News in Brief - 12.03.2010

News in Brief

Holidaymaker breached bail conditions
A teaching assistant who had an affair with a pupil has been arrested after jetting off for a sunshine holiday – breaching his bail conditions.
Detectives boarded an inbound flight at Manchester Airport from Tenerife last Friday to catch Christopher Reen.
The 32-year-old, who worked at Headlands School in Bridlington, was arrested in front of an estimated 250 passengers, his wife and child for breaching the sex offenders' register and the terms of his bail by failing to notify the courts and police of his holiday.
Reen is due to be sentenced tomorrow after he pleaded guilty to six counts of sexual activity with a child and of having sex with a person under 18 while in a position of trust after he had an affair with a pupil while he worked at the secondary school.
Despite signing the sex offenders' register and being told to have residence at his home in Bridlington at either Carlton Avenue or

Mount Drive

, he jetted off for the seven-day family holiday to the Canary island to get a last-minute suntan before facing a lengthy sentence behind bars.
Detectives from Humberside Police were at Manchester Airport and waited on the ground to immediately board the flight as it landed.
He appeared at Beverley Magistrates' Court on Saturday for the breaches and has been remanded in custody until he is sentenced.
The sex offenders' register states people must notify the police of any change of home address and give seven days notification of any plans to travel abroad for a period of three days or longer.
He could now face a maximum five-year sentence for the breach.
Reen did not have to hand in his passport as part of his bail conditions as this is only done for foreign nationals who pose a flight risk.
He was given bail while a pre-sentence report was prepared on him by the Probation Service to look at the length of sentence he must face.
Judge David Tremberg warned Reen on February 1 to expect a significant prison sentence.
Reen was a classroom assistant at Headlands School when he started an affair with a 15-year-old pupil.
He had replaced a teacher at the scandal-hit school who had been sacked for sending inappropriate text messages to a pupil.
Reen is the fifth member of staff at the school to be involved in a sex scandal with a pupil.
He pleaded his innocence for more than a year by claiming he did not know her age, despite teaching her class. Newly-wed Reen, who also ran a martial arts business, sent the girl more than 800 text messages during their three-month relationship.

He even bragged in court he was sending sexually explicit texts to six women at the same time, despite having recently married, claiming it was to give him a "thrill and a buzz".

ITB Berlin
Tenerife has visited the ITB in Berlin with the aim of maintaining the air capability to the island of Tenerife, one of the largest events in the world, it’s held in the German city of Berlin between 10th and 14th March.  Tourism insular Councilor and Head of Tourism of Tenerife, Jose Manuel Bermudez, said that to achieve that objective "we have to keep more than 30 meetings with airlines and tour operators.  The adviser added that during their presence in Germany "will have the opportunity, also, to show the tourist the offer of Tenerife and provide news to more than 180,000 visitors expected to attend this year's fair."
The island's delegation will be headed by President of the Cabildo, Ricardo Melchior, and by José Manuel Bermúdez, who attended the ITB accompanied by fifty organizations and companies attached to Tenerife Tourism and the municipalities of Adeje , Arona, Puerto de la Cruz and Santa Cruz and representatives of Ashotel.
Advances in sustainable development with the bioclimatic housing project ITER, the historical ties that have always united the island with Germany, the memory of the passage of naturalist Alexander Von Humboldt on Tenerife, are some of the arguments developed Ricardo Melchior.
This presentation at ITB is part of the tourism strategy of the island for the German market for 2010, broken down into three main lines of action: strengthening of training on Tenerife of German travel agents, and that 67% of German tourists still book their holidays in an agency, maintaining and increasing airline capacity to the island and the empowerment of promotional media in Germany.
Among the meetings that will keep the island representation in the ITB busy include some of the airlines such as Air Berlin and Condor as well as tour operators TUI and Thomas Cook.
The Germans, with 523,000 tourists and 11.1% of the total, ranked third for visitors to the island in 2009, just behind Spanish, with 1,450,000 (30.8%), and British, with 1,430,000 (30.4%).

 

Jet2.com in the driving seat to cut fuel costs

Jet2.com are looking to drive down the cost of fuel consumption with newly designed, light-weight seats on board their Boeing 757’s that have begun to arrive at East Midlands Airport.

 

The launch of the new streamlined seats, which are thought to enhance customer comfort as well as save space due to an ergonomically designed shape, coincided with the arrival of Jet2.com’s planes at East Midlands. This summer Jet2.com are launching cheap flights to 7 new destinations – Corfu, Dalaman, Heraklion, Lanzarote, Paphos, Sharm el Sheikh and Tenerife - starting from 19th May.

