Best Western International announced today that the Hotel Mäster Johan in Malmö, Sweden is the first independent hotel to join the BW Premier CollectionSM, Best Western’s new soft brand. Launched in October, the BW Premier Collection continues Best Western’s rich history of providing guests with unique and local hotel experiences around the world.

The Hotel Mäster Johan is a first-class hotel in the heart of Malmö, a city in the southern part of Sweden. The 68-room boutique hotel has been carefully renovated to keep its modern, classic Nordic style with light colors, natural materials and beautiful art. The Hotel Mäster Johan is a recipient of the prestigious 2014 TripAdvisor Travelers Choice award.

“We are thrilled to be able to sign an international hotel as the first property in the BW Premier Collection portfolio. The Hotel Mäster Johan is a terrific example of the types of hotels that we expect will join the BW Premier Collection; upscale and luxury properties in primary and destination markets that share our commitment to delivering an exceptional and unique travel experience,” said Best Western International President and CEO David Kong.

“Our pay-for-performance fee structure combined with our powerful distribution channels and industry leading services provide a compelling opportunity for hoteliers to have the support of our global brand, reduce their reliance on online travel agencies and improve profitability while maintaining their independence,” added Kong.

“As a successful boutique hotel it is important for us to maintain our own brand. In an increasingly competitive market, joining the BW Premier Collection allows us to do that while benefiting from the support and services Best Western provides,” said Nina Nilsson Ulvinen, Hotel Mäster Johan owner and CEO.

The BW Premier Collection affords hoteliers with independent, upscale hotels access to Best Western’s $4.1 billion global reservation system, award-winning and fast-growing loyalty program, Best Western Rewards®, a global sales and marketing team and the power of its industry-leading mobile, eCommerce and technology resources, all while retaining their local identity and individuality.

“The Hotel Mäster Johan is one of the most popular hotels in Sweden which makes signing them as the first property in the BW Premier Collection very gratifying. We believe that the BW Premier Collection hotels will not only benefit from their relationship with Best Western, but Best Western Rewards members also win with a greater variety of hotels at which to redeem their points,” said Best Western Sweden CEO Johan Kukacka.

Over 1, 50,000 passengers were affected as 1350 Lufthansa flights were cancelled in the last two days. The strike was initiated by pilots of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, leading to the cancellation of short-haul and intercontinental flights.
Retirement benefit policy of the airline seems to be the issue of regular disagreement between the pilots and the management. This is the ninth consecutive strike this year. The German pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) representing nearly 5,400 pilots is opposing Lufthansa’s attempt to do away with a retirement plan that allows pilots to retire at 55, but continue receiving 60 % of their normal salary until the standard retirement age of 65 years.
Lufthansa announced that travelers who were affected by the strike can re-book their flights free of charge. Lufthansa, despite being Germany’s largest airline had to cut its profit projections for 2015 for the second time this year, thanks to rising costs and intense competition.
The airline is also expanding its low-cost service to counter tough competition from other carriers. Lufthansa however reveals that thanks to increase in demand and their “flexible demand-based capacity management,” the company has achieved acceptable traffic revenue by the third quarter of 2014.

Over the past few years there has been an increasing amount of Chinese money pouring into overseas real estate markets. With more than 40,000 new millionaires created in 2013 alone, China’s wealthy classes are on the rise.

But why are they not investing in domestic markets, favouring instead the prime real estate markets of New York, London and continental Europe?

Juwai, a portal website that helps Chinese investors find properties in 58 countries says it has helped to facilitate the sale of about 2.5 million properties, sending brokers leads of over €20bn.

Chinese seek safe haven for accumulated capital

Ultra-wealthy Chinese investors have been acquiring everything from overseas companies to foreign commercial and residential real estate. Their motivation is fairly straightforward: They feel their assets are much better protected overseas.

