on the Mediterranean coast, the biggest loss of British lives in such an incident since the July 2005 bombings in London.

Several families who lost loved ones, as well as a number of those who were seriously injured in the attack, brought a claim for damages against Thomson through lawyers Irwin Mitchell, the law firm said in a statement on Thursday.

Formal claim letters had been sent to Thomson, but no formal response had been received, said the statement.

Irwin Mitchell's head of international personal injury Clive Garner said that Thomson was legally responsible for any failures to provide reasonable security precautions and adequate warnings to guests before and during their stays.

"It is clear that the security measures were not sufficient to prevent a lone gunman from accessing the hotel and its grounds, nor were they robust enough to stop him during a prolonged 30 to 40 minute rampage," he said.

Two weeks after the attack, thousands of tourists rushed to leave Tunisia after Britain warned another attack was "highly likely" and told them to leave.

TUI, the world's largest leisure and tourism company, said in August that cancelled holidays to Tunisia would cost it between €35m and €40m in total in its current financial year.