ExCeL London has been named 2008 Business Venue of the Year at the fifth annual Visit London Awards, beating off strong competition from other finalists. The prestigious award ceremony, held at The Royal Albert Hall on 27th November honoured excellence in all aspects of business tourism in the Capital. ExCeL was named Business Venue of the Year in recognition of its:

• Excellent facilities and services and continual investment in maintaining standards
• Innovative marketing and creative sales techniques
• Evolution and efforts to ensure accessibility for all
• Awareness of environmental issues, work with the local community and actions taken towards to ensuring sustainability
• Responsibility towards staff training & development and internal motivation

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Upscale hotel and conference group Principal Hayley today announced a significant investment of £8.1 million in the refurbishment of Beaumont House in Old Windsor.

The development project started earlier this year to redevelop the White House into a luxury hotel. As part of the project, a 19th century chapel, which was originally part of the St Stanislaus College was uncovered. It was previously boarded up and Principal Hayley has embarked on an ambitious plan to restore the chapel and re-launch it as a unique private dining and banqueting room. The total refurbishment and restoration programme is due to complete in November and will solidify Beaumont’s position as one of the largest conference venues in Europe. It will offer three distinct areas that will make up the newly created Beaumont Estate.

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Whittlebury Hall Management Training Centre, Hotel and Spa in Northamptonshire has supplemented its standard day delegate and 24hr delegate packages over the Summer months with a set of complementary morning and afternoon motivational sessions, specifically designed to encourage effective learning.

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On June 29th Hilton hotels throughout the UK and Ireland will be inviting members of their communities to travel “around the world in a day” as part of their biggest ever national charity event.

Around the World in a Day participants will collectively aim to travel the circumference of the earth - 24,901.55 miles - by taking part in one of two events: the competitive Team Challenge or the more relaxed Miles4fun, designed for families. (more…)

By Richard Hammond

Jon Proctor is a new kind of hotel inspector. He doesn’t count the milk sachets above the mini-bar nor care whether the curtains match the carpet.What will impress him is a low-energy dimmer switch in the hotel lobby and a water-saving device fixed to the shower. Jon is the technical director of The Green Tourism Business Scheme, a programme that assesses tourism businesses on their eco-credentials.

I joined him on an inspection of a 280-room hotel in the West End of London. For three hours, we inspected air-conditioning units and recycling bins and quizzed staff on their hotel’s green policies.
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Hilton Hotels has revealed that it has delivered energy savings of over 10 per cent in 2007 across its portfolio of more than 80 properties in Europe. Water consumption also fell by an impressive five per cent, the equivalent to nearly 75 Olympic sized swimming pools or a staggering 187 million litre water bottles.Wolfgang M. Neumann, President Hilton Hotels - Europe commented: “In just two years we are seeing some very real and tangible results across Europe. We made a commitment in January 2006 to think green, take action and responsibility to switch to more environmentally sustainable methods of working - today’s results speak for themselves.”

Hilton has made these impressive reductions through the implementation of its Europe-wide environmental sustainability initiative known as we care! Launched across Europe & Africa in January 2006, the programme was established to encourage hotels and team members to introduce initiatives and best practices focussing on making genuine and measurable reductions in energy consumption and CO2 emissions, water consumption, waste generation and chemical usage.
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You’ve planned the big event down to the last detail; the conference room has been confirmed, the AV requirements are finalised, the guest speaker has been throughly briefed, the delegates have all confirmed their attendance, the overnight accommodation pre-event has been booked and confirmed…or has it? Perhaps after reading this nightmare scenario, you might just want to check your bed space contract again?

Over thirty high profile London hotels and attractions have signed up to earn awards for their environmental credentials under the London Development Agency’s Green Tourism for London scheme.

Applicants including the Ritz, the O2 Centre, London Zoo, the Royal Lancaster Hotel and the Cavendish have began to implement their own tailor made ‘green action plans’.

The scheme, launched in Oct 2007, aims to help improve the environmental performance of the tourism industry and enable tourists to choose the greenest places to visit during their stay.
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Eight talented employees at the award-winning five star Old Course Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa in St Andrews, Fife, have been awarded a prestigious training scholarship by the Hospitality Industry Trust (HIT) Scotland.The talented employees will undertake placements in establishments both at home and abroad. The scholarships include world-class training in one of the most prestigious hotel schools in the world - The Ecole Hotelière de Lausanne in Switzerland; a two-week structured training programme at the famous ‘seven-star’ Burj Al Arab property in Dubai; and management experience in renowned UK hotels.
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The Ty Newydd Country Hotel has invested more than £100,000 in a state-of-the-art wood gasifying biomass boiler system. The investment has been supported by a grant from the Wood Energy Business Scheme (WEBS), established by Forestry Commission Wales on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government, and an interest-free loan from the Carbon Trust.
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