Michael Godin, vice president of Real Estate Global Partners who specialise in pairing Chinese investors with property brokers overseas said: “There is much more trust felt for other governments and that those assets will be protected by the government, compared to the assets here in China which could be taken away tomorrow.”

Investors get creative to take money out of China

However, Chinese money is only safe if it actually makes it overseas due to Chinese law prohibiting more than €40,000 leaving the country per person per year. As a result, Chinese investors and companies are getting increasingly creative when it comes to getting their money out of China and into overseas property.

Although this rule is not heavily enforced, it is pushing some Chinese investors to resort to methods such as going to the Chinese city of Shenzhen on the border of Hong Kong and transferring money in the millions from China to Hong Kong, where there are different outbound currency limits.

Some Chinese companies use international banks that have branches in both China and overseas. They deposit assets in China and then take out loans against them in the overseas branch.

Another attraction to Chinese investors are the visa opportunities in the US, UK, Spain and Portugal where qualifying investments entitle investors to residency visas, providing greater freedom of travel and overseas banking opportunities amongst other benefits.

There are however, rising concerns that Chinese investors are pricing the wealthier classes out of certain markets overseas, especially when it comes to housing. Bill Seto, president of the US China Real Estate Association provided some valuable insight into how Chinese buyers tick when he said:

“They don’t like to haggle. Reputation is very important; they like to pay high prices so they could outbid the other competitor and that’s the way it is.”

buy the 25% of Costanavarino!!

One of the most influential businesswomen in the Middle East, Olayan, 58, runs Saudi Arabia’s Olayan Financing. The Middle East arm of the sprawling Olayan Group, it operates 40-plus companies across the region and is one of the biggest investors in local stock markets. Long a trailblazer, Olayan has pushed progressive business practices in the area; she joined the family business in 1983 when few corporate positions in Saudi were held by women. She was the first woman elected to a board position in the Kingdom, joining the Saudi Hollandi Bank in 2004, and became the first woman to deliver a keynote address at a major Saudi conference that same year. A member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum, she is also on the Arab Business Council’s executive committee.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced a new arrangement to help passengers impacted by airline bankruptcy. A voluntary agreement on behalf of its members flying to, from and within Europe will cover the repatriation of passengers unable to return home due to an airline ceasing operations as a result of financial failure.

I am delighted to say that passengers left stranded in the rare and unfortunate event of an airline bankruptcy will be offered ‘rescue fares’ from airlines to ensure they can get home, “ said Tony Tyler, IATA’s Director General and CEO, speaking at a round-table meeting with journalists in Brussels on Tuesday. The agreement formalizes a long-standing custom that many airlines have traditionally offered in these rare instances.

Under the agreement, in the event of an airline bankruptcy, IATA member airlines flying to and from the EU will make their best efforts to offer repatriation to passengers stranded away from home. These passengers will be provided access to discounted transport to return home, subject to available capacity. The ‘rescue fares’ of a nominal amount will be available for purchase up to a maximum of two weeks after the event to anyone flying to and from or within Europe who does not already possess insurance covering this eventuality. States responsible for the licensing of the insolvent airline should also play their role in communicating to stranded passengers the possibility of this rescue service.

“This agreement on rescue fares shows that the airline industry is more determined than ever to ensure reliable and consistently excellent customer service. Airlines have formalized a unique cooperation agreement that puts passenger needs first,” said Tyler.

The European Commission has estimated that between 2011 and 2020, only 0.07% of all passengers could be affected by airline bankruptcy, and of them, only 12% would require assistance in getting home. A permanent statutory fund to aid passengers in such situations has been a topic of considerable discussion. The airline industry has opposed such a fund as financially prudent airlines would be subsidizing riskier airlines. More importantly, estimates of the bureaucracy needed to run the fund suggest that up to 85% of the money would be eaten up in administration.

“A compulsory levy on airlines to deal with repatriation would not serve anybody’s interest. We commend the European Commission for resisting this and for encouraging airlines to adopt this coordinated and customer-focused approach,” said Tyler.

