eNewsWire

PV-Holidays, the European specialist in self catering accommodation, will be appearing at World Travel Market between the 10th and 13th November 2008 and would like to meet with all trade contacts, agents, operators, MICE specialists and bedbanks.

PV-Holidays will have its own booth at the Maison de la France stand (EM420) and is inviting potential clients and partners to meet with them, without an appointment, on Wednesday 12th and Thursday 13th November to discuss future business ventures.

PV-Holidays’ appearance at World Travel Market comes at an exciting time for the company as it has just celebrated its 40th birthday and continues to develop its offerings in many major European cities. So far this year for example, PV-Holiday’s Adagio brand has opened four new city aparthotels in Strasbourg, Basel, Annecy and Paris. Listed on the French Stock market, the company has an annual turnover of €1.4 billion and welcomes over 6.6 million guests through its portfolio of properties annually.

The operator, also known as Pierre et Vacances, aims to build its brand and customer base in the UK, positioning itself as the leading provider of self-catering holidays to France and the Mediterranean. The vast range includes everything from simple two star budget apartments to multi-activity holiday villages and four star luxury hotels in some of Europe’s finest cities. Read more…

Footboost (www.footboost.com) launched today a beta version of their site. At Footboost.com users pick or create a virtual battle between two football players, active or retired, to decide who´s the best in the sport.

In a battle, you can vote for your favorite player and post comments to support your vote. Although the majority of users come from England the site will attract football/soccer fans from around the world and will profile footballers from the English Premier League and major international FIFA leagues.

“In football, it is sometimes hard to compare players from different generations to one another to determine who is better. Even more, players from the same generation are often difficult to compare, given the nature of team sport. We wanted to find out what real sport fans think about footballers across generations, thereby creating interesting debates about the game you love. That´s why we created Footboost.com”, said Ed the General Manager of the site.

Although users of Footboost.com will be able to create their own battles eventually, during the beta version the administrators created the following battles: Read more…

Iceland’s Radisson SAS 1919 hotel in central Reykjavik has been recognised for a second year in a row as the best hotel in Iceland in the world travel industry’s answer to the Oscars.

It was with obvious pleasure that Radisson SAS Iceland announced that the Radisson SAS 1919 Hotel has been voted Iceland’s Leading Hotel at the 2008 World Travel Awards.

This is the hotel’s second year receiving this honourable recognition. “It is fantastic that our unique property has maintained its status as a leader in the Icelandic hotel industry and will continue to strive for excellence in this ever evolving travel market,” comments General Manager Gaute Birkeli.

The Radisson SAS 1919 hotel is in the very heart of Reykjavik, Iceland’s capital city. The former office of the national shipping company, the 1919 is one of Reykjavik’s favourite buildings and commands spectacular sea views. Unsurprisingly, it was built in the year 1919.

The Radisson SAS 1919 hotel is not only popular with tourists visiting Iceland from all over the world: the trendy and vibrant Gullfoss Lounge Bar serves renowned cocktails, while the chic and upscale Gullfoss Restaurant serves modern world cuisine that has got the whole city talking.

The 15th annual World Travel Awards were hosted in Poprad, Slovakia for the Europe leg of the competition, on 15th October along with the first ever World Travel Awards Green Awards Ceremony.

Hailed by the Wall Street Journal as the “Travel industry’s equivalent to the Oscars”, the World Travel Awards is the most comprehensive and most prestigious awards programme in the global travel industry.

Votes are cast by over 167,000 travel professionals in over 200 countries across the globe. The awards provide an excellent platform to recognise companies in the travel industry for their achievements. More information can be found at: www.worldtravelawards.com

A new natural weight management product called LipoSan Ultra uses modified chitosan from the arctic waters around Iceland.

LipoSan Ultra is a natural slimming aid which is made from shellfish caught by Icelandic fishermen in the cold waters of the North Atlantic.

The natural weight loss product uses chitosan, a dietary fibre extracted from the shells of the North Atlantic Coldwater Shrimp (Pandalus Borealis). The chitosan in LipoSan Ultra is scientifically proven to reduce body weight in humans as it works by binding with dietary fats in the digestive system.

In LipoSan Ultra the chitosan is modified and optimised to enhance its solubility and fat-binding performance. Succinic acid is incorporated into the chitosan to significantly alter its physical structure. The result is a highly integrated organic acid/fibre matrix that readily solubilises in the equivalent of stomach acid in less than 5 minutes. This is in comparison to regular chitosan that can take upwards of 2 hours to dissolve.

LipoSan Ultra is so soluble in the human digestive system that it can be taken at mealtimes, instead of 30 to 60 minutes before, like generic chitosans.

The natural slimming aid is an important new tool in the seemingly endless struggle for weight loss and will appeal to consumers looking for a natural weight management solution.

Visit the Liposan website for more information on LipoSan Ultra natural slimming aid.

Actavis, the international generic pharmaceutical company, has entered into an exclusive distribution agreement, for a number of generic products, with J&M Pharma, Co Ltd, a Korean owned and operated pharmaceutical company, headquartered in Seoul, Korea. The agreement is an important step in building Actavis’ presence in the Korean generics market.

