Tenerife Blog

Around the world holiday destinations often need something new to give it the appearance of keeping up with the times and having the travel press write about it, and Tenerife is no different from any other destination in that respect.

A new hotel will make waves as does a refurbished one, and a hotel that’s under new ownership.

All are cause for travel journalists to start booking their flights to Tenerife ready for a few days special treatment in exchange for a review in their respective media.

And so it is with Tenerife as new owners take over the 5 star San Blas Reserva Ambiental in the south of the island.

A spokesman for the new owners commented:

“The purchase of San Blas Reserva Ambiental Hotel is a wonderful addition to the Sandos Hotels & Resorts product line and offers and innovative holiday resort with a variety of spaces, facilities and activities designed to live up to all the expectations for vacation fun and relaxation as well as a unique experience for group and incentive travel.”

Commenting on the benefits of booking a stay at what could be one of the best Tenerife hotels they add:

”The San Blas Reserva Ambiental Hotel is situated in front of the magnificent Atlantic Ocean, just ten minutes from the Tenerife South Airport, and located on a natural Environmental Reserve. Unique on-site facilities include a multi-media center with an interactive museum to discover mysterious species and a historical experience tunnel that recreates the history of San Blas from prehistoric times to the modern day, a sailing lake and a 27-hole Biosphere Golf Course, and a boutique Spa facility with an extensive list of body treatments.”

So with a location close to the airport from where guests take their flights to Tenerife, what are the opinions of those who have stayed there recently and added their views to popular review sites? A typical response has been:

‘We had a perfect vacation at this wonderful planned hotel. Every detail has been thought through. Our room were large with a very nice seperate shower room (yes, it was that big!) and jacuzzi. The staff is very friendly and their personality always shines through. The breakfast buffet was soooo good. One evening we tried the buffet too. Usually I’m not to fond of hotel buffets, but the San Blas really surprised me here too. In the nearby fishing village there are a lot of lovely restaurants too. Overall I can only recommend San Blas, and will absolutely stay here when travelling to Tenerife again. This is a peaceful way to vacation away from usual the tourist traps.’

Other reviews from those staying there for their Tenerife holidays are also generous in their praise, with most commenting that the facilities, cleanliness and staff make it for them 4 or 5 star standard.

For more Tenerife information including a 5 day forecast with today’s Tenerife weather visit yourtenerife.net

They also have a map, villas and the latest news and articles to read.

New figures released and reported on by rttnews.com shows that Malta’s hotels got a good start to the year:

Tourist  arrivals in collective accommodation in Malta increased 1.3% year-on-year in February compared to 8.8% in January, the National Statistics Office said Tuesday. The number of foreign tourist arrivals increased, while resident arrivals declined.

The net occupancy rate stood at 39.2% during the month compared to 31.6% in January.

Total nights spent in the collective accommodation establishments fell 4.5% year-on-year. The average length of stay stood at 5.6 nights, down by 0.4 nights compared to the corresponding month last year.

More information about Malta hotels are available at yourmalta.com - there is also a profile of the island.

Malta

As jobs get harder to hold onto, and for those with long term careers often finding more pressure today from their employers than ever before, finding a way to relax during time off has led to a surge in popularity for spa holidays.

And it’s not just employees who are heading for the spa – company directors and owners are feeling just as much if not pressure during the economic downturn, trying to keep their companies going and having to plan ahead in uncertain times.

For many a conventional holiday is not enough to completely relax, but they find a spa holiday lets their troubles float away, leaving them relaxed and better able to face the world when they return to work.

And Malta is fast becoming one of Europe’s top destinations for a spa holiday, with hotels specialising in the market, with facilities and fully trained staff to match who have worked in the Malta holidays industry.

Gone are the days when spa vacations were just for the rich and famous, they still take them, but theirs is an experience that the many can now enjoy, and not just the few.

With many Malta hotels offering the service, prices have fallen in real terms over the years.

Quite a few hotels now have spas and gyms as part of their facilities, but some of the Malta hotels are being recognised as specialists in the field, and it makes it easy to plan holidays in Malta around a spa hotel.

The Fortina Spa Resort in Silema for example is five star and offers a choice of over 200 treatments, designed to relax and soothe their guests.

The Fortina has been featured in UK newspapers and Sunday supplements and praised by travel journalists for its quality.

The old image of a spa holiday was a lettuce leaf for lunch – that’s all changed now, and The Fortina has first class cuisine, making sure the overall experience is as good as it gets.

With Malta flights coming down in price in recent years, other hotels are trying to match the Fortina’s reputation for excellence.

The Preluna Hotel & Spa is one example. Ideally located on the Sliema seafront, the Feelgood Wellness Spa is well within reach of the town’s amenities and offers natural beauty treatments and massage. It also has a well equipped fitness centre.