Source: IATA.

This week Invest in Greece Agency participates in a mission to China within the framework of the official visit of representatives of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aimed at attracting investment and strengthening the business relations of the two countries.

The CEO of Invest in Greece Agency, Mr. Stephanos Issaias, visited Beijing to present Greece’s new investment environment and a portfolio of specific projects per investment sector, to Chinese investors during the investment seminar organised on Tuesday, November 27, by the Embassy of Greece in Beijing in collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of Trade and the Lazard Bank China. The visit of Mr. Issaias was complemented with a series of prescheduled one-on-one meetings in light of the fact that new, as well as already existing Chinese companies, have expressed their undiminished interest in doing business in Greece. During the meetings, key questions regarding the economic stability and competitiveness of Greece were answered.

Yesterday, Thursday November 29, the mission visited Shanghai, where the Greek Consulate, in collaboration with the media organisation 21st Century Media organised a two-day investment seminar to be completed tomorrow. The event is highly successful.  During his keynote speech, Mr. Issaias, addressing the investment audience, as well as journalists, analysed the reasons that Greece is an important investment destination for China. He also presented a number of structural measures and legal instruments that support investment in sectors such as energy, food and beverage, tourism, and real estate.

Based on this seminar, 21st Century Media has published a wealth of material on Greece and its investment opportunities under the title “The right time to invest in Greece?” on the popularChinese economic news website.

“Our joint visit to China with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows that Greece plans to attract investment in a coordinated manner and targets strategic areas with major investment capital outflows, and also gives us the opportunity to directly contact companies, either to provide them with the significant service of the after sales support of Invest in Greece or to invite them to include our country in their investment agenda. According to estimations of Chinese officials, the export of investment capital from China will balance the corresponding import in the next five years. Greece has already been proven to be a profitable investment destination for several Chinese companies. We are here to garner support for what we believe should be the part of Chinese investment capital attributable to Greece based on its comparative advantages.”, the CEO of Invest in Greece Agency, Mr. Stephanos Issaias, said in his interview on the Phoenix TV network of Shanghai.

China – a global power
China is a rapidly growing economy that not only has a huge export activity, but has also begun to invest large-scale capital abroad. The “Going Global” initiative of the Chinese government, to support Chinese companies to invest abroad, provides a vital framework for further cooperation between Greece and China. In the following years, investment inflows could follow the trend of the trade transactions between the two countries, which almost quadrupled in the last 10 years (from €790 million in 2000 to €3.025 billion in 2010).

Despite the international economic downturn, the Chinese economy continued to grow impressively. In 2010, China became the largest exporter worldwide. In 2011 FDI Outflows from China to all countries totaled $146.7 billion [China (excluding Hong Kong): $65.1 billion, Hong Kong: $81.6 billion, Source: UNCTAD, World Investment Report 2012].

Greece is China’s main gateway to Europe and bonds of friendship and mutual respect for the history and culture of the two civilizations unite the two nations.

Η ειδική αυτή σήμανση θα ακολουθεί την έκδοση του Ειδικού Σήματος Λειτουργίας του καταλύματος.

Επιπλέον θεσμοθετείται η αρμοδιότητα έκδοσης και χορήγησης της σήμανσης στον Σύνδεσμο Ελληνικών Τουριστικών Επιχειρήσεων (ΣΕΤΕ).

Τέλος, επιβάλλεται από τα αρμόδια όργανα του Υπουργείου Τουρισμού πρόστιμο ύψους 1.000 (χιλίων) ευρώ ανά τουριστικό κατάλυμα σε περίπτωση μη συμμόρφωσης του φορέα επιχείρησης που εκμεταλλεύεται τουριστικό κατάλυμα στην υποχρέωση επικόλλησης σε κάθε δωμάτιο του ειδικού θεωρημένου αυτοκόλλητου.

Nov 11, 2014