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During Thursday and Friday of last week, between 1/3 and 1/2 of traffic to online shopping sites was done on a mobile device. There are multiple reasons for that. First, more people are getting smart phones and second, more people are becoming comfortable with the security on smart phones. There used to be a fear of hackers stealing your credit card number out of the air if you were using wi-fi or a cell phone signal, but I think we've gotten enough news reports over the years pointing out that it's more likely to be stolen from the database of the company you purchased something from (Amazon, Target, etc.) that users are a little more inclined to use their phones to make purchases. Although it should be noted that conversion rates on phones are still far lower than those from desktop machines, so it's not like that fear has been completed eliminated.
Now, interestingly, Cyber Monday basically started because people would do what shopping they could over the Thanksgiving weekend at brick and mortar locations, and then waited until Monday to shop online because they had a faster internet connection in their office at work. But with higher connection speeds becoming more common AND the ubiquity of cell phones with their relatively high speeds AND the accessibility of more sites on smaller devices (which allows users to casually and easily browse while they're watching the football game or riding public transportation back home) AND advanced holiday promotions beginning well before Thanksgiving, that all suggests to me that Cyber Monday won't be nearly as long-lived as Black Friday has been. I'm sure it will continue to be around for awhile, but I suspect we'll be seeing that sales bump plateau sooner rather than later.
What that additionally means is that any retailers hoping to capitalize on Cyber Monday might do well to keep these ideas in mind going forward...
- More shoppers on cell phones means a greater need to ensure your website is responsively designed -- that is, it should look good and be easily navigable whether a user is using a desktop, a tablet, a phone, or whatever.
- Black Friday remains the bastion of big box stores. In order to take advantage of holiday shopping, smaller retailers (like comic book shops) should work to make some materials available online. A Facebook page with just a map and store hours may work well enough for day-to-day business, but any hope for additional sales in/around Thanksgiving are almost shot if you don't have something available for sale online.
- Promotions, as noted above, are well into October now. Waiting until a few days before Thanksgiving to start promoting your shop and/or any holiday sales you might have planned is too late.


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Renee James announced Thursday she will step down in January.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Intel President Renee James announced Thursday she will step down in January.
The move came as a part of a rash of changes in management at the struggling tech company.
“We are aligning our leadership structure to continue to become more efficient in order to deliver the benefits of our strategy even faster than before,” said CEO Brian Krzanich in a written statement. “Over the past 28 years, Renée has contributed immeasurably to Intel. On behalf of the Board and management team, we sincerely thank Renée for her tireless efforts toward building the business that we have today, and we fully support her in this decision.”
Also announced Thursday, Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital, is retiring in Janaury. Replacing him will be president of mergers and acquisitions Wendell Brooks. Intel Capital is the investing arm of the company and is one of the most successful corporate venture investors.
(SOURCE: Portland Business Journal)
James will pursue a CEO position elsewhere.
“Intel has been my second family,” James wrote in a message to employees, published on the company’s site. “It is an amazing company that has changed the way people live their lives, and I am proud to have contributed to that in a meaningful way.”
Under CEO Brian Krzanich the chipmaker has labored to diversify beyond its core PC business but has been unable to gain traction in the fast-growing smartphone market and other emerging segments of new technology.
- Intel executives Hermann Eul, manager of its communications group, and Mike Bell, who led Intel’s effort to develop microprocessors for new devices, are also leaving the company. Both segments have been a disappointment for Intel thus far and Bell’s exit isn’t a surprise — he was reassigned to an unspecified role in April.
- Aicha Evans, general manager of Intel’s communications and devices group, was promoted to Intel’s management committee.
- Intel’s technology and manufacturing group, which had reported to James, will now report directly to Krzanich.
The decision comes amid a round of layoffs at the company, which has struggled as PC sales slow nationwide.