The Riviera Resort and Spa adapts its treatments to suit each client. It combines wellness, fitness, beauty and relaxation for the best experience possible. Reflexology, deep tissue massages, and hair and skin care are just a few of the treatments available.

Kempinski Hotel San Lawrenz is another option where guests can enjoy one of the hotel’s four pools as they indulge in its luxury spa treatments. Aside from beauty treatments, it also offers Ayurveda and conventional massages. Yoga and Pilates sessions are also available.

To see how much a visit to any of these might cost check out Thomas Cook Holidays or visit http://www.yourmalta.com/hotels

More details about Malta with travel news and articles can be found at yourmalta.com and people who have been often report back on social media like twitter

One of Malta’s top hotels has won two awards from expedia.

The hotel - Le Meridien St Julian’s - won best Best Customer Selection and a special recognition award.

The Independent Newspaper in Malta reported:

Malta is always used as a case study by Expedia since it illustrates what a small market can do to attract traffic through the Expedia site. Hotel bookings in the first nine months of 2009 reached nearly the same level as 2008, which is excellent news per se compared to the considerable fall in the number of arrivals at destinations such as Cyprus.

Moreover, Maltese hoteliers benefited from an eight per cent increase in the number of room nights compared to 2008, showing that booking over the Internet – in particular through Expedia – works.

The hoteliers were informed that 70 per cent of room nights came from promotions, not just from cheap rates, and were advised to use bed stock that they were not going to sell in their promotions.

Maltese hotels are well represented on Expedia, which is present in 60 countries, but it was important to “convert lookers to bookers” by justifying rates with content and photographs. Some hotels had not yet uploaded their rates for 2010.

To read the full report at The Independent click here

For details of more hotels in Malta visit http://www.yourmalta.com

A Malta Tourist Board survey shows what the Malta travel industry has suspected for some time - Malta holidaymakers are happy holidaymakers!

Globally the holidays industry, much like any other business, thrives on repeat customers, in other words people who have been happy with a product or service enough to buy it again, and if repeat customers can be built up it leads to a successful business.

And in a recent survey of tourists who had visited Malta for a holiday, the results were good and shows that Malta is an ideal Mediterranean holidays destination.

The sample base was large at nearly 2000 tourists, and a remarkable 86 per cent of those who participated said that their time in Malta had met or exceeded their expectations.

While good, other figures revealed in the survey give hope that Malta is building itself as a holidays destination, and once the economy improves will see year on year increases in visitor numbers again.

If holiday destinations can impress visitors enough to want to visit again in the future, it helps to give those investing in the Malta holidays trade confidence to go ahead, while the extra revenue gained by the government through employment and sales taxes give it the ability to spend money on the infrastructure expected by holidaymakers.

No less than 87 per cent of those surveyed who had just had their Malta holidays said they would recommend Malta to others - not just an impressive figure but a vital one for a destination trying to compete with countries like Spain with massive advertising budgets and a rich history of tourism who can rely on repeat visitors to use as a base every year when drawing holidaymakers to their shores.

Word of mouth and a recommendation from someone trusted is worth far more than any advertising campaign for a destination like Malta which many people might not have considered before, hopefully enough to pique curiosity to look at Mata what has to offer for a holiday.

So what areas of Malta do holidaymakers typically head for - and what can Malta offer that’s a bit different from other holiday destinations?

For a taste of the more modern side of Malta, there is the St. Paul’s Bay area and the seafront at Bugibba, the hub of nightlife in the area. Here, there are a selection of trendy boutiques and restaurants. When the sun sets, Malta can go down market as well as up market and there are karaoke bars in Bugibba, but there is also the casino and a cinema.

From the nightlife of Paceville to the view of the sea, Malta has much to offer every age group. Even though the visitors to Malta used to be retirement age, a great set of clubs, discos and bars has developed over the years.

Paceville is the nightlife capital of Malta. Most of the venues of Paceville are located on four main streets that spread out from the main square. These streets are Dragonara Road, Wilga Street, St. Georges Road and St. Rita Steps. A police presence is always nearby, keeping the denizens of the clubs safe and orderly. A taxi rank is also located in the main square, for those who need a lift.

For those who prefer a more genteel holiday, Wherever you go you will find something wonderful to see in Malta. The ruggedly beautiful coastline of Malta offers some fantastic views. It’s an island of culture and history but with the incredible beaches and secluded coves it can be a romantic setting for a honeymoon or a great place to simply get away from it all as well.

You have an 86 per chance of having a fantastic holiday in Malta after all!

More details about Malta are available with yourmalta.com - travel resources include flights to Malta and Malta hotels.