 

As well as driving down the cost of fuel consumption, the extended list of resorts is expected to create 200 new jobs.

 

“A huge difference both to customer experience and fuel consumption”

The light-weight seats are expected to shave 500 kilos off an average 229-seat Boeing 757 which means greater savings for customers and less fuel consumption. They will also create more legroom so you can stretch out in comfort on your cheap flights with Jet2.com.

 

Managing director Ian Doubtfire said: “The seating is a great in-road for us and will make a huge difference both to customer experience and fuel consumption – meaning that we can save our customers money and reduce environmental impact at the same time.”

 

 

 

Endesa power warning

ENDESA has been warned by the Canarian Government that it will no longer tolerate the power cuts, which were prevalent during the recent storms throughout Tenerife.

The electricity supplier, which promised Canarian president Paulino Rivero they would cease, has reaffirmed that pledge during a meeting between the two bodies.

 

Andrea Brentan, Endesa’s chief executive officer, discussed the electrical problems on Tenerife and confirmed that an extra power station would be built.

Technicians say a new centre could take from eight to 12 years to construct. But Brentan gave assurances that the Las Calletillas station would not die, and that Endesa would be presenting plans to improve the situation.

 

Hotels’ Easter hopes

THANKS to the bad weather all over Europe, Tenerife’s hotel and apartment occupation should climb above 80% during the Easter holidays.

 

That’s the feeling of Ashotel spokesman Ricardo Fernandez de la Puente, who also believes it could be even higher as there still another three weeks for tourists to book reservations.

 

He pointed out that because the bad weather, the Canaries could be more inviting than other parts of Spain and its islands.

 

Banks in doldrums

A STUDY by Cognodata – a new Information processing measure – reveals that 5.000 branches of banks will close this year – some 11% of the full number of branches open.

 

Communities with the most branches set to close are La Rioja, Aragón & Castilla y Leon, while the Canaries are among the areas least affected.

 

We’ll take the car!

A STAGGERING 83% of people still use private transport to get around in Tenerife, while the remaining 17% get around by bus or tram.

 

A survey of over 2,000 families was carried out by the transport authorities, who believe that around 40% of the population

 do not own a vehicle, the majority being students with no licence, or the over-65s.

 

 

 

 

 

Read all about it

ARONA Town Tall and the Council for the Environment have spent 18,000 euros installing five columns for “free expression” – where people can place their publicity and advertising leaflets.

 

The Environmental Council, led by Antonio Soso, hopes to educate the public to use these columns instead of rendering local buildings and walls unsightly.

 

There are two in Los Cristianos, at the bus station and the end of the Avenida de Suecia, two in Las Americas, in front of the Hotel Villa Cortés and in Veronicas centre, and the final column is in La Camella.

 

Sosa believes the money was well spent, and says there will be five more next month, in

the municipality of Arona, including Las Galletas, Costa del Silencio and El Fraile.

 

Cheaper shopping

THE Canarian Institute of Statistics (ISTAC) found La Palma to have the cheapest shopping bill in the Canaries last month, with Tenerife just behind and Gran Canaria in third spot.

 

La Gomera was the most expensive for the third month in a row, followed by El Hierro, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.

 

 

PP try to get postal votes
The PP in the Canary Islands are attempting to get the British Expats to use their postal votes in the U.K. election.
The Partido Popular on Tenerife is to actively collaborate with the British Conservative Party ahead of the U.K. elections on May 6th.
The spokesperson for the PP on Tenerife, Zaida González, held a press conference on Thursday to say that they will try and get the English residents on the island to vote by post for David Cameron.
‘This election is of great importance’, she said, ‘as the polls show that the Conservative Party could return to government after 13 years in opposition’.
She described the Partido Popular help as ‘vital’ as there are 40,000 British citizens resident on the Canaries, 23,000 of them on Tenerife.
Also present at the PP Press Conference was the President of Conservatives Abroad on Tenerife, John Hughes, the President of the local PP, Guillermo Meca, and the Executive Secretary for International Police for the PP on Tenerife, Juan Antonio Morell.
The latter said that they had added a link to the Tory website in the UK from their page at www.pptenerife.es where advice would be given to British voters who want to vote by post. Morell also said that posters in English would be put up in all their local offices, and the PP will attend to any Briton who wants to vote in the UK at their offices in Puerto de la Cruz.
The Government launches a new image for Spain abroad
 
