Leisure

CHC to brand more hotels

Sara Pathirana in Tissa

The Galle Face Group had unveiled an award winning group of hotels under the Ceylon Hotels Corporation (CHC) after a period of revamping and refurbishment. An investment of Rs. two billion had been outlaid for the project up to now.

"We are now in the process of branding the hotels within the next couple of months. The hotels maintain ISO standards such as the ISO 22000," Nimal Sangakkara, General Manager, Operations of the Galle Face Group stated.

The refurbishment would be categorized into three entities, namely Prestige, Heritage and Rest. While seven hotels have been refurbished, the rest were still under process. Two of the refurbished hotels, The Heritage in Weligama and the Safari Prestige in Tissa were two that had been unveiled recently. The Heritage Weligama, which was formerly the Weligama Bay Inn, is a half hour drive to the main highway, a half hour drive to Matara and a 20 minute drive to Galle. It is a boutique styled hotel, consisting of 10 A/C rooms. During the refurbishment, care had been taken to retain its colonial style.

The Safari, formerly the Tissa Rest House, is a 4 Star hotel that had been renovated and re-launched in 2010, consisting of 3 suites and 47 deluxe rooms, a total of 50 rooms.

The hotel rates have been targeted towards local and foreign visitors with slightly higher rates for foreigners. The Spa facility at the hotel would be initiated within the next three to four months.

In terms of entertainment, they promote soft music as the aim of the hotel was to provide visitors with a relaxing environment and the enjoyment and tranquility of the surrounding nature.

Chethiya Perera has initiated the idea of starting a Hotel School run by the company for underprivileged children. With a qualified lecturer and principal, they are provided with a one year course free of charge, conducted in English and are taught computing, cookery, front office administration and issues with a government certificate, equal to the NVQ. "They are helped to secure jobs straight after the course, within the 20 properties of the Galle Face Group of Hotels."

Singapore airlines and Aegean airlines sign codeshare agreement

From 1 December 2012, Singapore Airlines customers will be able to fly to the Greek cities of Athens and Thessaloniki through a codeshare agreement with Star Alliance partner Aegean Airlines.

Under the agreement, SIA will add its 'SQ' code to Aegean-operated flights serving the Greek capital Athens from Frankfurt, London, Milan and Munich, as well as to flights serving Greece's second-largest city Thessaloniki from Frankfurt and Munich.On a reciprocal basis, Aegean will add its 'A3' code to SIA-operated flights serving Singapore from Frankfurt, Milan and Munich, and flights beyond Singapore to Melbourne and Sydney. Aegean's codeshare on SIA-operated flights will commence once regulatory approvals have been obtained.

"This new codeshare arrangement with our Star Alliance partner Aegean Airlines will provide our customers convenient connections to Greece and broaden our network for both business and leisure travellers," said Singapore Airlines Acting Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing, Chin Yau Seng. Aegean Airlines' Planning and Alliances Director, Tassos Raftopoulos, added: "Aegean Airlines are delighted to team up with Singapore Airlines whose high quality product and service ethics closely match our own customer proposition, with an expansion that aligns very well to the further growth of our Star Alliance partnerships.

Help the less fortunate this Xmas with Hameedia

Sri Lanka's leading menswear Hameedia just launched its Christmas season this year with a project to help the less privileged children of society.

"My Friend' is one of its social service initiatives which embraces and lends a hand to under privileged children across the country.

It also helps improve their education standards.

Hameedia invites the public to bring all old, yet usable, children's clothes and school uniforms to any of its 11 branches spread all over the country until Friday 30 November.

As a reciprocal gesture a 15% discount is offered on LeBond products purchased the same day. Managing Director Fouzul Hameed said, "A festive season is also not only about buying clothes for oneself and for one's loved ones.

It is also about helping the needy and less fortunate people around us.

Our children are the future of Sri Lanka.

It is our responsibility to nurture them and see them grow into responsible citizens. My team and I are very happy to facilitate this project and thereby bring a little happiness and a smile on faces of the hundreds of under privileged children around this festive season".

Emirates soars with new Windows 8 Business Application, HP Tablet experience

"At Emirates, we strive to deliver the world's best in-flight experience,"said Kevin Griffiths, Senior Vice President, Cabin Crew at Emirates. “We constantly invest in the best aircraft, products and service.

To support our crew, we have created an application on Windows 8 that delivers a unique, personalized experience with the necessary information for our cabin crew to better serve the needs of customers. The Windows 8 platform running on HP ElitePad 900 devices gave us this option, allowing us to create the KIS app that enables our crew to offer an experience not available on other airlines."

The crew can also use the application to easily conduct in-flight upgrades to business class or first class for Emirates Skywards members, as well as customer feedback that is immediately routed to headquarters upon landing.

As the first global customer of the HP ElitePad 900, Emirates is creating a new KIS tablet that is light, attractive and has a long battery life, ideal for nonstop flights.Combined with Windows 8â€(tm)s touch-optimized user interface, which quickly shows the most important information via Live Tiles, the crew can spend more time interacting withcustomers in a unique and efficient way. growing airlines in the world, announced at the Windows 8 launch event in Dubai the development of a line-of-business application for Windows 8 called Knowledge Driven Inflight Service (KIS).

The KIS application will now run on the soon-to-be-launched HP ElitePad 900 business tablets and will enable Emirates to continue to deliver extraordinary customer service and experiences.

China's plane rises to the challenge

China's home-grown passenger plane was only a model at the country's premier airshow, but a growing number of orders show Beijing's drive to challenge the dominance of Boeing and Airbus.

State-backed Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC) said it won 50 orders for the planned 168-seat C919 plane at the Zhuhai airshow, which ends on Sunday, bringing the total to 380.

China's rapid economic growth is creating massive demand for planes as growing incomes boost air travel, with US aviation giant Boeing estimating the country will need 5,260 commercial jets over the next 20 years.

But China wants a piece of that multi-billion dollar market as it tries to develop its own technology and then look overseas for sales.

The plane is a symbol of national pride which would compete with Boeing's 737 and the A320 of European consortium Airbus, but catching up might take at least a decade, industry officials and analysts said.

AFP