Here are some news stories and articles we have seen recently about Malta we think are good, and worth reading:

The first one concerns hotels in Malta, and how some of them might become all inclusive resorts for those thinking of taking their holidays in Malta

A number of hotels in the north are looking at the possibility of transforming their property into all-inclusive resorts, Tourism Parliamentary Secretary Mario de Marco said this morning.

Addressing a press conference about an initiative bringing over 1,000 German travel agents to Malta for five weeks to promote the island, Dr De Marco said the government wanted to affirm its commitment to the German market, the second most important to the local market.

It had brought over 212,000 tourists in 1999 and although the numbers dropped to 128,000 in 2003, the market was again improving and 150,000 German tourists had visited Malta last year.

Dr de Marco said this winter saw…

To read more click through to the Times of Malta here

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The second article is a very good that appeared in The Daily Telegraph about the Fortina Spa, already one of the best Malta hotels

It might have been a three-day break, but the impact has lasted nearly three months… and counting. At the end, 4lb and an unimaginable number of inches had slipped off. Having made a decision to keep it off, after 10 weeks Spa Spy is a further five pounds lighter and determined to keep going.

To read the full article click here

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And the final article was in the Malta Independent, commenting on Malta flights

Ryanair believes that MIA costs are too high and it wants a substantial discount, accessible to all airlines, according to the volume of passengers carried. On the other hand, it also feels that where no growth is registered, there should be no support forthcoming.

Funds to seed the base and the new routes, Mr O’Toole insisted, could come from the existing market spend, since, according to him, present advertising is clearly not working.

MIA’s charges are equivalent to three times what it costs Ryanair to fly to Malta, Mr O’Toole contended – e25 per passenger against e7.

To read the full article click here

International recession has forced a major re-think of tourist numbers for most holiday destinations - and the island of Malta in the Mediterranean is no exception.

The number of holidays being taken in Malta - nearly always by Europeans - has increased impressively in the last three or four years, as low cost airlines have made the island more accessible.

But a new prediction of the fortunes of the Malta holidays industry for 2009 will make painful reading for those employed in the tourist industry, and by those businesses and individual entrepreneurs who have invested their time and money in the hope of serving a good number of tourists this year and beyond.

The travel company, who have internet sites for various locations around Europe including their resource for Malta, have seen when Malta was struggling to make an impact on the tourist industry transformed in recent years by the arrival of low cost flights, and the number of holidaymakers increase each year to set new records with cruise ship passenger arrivals as well as traditional holidaymakers making their way to the island by plane.

But they are predicting that the island’s visitor numbers could drop by as much as 20 per cent in 2009 - sending a chill down the spines of many of Malta’s business community involved in the Malta holidays industry and peripheral businesses such as bars and restaurants who have a mix of both local and international customers throughout the year.

Malta’s economy isn’t entirely dependent on tourism like some holiday islands, but it does form a good percentage of her GDP, and with a 20 per cent drop in visitor arrivals unemployment would be bound to rise in the coming months, and salaries for those involved in the travel industry frozen in all probability for 2010 as the island looked to recover.

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‘The prediction we are making of a 20 per cent drop in holidaymakers to Malta this year is based upon our own figures comparing 2008 directly with 2009,’ commented YourMalta.com recently. ‘These figures will undoubtedly surprise many in the travel industry who are forecasting a lower drop in the number of Malta holidays being taken this year, but we think if hotels and Malta flights bookings are refelected in what we are experiencing the prediction could be an accurate one.’

One saving grace could be that people thinking of booking holidays to Malta are returning time and again to the travel site before making a decision - perhaps indicating that potential tourists are being more careful than usual this year and are checking regularly to see if there are any bargain holidays in Malta to be had, with tour operators offering good deals on both vacations and flights to Malta.

Britain is a very important market for Malta holidays, and adding to the island’s problems in attracting the British visitor because of their own economic woes is that the pound is weak against the Euro, making Malta holidays more expensive than in previous years, with those Brits who are taking an overseas holiday often opting to take a holiday outside the Eurozone in locations like Egypt, Morocco or Turkey.

But Malta does have one important travel resource going for it that could mean those booking last minute holidays and putting together their own package of flights and hotels together - regular cheap flights to Malta from not only the UK but other European airports too.

Malta held out against the low cost carriers for some and it was only in the last few years that they were finally allowed to fly to Malta - and the turnaround in Malta’s fortunes as a holidays destination was as quick as Malta was slow to see the tourism potential that low cost flights gives a destination. The hotels in Malta have been thriving with some of the spa hotels regularly featured in the European press as among the best in Europe, boosting further the number of people visiting Malta for a break.

With Malta’s hotels providing first class service, the travel site hope the end of year figures show a different story!