The Secretary of State for Tourism, Joan Mesquida, has presented the new approach to be adopted by the international promotion campaign for Spain.
“This image of our country will be portrayed in over 40 countries, with a target audience of 400 million people.”
The production process included such specialists as Julio Médem and the photographers Erik Almas and Ale Burset.
Ferrán Adriá, Gisela Pulido, the Spanish Basketball Team, the Spanish MotoGP riders and the Spanish players at Liverpool FC, among others, will be the ambassadors for the Spain brand.
The Secretary of State for Tourism, Joan Mesquida, revealed the main concepts for the new international promotion campaign for Spain, which is being launched under the slogan “I need Spain”.
The objective behind the campaign is to consolidate.
Spain’s leading position in the holiday tourism sector, to position Spain as a first-class destination for cultural tourism and to diversify the tourism demand from seasonal, geographical and product perspectives.
This image of our country will be portrayed in over 40 countries, with a target audience of 400 million people around the world. In comparison, the previous campaign that ran from 2005 on, “Smile you’re in Spain” was targeted at only 100 million people.
The spirit of the campaign is focused on the Spanish lifestyle, which attracts more than 50 million tourists every year.
The creative work behind the campaign focuses on portraying Spain as:
Aspirational. It is intended to put Spain in a strong position within new business areas and new product categories, reinforcing the message of a wide-ranging offer, but the intention is also to create loyalty among clients that already know Spain, offering them new reasons to come here.
Experiential. The campaign is directly associated with the lifestyle of the Spanish people, their rich personality and their quality of life. Spain offers experiences, emotions, feelings to those who visit the country and that is what they then take away with them when they return home.
Global. It is intended to reach all parts of the world, including those where the image and position of Spain is perhaps weakest, such as China, India, the Middle East, Iberoamerica and the USA. Significant efforts have been made to adapt the advertising elements to the particular characteristics of each emitting market. For the first time, commercials have been included that are specifically aimed at the Asian market.
The visuals used for the campaign have been provided by Scandinavian photographer Erik Almas and Argentinean photographer Ale Burset, while the commercials themselves are the work of director and producer Julio Médem. In addition, the campaign includes appearances by the chef Ferrán Adriá and Gisela Pulido, six-times world kitesurf champion. The Spanish Basketball Team, the Spanish MotoGP riders, our countrymen at Liverpool FC and other great Spanish athletes will also become ambassadors for the Spain brand.
Development of the campaign
The campaign has been supervised by an external committee of marketing experts comprised of individuals from major Spanish companies with extensive experience in international marketing.
21 of the largest creative agencies in the world took part in the tender process for the campaign. The bid eventually selected was presented by the agency McCann Erikson, who proposed a campaign around the concept of “I need Spain” (“Necesito España”).
Miró’s Sun, the motif for Spanish tourism for more than 25 years, served as the inspiration for the slogan “I need Spain”. The advertising campaign has been conceived for all media channels.
One of the characteristics of this new advertising campaign is that it includes creativities designed specifically for the promotion of destinations and products from the various Autonomous Regions, local entities, supra-regional brands, product clubs and private companies.
The launch of the new image will begin with a campaign on the major global television broadcast channels (CNN, FOX, National Geographic, Eurosport).
The online campaign will be launched simultaneously.
Furthermore, important events such as the 2010 Football World Cup will be used to increase the campaign’s presence in the media and achieve wider coverage and greater notoriety.
Promotion
The promotion of Spain as a tourist destination abroad has seen its budget increased by 20% in two years.
This has enabled, in 2009 alone, 259 agreements to be reached with Autonomous Regions, public and private entities, tour operators, airlines, etc. that have added more than 25 million euros in promotional activity to the contribution from Turespaña, which is in excess of 42 million euros.
The Tourist Offices Abroad (OET) undertook 3,173 communication, marketing, promotion and commercialisation support activities, some 3% more than in 2008.
The Secretariat of State for Tourism organised a trip for more than 2,200 journalists who have published 3,500 articles and reports about our country, with an advertising value of 126.5 million euros.
Almost 3,580 tour operators and travel agents visited Spain, also invited by Turespaña, on familiarisation trips.
Over the course of 2009, Spain received 52.2 million tourists, who spent more than 48,000 million euros.
Residents of Spain took 174 million holidays, a new record. Almost 93% of these trips were made within Spain, while the remaining 7% involved travelling abroad.
Spain is the country of the European Union with the highest number of nights spent in hotels; more than 251 million nights.
The positive result from the tourism and travel entry on the 2009 balance of payments accounts for 57.7% of the Spanish commercial deficit, compared with 32% in the same period of the previous year.
In simple terms, tourism accounts for almost 11% of GDP, making it the leading industry in Spain.