PRTravelwire iReport

WESTERN BUREAU - December 14, 2016.

The University of Technology (UTech) 'ganja lab' emerged as arguably the most outstanding participant in the 2016 Ganjamaica Cup, which was one of the major highlights of last weekend's Rastafari RootZFest, which unfolded at the Long Bay Beach Park, in Negril.

The UTech ganja lab, which has a license from the government of Jamaica for medical marijuana research, won four of the 14 categories, which featured local and international entries. UTech won the Best Sativa for its Apple Candy (A), Best Indoor Sativa for its Candy Apple (1), Best Oil (solvent) and Best Innovation.

NEW YORK, United States, Friday December 9, 2016 – Conde Nast Traveller has chosen the 20 Best Hotels in the World for its 2017 Gold List, and the Caribbean has secured a place with GoldenEye in Jamaica, the luxury resort built around the former home of James Bond creator Ian Fleming.

Goldeneye was in good company amid such famous properties as Anassa in Cyprus and Six Senses in Oman, but succeeded in attracting a very favourable review from the prestigious travel publication.

Here’s what Conde Nast had to say about the winning Jamaican hotel:

GRAND BAHAMA ISLAND, The Bahamas, Tuesday December 13, 2016 – With drastic changes to the island’s topography and its tourism economy as a result of Hurricane Matthew, one might begin to wonder whether or not the ‘Grand Life’ still exists in The Bahamas’ second city.

Known for its diverse offering of soft adventure experiences from east to west, appealing to a cross section of travelers, the resilience of Grand Bahama Island’s nature tourism product remains a force to be reckoned with.

To assure travelers and tourism stakeholders of this truth, the Ministry of Tourism’s Sustainable Tourism Unit set out on an extensive assessment to see, first-hand, the state of many of the island’s most frequently accessed nature trails and beach access points.

World Tourism Day in Bangkok concluded yesterday. The last night was a night to remember for delegates to the UNWTO event.

One prominent delegate impressed with Thai Hospitality offered a toast during the Gala Night in Khon Kaen. He was Dr. Walter Mzembi who is running as a candidate to becoming the next UNWTO Secretary General.

Dr. Mzembi said:

MIAMI, Florida (August 5, 2016) - Gerard "Jerry" Inzerillo, CEO of Forbes Travel Guide, known and esteemed for his innovations and relationships in the tourism, hospitality, and entertainment communities, will be the keynote speaker opening up the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association's (CHTA) Caribbean Hospitality Industry Exchange Forum (CHIEF) in Puerto Rico from September 30 to October 2, 2016.

Inzerillo, who has a deep well of experience upon which to draw, will address the role the Caribbean plays in global tourism.

During his extensive career, Inzerillo helped to develop some of the world's most famous hospitality brands such as Atlantis, One&Only Resorts and Ian Schrager Hotels, and held leadership roles with Four Seasons and Hilton Hotels & Resorts.

Source: New York Times

Ever since Airbnb entered the lodging scene in 2008, the hotel industry has cast a wary eye, noting its popularity with young travelers. Despite a strong year for hotels — occupancy and rates broke records in 2015, according to the data firm STR — anxiety may be creeping into those corporate suites.

Airbnb, the largest home sharing network with over two million listings worldwide, is newly targeting business travelers, the bread-and-butter clientele of hotels.

Source: TravelWeekly

Facebook recently announced a change to its algorithm that will place content from users’ friends and families higher up in their News Feed than content published by Pages.

Social media experts said they were not surprised by the change and predicted it would likely affect agents who use Pages for marketing and lead generation to different degrees, depending on their usage level.

Source: Hotel News Resource

Cloud based, mobile self-booking tool saves time, helps drive new revenue growth for TMCs 

Groupize and Travelport, a leading Travel Commerce Platform, have today jointly announced the launch of a new online hotel booking solution for travel management companies (TMC) that addresses the growing demand for a self-service, centralized solution to source, book, track and manage small group meetings of under 25 hotel rooms or less than 50 participants. 

Source: Hotel News Resource

Travel Prices Set to Marginally Increase or Remain Flat for 2017; Geopolitical and Economic Uncertainty Mean Travel Managers Need to Remain Flexible and Agile 

New research out today highlights six key risks heading into 2017 that could impact both travel industry prices and the global economy as a whole. They are emerging market performance, financial market turbulence, geopolitical risks, uncertainty surrounding Brexit, potentially fluctuating U.S. interest rates and oil prices.

Kingston Jamaica, July, 14, 2016 – As part of efforts to develop the island’s craft industry some 180 craft producers have been equipped with skills to enhance the island’s craft output. The craft producers, who were trained under the Tourism Product Development Company Limited (TPDCo), Organization of American States (OAS) Craft Enhancement Project, graduated at a Recognition and Awards ceremony at the New Kingston Business Centre on July 12, 2016. 

To date Jamaica has trained just over half of the three hundred artisans from the Caribbean who have been educated under the regional programme, equipping them with the requisite skills to compete for a share of the $87 billion global market for creative exports currently produced in the Americas. 

Participants in the programme were empowered through craft skills upgrading workshops and business planning training in mixed media including bamboo, straw, and textile. 

Source: Travel Weekly - THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY'S TRUSTED VOICE

What’s the top influence when making travel plans? For nearly three-quarters (74%) of global travelers, it’s “going somewhere I’ve never been before,” according to the 34,000 traveler respondents of TripBarometer, a December 2015 study conducted on behalf of TripAdvisor.

Along those same lines, other answers in the top 10 included “being able to learn something new on a trip,” at 67%, and “trying something new,” at 63%. 

Source: tnooz

The company has been talking about it a lot recently, not least at a conference I attended.

Whilst many gushed and appeared in awe, it gave a really great opportunity to hear, instantly and first-hand the reactions of others and how they think it might affect my own business.

Source: Global Travelerby Holly Riddle

American Airlines, Frontier, JetBlue, Silver Airways, Southwest and Sun Country are all now eligible to fly to Cuba from Miami (MIA), Chicago (ORD), Fort Lauderdale (FLL), Philadelphia (PHL) and Minneapolis (MSP).

The Department is still considering which airlines to approve for service to Havana (HAV), but it expects to reach a decision this summer.

Source: Tnooz

One of the most under-reported stories in travel is that most hotel owners have no idea what their cost per channel is and what they’re actually getting per room.

That hasn’t been a problem this year or last year, because respectable growth in demand in many markets worldwide has kept everybody happy enough with bottom lines.

New York Times - By QUENTIN HARDY

Technology has all kinds of ways to make life easier — particularly for the tech companies themselves. As Katie Benner writes, Airbnb is currently under scrutiny over the way some of its members choose who they will rent to. One study shows it’s harder for people with names that seem African-American to book stays. Yet if those people are wronged on Airbnb, there’s little they can do to seek legal redress.

When people sign up for the service, they waive the right to sue Airbnb, or join any arbitration or class-action lawsuit against the company. A few months back, Airbnb highlighted those terms, and older users were compelled to show that they were aware of the rights they were losing by listing with Airbnb.