Dubai hotel goes informal
It’s hello Steve, goodbye sir as a Dubai hotel ditches formal greetings in an effort to be the friendliest inn in the United Arab Emirates. The Radisson Blu Hotel on the Dubai waterfront has told its staff to stop using “sir” and “madam” in favour of first names. More than 1,000 candidates were interviewed as the hotel sought staff members who could adopt the easygoing approach, which is believed to make guests feel more at home. “There are usually at least a few sour-faced people who are in the wrong industry,” hotel general manager David Allen said. “And we didn’t want that in this hotel.” The informal touch seems to be working, according to a report in The National, with the one-year-old hotel scoring highly on review sites. “When we opened the hotel, we used the ‘friendliest five-star hotel in Dubai’ line for a few months,” Allen said. “The campaign for no sir, no madam was just an extra step beyond that.”
Chinese pilots told to butt out
China has launched an all-out war against smokers in airline cockpits after an incident last year that saw a vaping co-pilot cause an emergency descent. Crew members caught puffing on the flight deck now face a possible suspension of three years — and the rule applies to e-cigarettes as well as traditional smokes. The rule also applies to all domestic airlines, the China Daily reported. Flight staffers who fail to intervene to stop co-workers from lighting up will also face penalties, the Civil Aviation Administration in Beijing said. Smoking was banned in passenger cabins and toilets in 2017, but airlines were given a two-year grace period to eliminate the practice from the cockpit. However, only two airlines, Chongqing and China West Air, had complied by the end of last year.
Dark skies feted in New Zealand
Stargazers now have another reason to visit New Zealand after the country gained its second official nighttime sanctuary designation. The International Dark Sky Association (IDA) has named Stewart Island, off the country’s southern tip, a dark-sky sanctuary, joining the Mackenzie Basin in the Southern Alps mountain range. Named Rakiura, or “glowing skies,” by the Maori, the island was sighted in 1770 by British explorer James Cook.
Pakistan adopts new visa regime
It may not trip off the tongue of travel agents booking bucketlist vacations, but Pakistan is a “heaven for tourists” and authorities have launched a campaign to get the word out. Officials in the country of 200 million have eased travel restrictions with visitors from more than 50 countries now able to get visas on arrival and electronic visas made available to 175 nationalities. Pakistan’s information minister Fawad Chaudhry said the move is aimed at boosting the tourism sector, expanding foreign investment and improving international relations.