February 2005




  Message from IH&RA CEO David McMillan

  NACE Chairman Elected

  Discounted Registration for AHIC Dubai

  Carlson-Nelson to Report on Davos

  Tsunami Relief - IH&RA & PATA Partner in Berlin

  Chains Council Meeting: Hot Agenda Items

  BBC to Sponsor Chains & Board Dinner in Berlin

  New IH&RA Programme: Global Councils

  Concierges' Choice: Gateways & Getaways

  Youth Councils: IH&RA New Programme

  IH&RA On-Line Career Centre by HCareers

  Welcome New Member: McDonald's Corporation

  Alert! Trademark Wars: Le Meridien vs. Google

  Alert! Trademark Wars: Accor vs. Overture

  EU Threatens Legislation to Curb Obesity

  Eric Pfeffer Reports from ALIS

  Israel Hotel Association

  Tsunami Relief Efforts: Carlson Hotels

  Worldwide Partner: American Express

  Worldwide Partner: Onity

  Worldwide Partner: Shell GAS (LPG)

  Career Centre Now Live!

  Hotel Association of Canada National Conference

  IHIF Berlin

  HORECA 2005 - Beirut Lebanon

  Arabian Hotel Investment Conference

  NRA Hotel, Motel & Restaurant Show USA

  Calendar of Events 2005

If you cannot read this newsletter correctly, click here.

IH&RA IS MOVING OFFICES!
The new postal address effective 22 February:
IH&RA
48 Bd. Sébastopol
75003 Paris France
All tel, fax & e-mail addresses remain the same.

IH&RA will move the week of 21 February. It may be difficult to reach the office during this week. Please excuse any inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.

Diary Dates:
14 March - Board of Directors Meeting - Berlin
15 March - Chains Council Meeting - Berlin
End May/Beg June - NACE & Board - location tba
28-30 October - IH&RA 42nd Annual Congress - Beijing, China





Mr. Mark Lettenbichler, IH&RA Regional Vice President - Asia Pacific; Hong Kong Hotels Association Chairman; The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong, Vice President & Area General Manager

The catastrophic events in South Asia were unprecedented and countries around the world rallied to offer substantial amounts of donations and different forms of aid to help victims of these affected countries and areas recover from their misfortunes and return to normal life. Hong Kong Hotels Association and International Hotel & Restaurant Association were at the forefront of giving them support and in Hong Kong, we organized cash donations and immediately airlifted materials, ranging from clothes, blankets, linen, mattresses, food, to medicines to the most affected areas. We also worked with charitable organizations to help them meet their enormous needs for relief to be brought to the people affected by Tsunami.

read the article

  From IH&RA HQ in Paris, France

Message from IH&RA CEO David McMillan






New IH&RA CEO Reflects on One Month On the Job!
First of all I would like to express my appreciation to Alain-Philippe Feutré for a seamless “passing of the baton” to allow me to assume the responsibility for the IH&RA while not missing a beat. He continues to serve us in a number of areas. We all see tremendous opportunities to consolidate our opinions both for and against the voluminous issues that face the hotel and restaurant industry. This is being accomplished through the expansion of our knowledge base with the establishment of...
read the article


NACE Chairman Election Results






Congratulations to Florian Hew, Director GastroSuisse
Upon election to the position of NACE Chairman, Florian Hew, Director of Gastrosuisse, Switzerland stated, "I am pleased to chair NACE for the coming election period and I would like to thank you all for your support in the coming months. NACE has an important role to play in bringing forward our industry on an international level and of course IH&RA as well..."
read the article


Member Benefits




Preferrential Rate at the Premier Arabian Hotel Investment Conference in Dubai!
Complete this IH&RA Member AHIC Registration Form for a 10% discount for the Premier Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC) to be held in Dubai 30 April - 2 May 2005. IH&RA CEO David McMillan is a featured speaker!
read the article


An IH&RA Exclusive Coming In March!




Carlson-Nelson to Report on Davos
Coming in March: a first-person report from Carlson chair and CEO Marilyn Carlson Nelson about issues important to the tourism and hospitality industries discussed at the just-concluded World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.


