Francisco Araiza

by Doctroid

God created man as one of his beautiful creations so that he could further enhance the world with his versatile intelligence. Palm Island Dubai is one such fine example of the man’s creation. The ambitious real estate project of creating artificial island over the ocean surface has been the 8th wonder of the world that shows an absolute remarkable work done by man. Travel with business class airlines to Dubai and cherish the majestic world of Palm Islands Dubai.

An artificial archipelago is a group of island that has been constructed over the ocean floor in the form of Palm tree. The islands have been inhabited with major commercial and residential infrastructure. Arabic business tycoons are the major players who have invested in this marvelous project. The Island project has been drawing many business men who travel air business class to Dubai to invest in the variety of business the city offers.

The islands located at the coast of United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf will add the shoreline to the city of Dubai. The islands have been a major attraction of Dubai after the Shopping festival and thus attracts tourist of the world who travel through business class flights and other airline flights to Dubai. Each Island contributes to the shoreline to Dubai and facilitates the visitors with long stretched beaches and other facilities.

The tourists from across the world travel to Dubai and spend the most happening vacation at the shoreline apartments at Palm Island. There are several airlines that offer holiday stay on booking business class seats to Dubai. The apartments have direct beach access and the clubs offer wide variety of facilities such as gym, swimming pool, and cafés and restaurants. The island will include 2000 villas, shopping complexes, luxury hotels, cinemas and Middle East’s first marine park.

The islands have been constructed through sand, which is scoured from the bottom of the Persian Gulf. The two European real estate companies Jan De Nul of Belgium and Van Oord of Dutch have been carrying the major construction work of these islands. The airlines often offer fabulous discounts on business tickets for last minute flights to Dubai. The real estate investors who travel through business class airlines are now looking for the wide variety of options that the islands offer.

Travel to Dubai with airlines tickets that are offered at low fares by international airlines on business flights as well as other air flights and experience the best of holidays at the splendid Palm Island in Dubai. Many travel companies usually offer variety of travel packages for Dubai but Fare buzz, one of the leading American Travel Company offers fabulous discounts on travels Packages and also discounts on business class tickets to Dubai.

by nattu

Cutting travel program fat without compromising strategic objectives

The global economic downturn is hitting business travel where it hurts: According to a new survey by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), more than 70 percent of U.S. travel managers plan to spend less on corporate travel in 2009. The results represent a sharp shift from an earlier ACTE poll (Sept. 2008), which found that only 33 percent of U.S. travel managers were planning on cutting travel spend in the year to come.

While the ACTE survey may have focused on the U.S., the challenges faced by travel buyers and travel managers cut across all sectors of the globe. From reducing travel to tightening travel policy, and from renegotiating with suppliers to adjusting travel behavior, travel program stakeholders are intent on cutting trips and curbing expenses.

The silver lining to the financial storm clouds, says Kathy Jackson, executive vice president.

Story highlights:

* Travel buyers and managers now able to make changes that were impossible in the past

* New role for account managers in understanding and supporting client business drivers

* Changes to travel policy, approval process, traveler behavior are leading savings mechanisms for cost-conscious companies

* Demand management and online technologies are key supports

For Global Client Management at BCD Travel, is that the economy is enabling travel buyers and their respective teams to make changes that, quite frankly, have never been achievable in the past.

The challenge, adds Jackson, is to save on travel spend without compromising on business objectives: “As hard as it may be to foresee, the recession will not last forever. Companies will need to emerge from the downturn with plans for growth and solid business relationships in place- and travel is a crucial element in supporting growth and retention initiatives.”

Teri Miller, senior vice president for Global Client Management in the Americas for BCD Travel, sees a major opportunity for travel management company account managers in the current situation: “Account managers need a deep understanding of the customer’s business drivers to enable them to anticipate and add value, rather than react. As an example, if a client is closing manufacturing plants in three countries, our account manager will explain how travel patterns will shift as a result, illustrate what effect that may have on supplier contracts and provide a plan for optimizing potential impact.”

What steps are BCD Corporate Travel clients taking to combat the recession?

