Since 1971 Brussels has hosted the colourful festival celebrating Belgium’s favourite flower the begonia. Every two years a stunning carpet of flowers is created honouring a different theme. This year’s festival will be held between 12th and 15th August and promises to carpet the Grand-Place and surrounding streets with stunning patterns. Naturally the displays have developed into a festival featuring performances, artists and events.The tradition was officially begun by floral architect E. Stautemans who beloved begonias to be perfect and interest in his work quickly spread. Each square metre contains around 300 individual flowers and a total of 700,000 flowers will be used this year.
If you are attending the event the Holiday Inn Brussels-Schuman is perfectly located or the city is a perfect day trip from other locations in Belgian.
Premier Apartments Liverpool were featured on BBC Radio Merseyside’s breakfast show Tony Snell In the Morning earlier this week. As part of a feature on the changing trends in Liverpool tourism, General Manager Marie Melling and Sales Manager Lucy Clarke explained to Jimmy McCracken why staying in apartments is becoming increasingly popular over traditional hotels. Broadcast live from one of the beautifully appointed Penthouses, with views across the cathedral and Liver Building, it wasn’t hard to convince Jimmy of the benefits of choosing apartments for both leisure and business stays.
You can listen to the broadcast here on the BBC iPlayer (their segment is approximately 1:26 hours in).
The next morning one of Premier Apartments Liverpools most regular guests, Tony Maul, called in to the show to explain why he enjoys staying with us, listen here (approx 1:27 hours into show). Thank you for your kind comments Tony - we are delighted to have you staying with us.
Congratulations to Mark Hiscock, General Manager at Premier Apartments Manchester who ran the Bupa Great Manchester Race last Sunday.
The 10km (6 mile) race through Manchester City centre was held on May 16th and raised money for many worthy causes. We are very proud Mark choose to support the PREM Group nominated charity Beyond the Moon who raise money to send children with life-threatening illnesses and their families on vacations to spend quality time together away from hospital and treatment.
Mark finished in a very impressive time of 48 minutes and raised £460 for charity (read more on the Manchester blog).
On behalf of everyone at PREM Group I would like to congratulate Mark on his achievement and wish him best of luck on his half marathon later in the summer.
Excellent news for the Tourism Industry as new rules introduced today will help reduce the number of flight cancellations across Europe.
Although the ash cloud is still largely present, by doubling of the safe density level through which aircraft can fly the number of flights affected should vastly reduced. As we enter the peak summer season the revision should help restore consumer confidence and encourage the resumption of short breaks and business travel.
In the event our guests plans are affected they have the added benefit and security all of our hotels and apartments have subscribed to the Failte Ireland Tourism Industry Visitor Charter on Volcanic Ash and can be assured our teams will provide every help and assistance.
With the expectation volcanic ash clouds will continue to disrupt flights within European airspace for the foreseeable future, Failte Ireland has created a charter to provide reassurance to potential guests and build confidence.
The charter pledges tourism businesses to commit to:
- To waive cancellation fees when visitors cannot travel due to “ash-related” air travel disruption
- Contracted rates will be adhered if visitors are forced to extend their stays
- Hoteliers to make every effort and offer key services to facilitate guests needs (eg obtaining extra prescription medicines, laundry, Internet access)
- Assist in arranging return journeys
- Provide access to regularly updated travel information
This charter reflects industry best practices which were already implemented across all our managed hotels and serviced apartments, including those outside Ireland.
I agree with Shaun Quinn, Chief Executive of the IHF that such a charter is vital to reinforce consumer confidence in Irish tourism at this time and am proud to support it.
Hotel Asset Management Services (HAMS) has been appointed, by Receiver Michael McAteer of Grant Thornton, as his agent, to help operate the 120 room Clanree Hotel, Letterkenny, Co Donegal. HAMS confirms that all 78 staff will be retained at the hotel and services will continue seamlessly with the existing hotel management team and
Situated adjacent to Letterkenny town centre, the Clanree Hotel is a modern luxury hotel boasting the award winning ‘Aileach’ restaurant as well the Oscars Bar and outdoor lounge. The hotel has meeting and conference facilities to cater for up to 1,000 people and a swimming pool and fully equipped leisure centre.
Commenting Jim Murphy, a director of HAMS said that the company is pleased to be able to facilitate the continued trading of the hotel and to secure the positions of existing staff.
“We are delighted to be working with Clanree Hotel which has a tremendous reputation locally and indeed in