GSM HOSPITALITY SERVICES
  • Home
  • About
  • Hotel & Restaurant Support
  • Gill'sBlog
  • Contact
  • St Helena
    • Gallery >
      • St Helena
      • Ascension Island
      • Cape Town

Big News At Last:  Airline and Hotel Operator Announced for St Helena

30/3/2015

1 Comment

 
Picture
From the right 1 2 & 3 Main Street, soon to be the Jamestown Hotel
Friday 27th March 2015 was a day to remember in the history of St Helena.  This was the day when all was revealed to the local population as to who was getting the contract to be the first ones to fly in and out and who was getting the contract to operate the new hotel being built at 1 2 & 3 Main Street.

The announcements were coupled with an opportunities fair which highlighted all the new business and employment opportunities which are likely to evolve from the announcements.  A video link to South Africa was set up which relayed the Chairman of Comair South Africa and the Mantis Hotel Group. 

Comair will be flying from Johannesburg initially once a week on a Saturday.  The flight is likely to take around 5 hours and will be a daytime flight, returning to Johannesburg the same day.
Picture
the brand new Boeing 737-800 aircraft which will be flying to St Helena
Picture
Mantis Hotels can be found across the globe
The news was communicated by our Governor Mark Capes. 

There were other good news announcements.  The signing of a contract to operate the new Jamestown Hotel which will be built on the site of our training school at 2onmain. 

Mantis are familiar with the island having visited here in 2013 with a view to looking at potential hotel sites.   Amongst others, they have a very nice hotel in Cheltenham and also the Draycott Hotel in London.


The building is starting probably July so we have a month or so to get all our stock and equipment together and move it out.


Picture
Governor Mark Capes about to begin his speech
Our new location is very likely to be Bertrand's Cottage in Longwood.  More of that when I have full confirmation that it will go ahead.

There was also confirmation that the local hospital is to receive an upgrade to the tune of over £2 Million.  This is great news to the locals who have to tolerate the thought of travelling by sea for five days to Cape Town when something is really wrong with them.

Picture
Niall O'Keefe Chief Executive for Economic Development on St Helena
Picture
Cathy and Chanelle from the Tourist Office
Picture
Picture
Kim and Mandy ready to welcome all to the opportunities fair

1 Comment

Costa Neoriviera ......The Cruise Ships are Coming

23/3/2015

2 Comments

 
Picture
Arrival of the Costa Neoriviera
We have the Costa Neoriviera in St James's Bay today. 

This Behemoth of a ship is one of the largest of the 12 Cruise ships we are going to see this year.  

She dwarfs everything else in the bay and looks like a gigantic floating apartment block. On board there are nearly 2000 passengers and crew, which is just about half the population of the island.  

This could potentially upset the whole food chain here if all the visitors eat three meals today.  Luckily they are well fed on board so we should see food in the shops tomorrow.
  
Picture
From Shy Road at 7.30am
Its a great test of how ready the island is for the Airport and the increase in tourism happening next year.  

So far I hear that we have run out of Taxi services to offer trips around St Helena or to specific locations.  This is the first time this has happened as most cruises are less than 25% of these numbers. 

All else is going well with a number of the tourists stopping off here at 2onmain for their lunch or a cool drink. 

Many of our visitors have been keeping themselves fit by scaling the 699 steps of Jacobs Ladder which in the old days was the short cut for supplies to get to the fort at the top of the cliff.  
Picture
Jacobs ladder challenge!
Picture
The view from my office
Picture
Giselle, one of the island's talented artists
The majority of visitors booked tours which took them around the island, stopping at Napoleon's tomb, Longwood House, the new Airport and finally Plantation House, home of the Governor and Jonathan, one of the oldest tortoises in the world.
By 4.30pm the island was back to normal with the last shuttle heading back to the Mother Ship. 

Next stop for the Costa Neoriviera are the Cape Verde Islands, then Canary Islands before heading into the Mediterranean for  Marseille and Savona in Italy. 

I guess Cruising is a great way to see the world but not too sure whether I am ready for the levels of organisation and time keeping needs to move large numbers of people around foreign destinations, even one as small as St Helena.
Picture
Our local wares market
Picture
Life goes on at the Pool
2 Comments

Costa Neoriviera ......The Cruise Ships are Coming

16/3/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Runway in construction
The press release below has announced the first air carrier to St Helena in the history of the island. 

This has been a long awaited answer to the question on many people's lips. 
Now the question has to be How Much ? and When are other carriers going to be interested?

Its exciting times and this announcement is one more piece in the jigsaw to get this island connected with the world!
 
  AIR SERVICES TO ST HELENA

SHG and DFID are pleased to announce the appointment of Comair Limited as the preferred bidder for the provision of air services to St Helena.

Comair is a South African aviation and travel company offering scheduled and non-scheduled airline services within South Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands.  Managed and owned by South Africans through its listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, Comair has been operating successfully in South Africa since 1946. The company operates under its low-fare airline brand, kulula.com, as well as under the British Airways livery as part of its license agreement with British Airways plc.

Comair is proposing a weekly flight between Johannesburg (O.R. Tambo International Airport, formerly known as Johannesburg International Airport) and St Helena using a Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The flight time from Johannesburg to St Helena will be about four and a half hours.

Through Comair’s partnerships with numerous international airlines, the St Helena air service will offer connections to the international route network, via Johannesburg, to destinations such as London, Amsterdam, Paris, Sydney and Hong Kong.

SHG and DFID will be holding detailed discussions with Comair over the next few weeks and will make a formal and more detailed announcement once these have been concluded.

This marks a very positive step for St Helena in working with an airline that has such a long track record of successful operations and which provides an excellent gateway to the rest of the world, including the UK.

Further announcements will follow.



SHG

16 March 2015

0 Comments
    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Categories

    All
    Accommodation
    Cape Malay
    Cape Town
    Main Dishes
    P&O
    Recipes
    Restaurants
    Reviews
    Sharks
    St Helena
    Tours
    Training
    UK

    Archives

    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    August 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011

    RSS Feed

  • Home
  • About
  • Hotel & Restaurant Support
  • Gill'sBlog
  • Contact
  • St Helena
    • Gallery >
      • St Helena
      • Ascension Island
      • Cape Town