  IH&RA Highlight

IH&RA Meetings in Berlin: 14-15 March 2005






IH&RA & PATA Join Forces on Tsunami Relief Efforts at IH&RA Berlin Meetings
The manager of one of the hardest hit hotels in Southeast Asia has accepted an all-expense paid invitation to the IH&RA Chains and Board meetings to be held this March in Berlin. The hotelier will give a full report of his experiences and detail the recovery underway. Peter de Jong, PATA CEO, will also be on-site to give a complete regional report to IH&RA members.
read the article




Chains Council Meeting to Focus on Data Privacy Protection, E-Distribution & Trademark Infringement
Hot items on the agenda for the Chains Council Meeting in Berlin: Data Privacy Protection & e-distribution-trademark infringement (see the section "Watchdog Report" in this issue!).
read the article




BBC World Sponsors IH&RA Board of Directors & Chains Council Dinner in Berlin
IH&RA thanks BBC World for their sponsorship of the Chains Council and Board Dinner to be held the evening of 14 March in Berlin. On-site will be none other than Akhtar Khan the Main Presenter of the BBC Programme "Fast Track" who will give a short presentation about the BBC and show footage from the IH&RA 41st Annual Congress in Istanbul. Learn more about BBC World here.
read the article


New IH&RA Programmes - Get Involved Today!




Global Councils Bring Together Industry Leaders to Delve into Key Industry Issues
In 2005, IH&RA will launch a series of "Global Councils" to allow Chain experts to discuss hot topics and to provide IH&RA with expert opinions on key issues from a global perspective.
read the article




Concierges' Choice: Gateways & Getaways Programme
In spring 2005 the IH&RA will launch a new website on which it will feature a section entitled "Concierges' Choice" to spotlight a limited selection of world class hotels & restaurants in "gateway" cities and "getaway" resorts worldwide.
read the article




Youth Councils: Giving a Voice to Industry's Future Leaders
In 2005 IH&RA will create a series of Youth Councils that will be formed to address issues that are faced by young ambitious hotel & restaurant employees around the world.
read the article


IH&RA On-Line Career Centre by HCareers




IH&RA On-Line Career Centre by HCareers
Post a job on the new IH&RA Career Centre and reach the largest audience of hospitality professionals worldwide! Using IH&RA's on-line Career Centre powered by Hcareers provides you with access to the largest pool of quality candidates - over 650,000 unique hospitality job seeker visitors - and many other great benefits.
read the article


New Member!




Welcome to McDonald's Corporation
IH&RA is honoured to welcome the world's leading food service retailer with more than 30,000 restaurants in 119 countries serving 47 million customers each day. See the March issue for a full report!


  Watchdog Report

Search Engines: Hospitality Winning the Battle on Trademark Infringements




Le Meridien Hotels vs. Google France
A French court has ruled that Google must refrain from using the trademarks of European resort chain Le Meridien Hotels and Resorts to trigger keyword ads.
read the article




Accor vs. Overture
A similar judgment by French courts was issued on 17 January 2005: Overture has been held legally liable because the judge considered that Overture's ad booking tool also encouraged advertisers to chose keywords that were trade marks belonging to Accor.
read the article


EU warns food industry on junk food advertising.




EU Takes Aim at Junk Food Adverts
A senior EU official said in January that urgent action was needed to tackle obesity among Europe's young and warned the food industry it faced legislation in a year unless it stopped advertising junk food to children. IH&RA is monitoring this issue closely to ensure that restaurants do not become a scapegoat for a rise in obesity among European children. Stay on alert!
read the article


  Member Reports

Eric Pfeffer Reports from ALIS






ALIS: American Lodging Investment Conference
"Once again, ALIS was a very informative Investment Conference well coordinated by our friend Jim Burba. The format while similar to previous years had a couple of changes. One session was beamed through a satellite sharing with the audience a Focus Group with 'road warriors' commenting on what they like and don't like to see in the hotels..."
read the article


NACE Member Spotlight




Israel Hotel Association Predicts Growth For Tourism
Hotel Association: Tourism industry to hire 13,000 in 2005; 1.8 million foreign tourists are expected, and hotel overnights are projected to rise 7%.
read the article


