TRAVEL

Galadari gets crowns glory

Galadari Hotel Colombo was awarded five crowns for excellence in hygienic practices in storing, preparing and serving under the ‘Crowns for Food Hygiene’ scheme.

It was launched by the Ind-Expo Certification a joint venture between the Ceylon National Chamber of Industries (CNCI) and the National Chamber of Exporters (NCE).

Crowns for Food Hygiene scheme aims to encourage and assist local food businesses to follow safe hygienic practices in food handling and preparation.

The certification allows an establishment to achieve best practices in hygiene and cleanliness while offering its patrons a safer and cleaner environment to dine in.

Food safety issues are of importance to both consumers and to the food industry. Each stage of the food supply chain from production, processing, storage to distribution faces its own particular challenges to control and prevent contamination of foods.

Successfully conquering these challenges, the Galadari Hotel was crowned in 5 crowns at the recently concluded ‘five Crowns Food Hygiene Scheme,’ launch ceremony at the Cinnamon Grand Colombo.

The Hotel was inspected and categorized under the five crown status confirming the superiority of its hygienic standards within a five star establishment.

The Galadari once again has managed to stand on firm ground, building on their five Star status as a symbol of superior quality.

This certification adds on to the hotel’s strong track record of hygiene and cleanliness in keeping with international hospitality standards.

Aitken Spence Hotels holds school art competition

To celebrate World Tourism Day :

World Tourism day will be acknowledged and celebrated on September 27 under the theme of Tourism and Biodiversity. The official celebrations will be hosted by China, with the date being globally recognized by a multitude of nations organizing their own individual events in lieu of the day.

Aitken Spence Hotels has organized art competitions and exhibitions for schoolchildren at its hotels.

The hotels will involve rural schools within close proximity to the properties to promote its sustainability related initiatives.

The hotels have been interacting with schools in their respective areas during September to encourage maximum participation.

Aitken Spence Hotels Managing Director Malin Hapugoda said the objective of this school art competition is to raise awareness of the close relationship between tourism development, biodiversity and conservation as well as to recognize the talent of schoolchildren.

“The Tourism industry and biodiversity are closely related as most of Sri Lanka’s tourism offers are linked to its natural environment and biodiversity”, he said.

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, biodiversity based tourism represents an important source of income to the world’s developing nations. Seventy per cent of these populations inhabit rural areas and therefore depend heavily on biodiversity of their survival and well-being.

At each Aitken Spence Hotel, the winners of the art competition will be awarded individual certificates and cash prizes including equipment for their respective schools.

Aitken Spence Hotels will select the top three paintings by the children from all the participating schools and give due recognition to the children and their schools to nurture their talent as well as enhance prospects for their further education. The initiatives made by Aitken Spence Hotels for conservation and protection of the environment have been recognized and noted as global case studies on sustainable tourism.

Spain, Italy, France ally to draw emerging market tourists

Spain, France and Italy, Europe’s top three tourist destinations, joined forces Monday to attract visitors from fast-growing Brazil, China and India under a joint “European Passion” logo.

“The goal is to improve the positioning of the nations of the Mediterranean Arc in distant markets where promoting Spain, France or Italy on their own is more complicated,” Spain’s ministry said in a statement.

Under the agreement signed in Brussels, the three nations will jointly produce fliers and other promotional material for the three emerging markets that highlight their cultural attractions, food and shopping opportunities.

They will also organise promotional visits for journalists and tour operators from Brazil, China and India beginning later this year to boost awareness of their attractions in these countries.

Spain, France and Italy were the most visited countries in Europe last year, according to the United Nation’s World Organisation. France was in top spot, with 74.2 million arrivals, Spain was third with 52.2 million arrivals and Italy was fifth, with 43.2 million visitors.

Brazil, China, India and Russia, the so-called BRIC countries, are the world’s top four emerging markets.

The four nations, which represent 40 percent of the world population, accounted for about half of global growth between 2000 and 2008 and will account for 61 percent global gross domestic product growth in 2014, according to the International Monetary Fund.

MADRID, AFP

Singapore Airlines brings classical music

Singapore Airlines has embarked on an exclusive partnership program with Unitel Classica, a leading producer and distributor of classical music based in Munich.

Beginning from October the classical music selection on KrisWorld, Singapore Airlines’ award-winning inflight entertainment system will feature content exclusive to the Airline.

Flights equipped with the latest Panasonic eX2™ system will offer twelve exceptional classical concerts from Unitel Classica. Of these, eight will be new releases with six shown only on SIA flights, whereas the others will be picked from Unitel’s library of evergreen compositions.

Featured under KrisWorld’s Stage Performances category, the twelve concerts and theatre performances will be refreshed with a new selection every four months.

“This exclusive collaboration with Unitel Classica is introduced because of the increasingly sophisticated preferences of our customers and, as always, we will continue our search for content that adds value to our inflight entertainment system for the benefit of our customers,” Product and Services Senior Vice President Yap Kim Wah said.