Actavis has operations in 40 countries, with 11,000 employees and is one of the world’s leading generic pharmaceutical companies specialising in the development, manufacture and sale of generic pharmaceuticals. Actavis’ products are already marketed in the Asia Pacific region, in markets including Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Commenting on this partnership Thomas Runkel, Vice President of Actavis in the Asia Pacific region said: “The partnership with J&M is an important milestone for our entrance into the fast growing Korean market. We look forward to working with J&M to bring our extensive generic product portfolio of first class generics onto the Korean market fast.”

Tae-Hwan Kim, President of J&M, said: “We are excited to enter into an exclusive distribution agreement with Actavis for selected generic products. We will strive to position Actavis as a trusted generic brand in the Korean market and make a success story with its esteemed products.”

Andrew Suh, CEO of Cosmo USA IBRC, Inc. (www.cosmo-usa.com), a life science industry consulting company, served an integral role in bringing Actavis and J&M together for this opportunity.

More information about Actavis Group can be found at www.actavis.com

Enquiries:
Actavis Asia/Pacific
Thomas Runkel
Vice President
Tel: (+62) 218 710311 ext 222
E-mail: trunkel@actavis.com

Actavis Group
Hjordis Arnadottir
Director, External Communications
Tel: (+354) 535 2300 / 840 7476
E-mail: harnadottir@actavis.com

November’s meeting of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is widely expected to result in a second consecutive base rate cut of 0.5% but may not bring relief for homeowners.
Neil Young, CEO of property portfolio managers, Young Group, explains that whilst this would be good news for the 30% of home owners that currently have tracker mortgages, a reduction in base rate alone will not be the cure-all that many expect.

“A cut in base rate alone is not a magic bullet. The credit markets rely heavily on the bank’s confidence, reflected in the rate of interbank lending. The 3 month LIBOR rate has not fallen significantly since the Bank of England’s surprise half a per cent cut in base rate at the beginning of October and remains around 6 per cent. Unless LIBOR falls further, the cost of finance to banks and mortgage lenders remains significantly higher than base rate and lenders will not reflect the base rate change in their products because their cost of borrowing hasn’t dropped – and consumers taking out new mortgages won’t benefit.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if lenders begin to offer mortgage products that track LIBOR rather than base rate in the near future.” Read more…

Today, Simply Hired launches an international job search website for the United Kingdom (www.SimplyHired.co.uk). The site will include over one million job listings aggregated from the leading job boards, content websites, newspapers, organizations and company career pages throughout the country. Simply Hired continues to be a comprehensive job search engine with over seven million jobs worldwide and counting.

“The launch of the UK website is an integral part of Simply Hired’s effort to expand our mission in building the largest worldwide job search engine,” states Gautam Godhwani, Co-founder and CEO of Simply Hired. “We want to continue making the job search process a positive experience globally and leverage the successful business model we have built in the U.S.”

Simply Hired is a vertical job search engine that aggregates and indexes millions of job listings from around the Web. Pulling from hundreds of sources, Simply Hired offers job seekers a “one-stop shop” for their job search. Job seekers simply type in a keyword and location, and Simply Hired returns relevant job postings, so users avoid conducting multiple searches on various sites. Read more…

Following the success of London Update, the regular monthly round up of market news from property portfolio managers, Young Group, the company has launched a series of London Update podcasts.

The London Update podcasts enable anyone with an interest in London property to listen to latest news and views whilst on the move.

Initially launching with 2 channels, each month, Young Group’s London Update: Economic and Market News podcast presents an objective and unbiased roundup of the UK’s latest economic indicators and gauges of London’s property market. The podcast also takes the opportunity to highlight latest regeneration activity being undertaken across the capital. Its impartial delivery enables listeners to form their own opinions of the current state and future outlook of London’s residential property sector. Read more…

Award winning property furnishing specialist Style Counsel Interiors has launched a pioneering range of finance packages to help property investors to furnish their property ready for tenants quickly and cost effectively.

Buy to let property investors are facing mounting costs upon completion, and the recent lending squeeze from buy to let mortgage providers mean that investors now frequently find themselves required to put down greater deposits for their mortgages. The Style Counsel Interiors no deposit finance packages present peace of mind by offering deferred payment for 12 months and then the option to pay in full interest free or spread payment over up to 36 months at an incredibly competitive interest rate of just 9.9%. This makes the finance packages more cost effective for property investors than most major credit cards.

Finance package availability is subject to status and a decision can be made within 24 hours of application, allowing Style Counsel Interiors to then proceed with order of furniture items to achieve installation within days of the property being ready to receive furniture. Read more…

Do something different this Christmas and have the experience of a lifetime with The Adventure Company.

The festive season is a time to celebrate with family and friends, so this year The Adventure Company is offering a discount of £50 per person for groups of six or more* travelling together during Christmas and New Year.

The wide variety of winter trips available range from snow-based activities in the mountains of eastern European to tropical adventures in the jungles of Borneo, all of which will help groups end the year on a high with some truly unforgettable experiences and shared memories.

For those looking to get away but worried about the credit crunch, The Adventure Company’s discounts are sure to be a welcome Christmas bonus. Read more…