Chain Member Spotlight




Tsunami Relief: Carlson Hotels Worldwide Compay-Wide Initiative
Carlson Hotels Worldwide joined with its parent organization, Carlson Companies, to raise money for tsunami disaster relief, yet another expample of hospitality companies reaching out to help rebuild and recover!
read the article


  Worldwide Partners * Industry Supporters * Affiliates

Gold Worldwide Partners




American Express - An Active Stakeholder and Partner of Tourism and Hospitality
American Express is a strategic business partner for the tourism, hotel and restaurant industries, helping chains and individual proprietors generate incremental revenue and profit. Learn here some key characteristics of American Express cardholders, the crème de la crème of hospitality clientele.
read the article




Onity: Technological Solutions for the Hospitality Industry
Onity, the electronic solutions provider for hotels, is a worldwide leader in electronic locking systems with over 3 million rooms installed in more than 20.000 hotels and over 200 hotel chains.




Shell GAS (LPG)
The Royal Dutch/Shell Group of companies, "the Group", is a diverse group of energy companies with operations in around 145 countries. The Group's businesses include oil and gas exploration and production; power generation; manufacturing, marketing and shipping of oil products and chemicals and renewable energy projects including wind and solar power.


Worldwide Partner




Career Portal powered by Hcareers offers IH&RA Website User Discounts
The online Careers Centre powered by Hcareers is a strategic alliance between IH&RA and Hcareers, the dominant job board for the hospitality and restaurant industry. IH&RA website users visiting the new on-line IH&RA Career Centre can post their job vacancies at a discount, and job seekers can search and apply to thousands of international hospitality industry job openings.
read the article


  Events

IH&RA Encourages You To Attend




Hotel Association of Canada National Conference & Tradeshow 15-16 February
There are limited seats remaining for the Hotel Association of Canada's National Conference & Tradeshow to be held 15-16 February 2005 in Toronto, ON. Register Today!




International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) Berlin 15-17 March
IH&RA is pleased to support the 8th Annual International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF) to be held at the Hotel Inter-Continental Berlin, Germany 15-17 March 2005.
read the article




HORECA 2005 - Beirut, Lebanon 5-8 April
HORECA, established in 1994, is the annual business meeting place for the hospitality industry in the Levant (Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Syria with a wider audience from: Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE and Yemen). It is set to take place in 2005 from 5-8 April, Lebanon.
read the article




Arabian Hotel Investment Conference: 30 April - 2 May
IH&RA is pleased to support the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference to be held at to be held at Dubai's latest resort, the Madinat Jumeirah from 30 April - 2 May 2005, prior to the Arabian Travel Market.


Restaurant Buzz!




National Restaurant Association Hotel, Motel & Restaurant Show - U.S.A. 21-24 May
Don't miss the National Restaurant Association 2005 Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show to be held 21-24 May in Chicago, USA. International delegates receive a special welcome!
read the article


  Calendar of Events 2005

Save the date ! Take note of IH&RA endorsed events
15-16 February IH&RA Member Event
Hotel Association of Canada
National Conference & Tradeshow

Toronto
 
24 February IH&RA Present & Monitoring
ILO Hotel, Catering & Tourism Sector Action Plan
Programme Meeting
Geneva
 
11-15 March
ITB Berlin
Berlin, Germany
 
14 March IH&RA Meeting
First 2005 Meeting of the IH&RA Board of Directors
Meeting of the IH&RA Foundation for the Future
Berlin, Germany
 
15 March IH&RA Meeting
IH&RA Chains Council Meeting
Berlin, Germany
 
15-17 March IH&RA Endorsed
IHIF - International Hotel Investment Forum
Berlin, Germany
 
5-8 April IH&RA Endorsed!
HORECA 2005
Beirut, Lebanon
 
30 April - 2 May IH&RA Endorsed!
Arabian Hotel Investment Conference (AHIC)
Madinat Jumeirah
Dubai UAE
 


IH&RA "Industry Watch" is a monthly publication of the International Hotel & Restaurant Association. Publication Director: Ms. Summer Jauneaud, IH&RA Director of Communications. Comments & Feedback: .

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Copyright 2003 International Hotel & Restaurant Association. All rights reserved.
International Hotel & Restaurant Association
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