Companies need to look beyond the big-ticket items, says Jackson, and filter adjustments through every component of a trip. “It may be tempting to focus exclusively on air ticket costs, but for some programs, air may make up only as much as 20 percent of total T&E expenditure. Our account managers, often with the support of a consultative engagement from Advito [the independent consulting branch of BCD Travel], help clients focus on the total cost of trip, including hotel, ground transportation and even restaurant costs.”

A list of some of the decisions in which BCD Travel is supporting its clients’ recession-management travel strategies is below.

The choices and decisions being made represent a major opportunity for companies to make lasting beneficial changes to their travel programs, says Jackson: “As with any diet, success is incumbent on making change a way of life, not a 30-day wonder regime.”

Changes in travel policy

Growing corporate cost-consciousness is manifesting itself most prominently in the refinement and enactment of more stringent travel policies. Among the common cost-cutting elements BCD Travel is seeing: shifting from business class to coach class (variations include mandating coach class for all travelers regardless of hierarchical level and increasing the business-class flight-time threshold); down-tiering hotels (i.e., three-star instead of four-star); mandating the use of public transport rather than taxis; and retaining frequent flyer miles for business travel rather than personal travel.

BCD Travel is also seeing an increase in the use of rail and low-cost carriers within EMEA, says Felix Vezjak, senior vice president for Global Client Management in EMEA: “Companies are much more likely to accept what were formerly seen as inconveniences (i.e., secondary airports) in exchange for savings. However, particularly in the case of low-cost carriers, companies need to ensure that their travelers always use the preferred booking channels (online booking tool and agency) of choice to ensure adequate reporting and security tracking.”

For further suggestions on refining and enforcing travel policy, see our Feb. 2009 article “Reliance on compliance.” Changes to travel approval process

Whether it’s instituting an official approval process where one might not have existed or – as is more common – making existing processes more restrictive, this cost-cutting method is winning wide-spread support among BCD Corporate Travel clients as an easy “quick win.”

As part of a concerted travel-cost reduction effort, one of BCD Travel’s global clients, which has over US0 million in annual travel spend and more than 325,000 employees worldwide, changed its travel approval process radically to incorporate the following:

# No travel unless approved by a vice president on a single trip basis (<150 VPs in the company)

# No last-minute travel (under seven days’ advance purchase) unless approved by an executive vice president (<15 EVPs in the company)

Demand management (travel reduction or travel freeze)

More and more companies today view demand management as one of the biggest opportunities they have to control or reduce costs without compromising their overall business goals and requirements.

Among the possible steps companies can take to reduce travel demand:

# Eliminate all non-client-related travel

# Freeze attendance at industry conventions and conferences

One BCD Travel client refers to internal meetings as the “mother of all travel,” and has implemented the following methods to reduce the travel they generate:

# Prioritize video/web-conferencing for internal meetings

# Reduce number of meeting participants (all participants must be on agenda)

# Require meetings to be planned around travel, rather than vice versa

# Eliminate hotel nights before and after the meetings

# Choose meeting venues based on total cost, including travel and employee time spend

Travel management company as educational and staffing resource

BCD Travel has played an important role for several major clients in helping educate travelers and travel arrangers on a range of subjects in order to improve their ability to support the companies’ savings initiatives. For some clients, BCD Travel account management has provided workshop sessions for travel bookers; for others, the company has created “Tips and Tricks” documents for cost-savvy travel that clients have made available to all travelers.

Some clients have also had to face internal downsizing, resulting in the loss of key travel personnel. In one recent case, following the departure of the travel manager, BCD Travel has been able to dedicate a resource to that role. The account manager has also supported the client by conducting analyses to forecast further headcount reduction ahead of online adoption drive. This headcount reduction has been written into the budget for 2009.

Increased use of online booking tools

In order to save on transaction costs and streamline processes, companies are increasingly mandating that all domestic or point-to-point travel be booked online. Online tools can also play an important role in supporting changes to the travel policy and to traveler behavior, says Miller: “Companies can modify booking tools to ask travelers about the necessity of a trip or offer alternatives to the journey before proceeding to booking.”

Program consolidation

Finally, says Jackson, the economic downturn may present a significant “carrot” for companies that had been looking into consolidating their travel services regionally or globally: “Consolidation of multiple country services into a multinational service center, for example, can represent considerable savings in resource and process costs. However, companies must be sure that their organization is prepared to fully support consolidation in order to fully achieve the benefits. That means asking questions like, ‘Do we have a consistent travel policy in place that spans the markets involved? Are there language constraints that would be met by the service center?’”

by Viajar24h.com

ALMOST THREE MILLION TOURISTS visited Thailand, India, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines last 2007, says statistical reports ,  with  some two hundred thousand of them visiting the Philippines in 2006 .    Yet,   Manila  still  struggles and keeps up behind said countries as 5th placing newcomer-player in the medical tourism ballgame. Yet,   hope  springs eternal.

The  Philippine government,   meantime,   with  an  impending freshly-installed  government under Benigno Aquino III,    continues to  strongly stress the importance of developing this sector as it is perceived as a “strategic tourism niche” for the years to come.  The Tourism Department gears up , zeroing in on cosmetic surgery as the perfect pitch to surface in the global market , “now that it has jumped enthusiastically on board the medical tourism bandwagon.”

Filipino doctor  Dr. Rolando Cabatu,  Vice-President of the Philippine Association of Health Organizations In Medical Tourism Inc.,  says  that  more than 200,000 tourists visiting the country in the past years have fueled the economy with an influx of dollars, considering 10 million OFWs also “acting as sales representatives” in their respective work destinations to promote the country’s medical services.

Dr. Cabatu  said that  this  would translate to a minimum of 10 million “recruited-tourists” who can possibly visit Manila as patient availing of local medical services at a small fraction of the price as compared to prices in Western countries.

Medical tourism industry analysts’ observe  that   Malaysia and the Philippines, both relatively struggling newbies in the med tourism global market, will be strong contenders in the next ten years .

And this early, the Philippines targets its future capture of a whopping US billion revenue share in the Asian medical tourism market from the predicted scenario of the industry , expected to shoot up to being US-billion global market by 2012. “And countries such as Singapore will try to grab a US.8-billion share of this figure and already it is succeeding. “

The figures speak for themselves.

Check out the numbers: according to TravelWeeklyWeb.com , Asia rides high with the most potential medical tourism market worldwide , generating 2007 revenues worth US$ 3.4 Billion, accounting for nearly 12.7% of the global market.

The global clientele is growing in numbers: “There will be more than 220 million aging baby boomers from the West, a large market with declining health —-who will be seeking inexpensive, high-quality medical care most likely in Asia. “

Price Waterhouse Coopers study says : seven percent of the world population in 2007, or 42 million people, were at least 65 years old and the figure was expected to double by 2015. That’s great clientele base for medical tourism.

Meantime, analysts reveal that Japan’s aging market — with its population dominated by the elderly — is touted as the largest client base for the global medical tourism market — and the main focus that Asian destinations like the Philippines can get its hands on — to make sure it meets its US billion target share of the Asian industry’s revenues.

Recent studies by the Philippine Institute For Development studies show that as per Japan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare estimates , millions  of worldwide  elderly needing nursing care is set to increase to 4 million in year 2010 , and will increase more to as high as 5.2 million in year 2025.

The  Philippine  Daily Inquirer reports:    “As industry experts see a strong Asian medical tourism market down the line, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.6% between 2007 and 2012, the Philippines can work on improving its facilities for bigger bucks in medical tourism where it is said to be “gaining a firm foothold”.

The reports contend: The Philippines is known for its quality nurses and other health workers who have dominated the medical profession in such developed countries as the United States and Great Britain, reason for foreign patients to get assurance of getting the best in health care. The medical sector is working hard to see medical tourism flourish because they believe that the sector has the potential to address not only economic problems, but also the woes besetting our biggest exports: our human resources.

“Philippine medical facilities may, at this stage, still be building a reputation for service excellence, but they’ve put into place several mechanisms to cater to visiting patients.

Asian Hospital, St Luke’s and Medical City to name a few have set up special departments to deal only with foreign cases. For visitors from the US, the biggest motivation is the cost savings, as patients can receive US-standard healthcare from Asian healthcare facilities and internationally known doctors at a fifth of the price back home.”

Researchandmarkets.com’s figures: “Philippine medical tourism only started three years ago, in October 2005, but has already met sizable success. The overall income related to medical tourism was topping the 200 million USD threshold for the first year of operation.”

“Realizing the revenue potential of medical tourism, the Philippines is now exploring ways to take advantage of the growing trend. According to a Price Waterhouse Coopers study, 24 countries spent a combined .7 trillion on health and wellness in 2002 and the figures should rise to trillion by 2020.”

From NaturalNews.com, writer Mike Adams reveals that yes, this 21st century phenomenon called medical tourism — also called medical travel or health tourism ( “a term coined by travel agencies and the mass media to describe the rapidly-growing practice of traveling to another country to obtain healthcare”) may be good news for Asia. But it’s bad news for the US healthcare industry.

Mike Adams writes: “People will go overseas to get better medical care or a better value on surgical procedures, and the popularity of medical tourism is proving that.”

“If healthcare becomes so expensive in the Western World, and that it’s by far cheaper to buy an international plane ticket and get some medical procedure done overseas, then more and more people are going to take that option and go overseas. And as medical tourism becomes more popular, I think we’re going to see the American Medical Association, hospital associations and maybe even the FDA up in arms, complaining about the loss of revenues for U.S. companies.”

“So in addition to exporting so many jobs from the IT industry, we will actually be exporting healthcare revenues to countries around the world. And these are substantial revenues; we’re talking about billions of dollars at stake. Medical tourism is good news for Asia, and bad news for US’ healthcare industry.”

Adams further writes: “And if you want to have a healthcare system that works , you need to make it efficient. You need to get rid of the paperwork, the fraud and the waste, and have a system that offers medical procedures at a fair, affordable price. Let’s face it: big medicine is big business. And organized medicine absolutely hates competition.”

“Medical tourism hospitals in the Philippines and other countries actually have to meet higher standards. They have to give you such a high-quality experience with such outstanding results that you go back home to the US and tell people. Because when you do that, they know it’s going to be great word-of- mouth marketing for that hospital.”

Wikipedia’s statistical data informs:

“Thailand as a destination for medical treatment has rocketed in recent years and they have the statistics to prove it. Take just one country like the United Arab Emirates for example – over 60,000 of their citizens a year come to Thailand to enjoy treatment. Two of the Thailand’s top hospitals Bumrungrad and Samitivej treat patients of whom 40% are foreign – this kind of high percentage is quite phenomenal. “

“According to the Kasikorn Research Centre, 2005 alone attracted an unprecedented 1.28 million foreign medical travelers which generated revenue of 33 billion Baht. That means therefore, that on average each patient spent 25,800 Baht for their treatments. It was revealed in an article in Newsweek in 2006 that 400,000 foreign patients were treated at just Bumrungrad hospital in Bangkok. This prestigious world-class hospital has an outpatient capacity of 6,000 patients per day.”

“Thailand presently has a free universal health program for its citizens with more than 600 hospitals and 400 medical facilities. Today, Thailand has proudly become a medical hub for patients from the United States, Europe, the surrounding countries, and the Middle East.”

Still, Singapore is touted as ranked close second to Thailand as “more than half a million international visitors visited the city-state in 2006 , boosting its medical tourism industry. Asia is becoming the medical travel hub of the world.”

Meantime, analysts reveal that Japan’s aging market — with its population dominated by the elderly — is touted as the largest client base for the global medical tourism market — and the main focus that Asian destinations like the Philippines can get its hands on — to make sure it meets its US billion target share of the Asian industry’s revenues.

Recent studies by the Philippine Institute For Development studies show that as per

Japan’s Ministry of Health and Welfare estimates , the elderly needing nursing care will be over 2 million, set to increase to 4 million in year 2010 , and will increase