domain: news


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Lately the price of AMD (AMD) has been falling consistently, as if investors have lost all hope. As a long time fan of AMD and a current shareholder, I was let down to hear that their most recent price surge was rooted in acquisition rumors. On the other hand, I'm happy to hear they've been adding former top members of Intel (INTC) and Apple (AAPL) to their roster.
With Jim Keller, Apple's former Chief Architect, AMD is likely preparing to make a strong push into the mobile chip-making arena. AMD chips are already available in some tablets, a move which was just announced officially in February of this year. This combined with plans to mimic the success they've had in China again in India, where they already have 15% market share, could lead to notably improved earnings in the next few years. AMD's managing director for India and South Asia, Ravi Swaminathan, says that we can expect "explosive growth" in India with regards to PC usage. Mr. Ravi Swaminathan also thinks that AMD's Fusion chipset (now officially called HSA, or Heterogeneous System Architecture, due to a copyright issue), which includes a graphics card and a CPU on the same chip, will drive purchases because of its low power consumption.
The HSA Foundation (whose key members are members of AMD) is devoted to creating and adhering to standards that allow code to be written cross-platform for different HSA devices. The good news here is that many large name manufacturers (including Samsung, which is traded on the Korean Stock Exchange) have already agreed to embrace the Heterogeneous System Architecture. Other large companies which are part of the HSA foundation are Texas Instruments (TXN) and ARM Holdings (ARMH). Although AMD has been focusing on making HSA chips, they are still racing head-to-head with Nvidia (NVDA) to produce the world's fastest graphics cards, a title which theirs have earned repeatedly, and making price-competitive isolated CPUs.
With regards to investor sentiment, analysts are more bullish. Trefis gives a valuation of $5.71 per share, and their community is 99% bullish, 1% bearish with a separate average price valuation of $12.09 per share. Although UBS (UBS) recently downgraded the stock, changing their price to $4.00, practically every public price estimate is set above it's current price. FBR Capital (FBCM) has reiterated an outperform rating twice this year on AMD, and Barclays reiterated their "equal weight rating" and adjusted their share price to $9.00 per share, back when AMD was trading near $8.00 in April.
Of course some skeptics, short sellers and naysayers will point to the trend of decreased desktop usage over the last few years and an increase in mobile usage, which AMD has yet to prove its place in. These are valid concerns, but the fact that AMD has been establishing a global presence ensures that where desktops are still used they will be needed. Further, I predict that they will establish themselves in the tablet market eventually, as their cheaper processors (compared to Intel) will likely fit well with some cheaper tablets, which are evidently quite popular. They also have 24 of the 100 top supercomputers, which is definitely good advertising.
The next problem with AMD is the amount of insider selling activity. In the past year, by insiders, or those who are required to file with the SEC when trading AMD, 280,000 shares have been sold and only 8,000 have been purchased. Either the insiders know something, or they're going broke. Or both: the two could be related. Jokes aside, the truth is that it's not actually a big deal, as CEO Read Rory alone still owns 260,000 shares, and other officers are still holding above 200,000 shares as well.
AMD's historical market cap and share value are two more notable features. In 2009, it bottomed out at around $1.80 per share and over $1 billion in market cap. That's still almost 50% of its present value of $3.66 per share. However, with regards to previous highs, we see that AMD reached over $18 billion in market cap and $40 per share in January of 2006, which is over 1000% its share value and 700% its market cap now. To be fair, in many cases stocks never make it back to their all-time highs. But, in the case of AMD, I don't think it's time to press the panic button yet.
The gist: AMD's price has been plummeting this year due to speculation and decreased earnings, including their first negative surprise in three years. The stock still has plenty of value, so long as nothing terrible is hiding it should eventually recover. It will be a great buy if they make a profitable entrance into mobile computing and continue expanding their presence oversees. And it should still be a good hold if they do at least one of those things successfully.


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The paywall, set to take effect this summer, will allow each visitor 20 complementary page views per month, excluding the home page and classifieds section. The newspaper hopes to maintain most of its 17 million monthly unique visitors.
In addition to not counting clicks from search engines and social media, the paywall will allow unlimited access from schools, government and military workplaces, notable as more than 20 percent of District of Columbia residents are federal employees, according to Forbes. But Don Graham, chairman and CEO of The Washington Post Co., has previously noted that locals provide less than 10 percent of the newspaper’s online traffic. This statistic made him previously wary of charging for online access, as he predicted that bundling digital subscriptions with print wouldn’t be as successful for The Post as for other papers.
Prices have not been set, but the newspaper polled subscribers last month asking whether they’d be willing to pay $24.95 per month for seven-day home delivery and unlimited web access, $14.95 for unlimited web access without a print subscription, or $7.95 for a Sunday print subscription bundled with web access, according to The Washington Business Journal. Current print subscribers will have unlimited digital access under the new system.
“News consumers are savvy; they understand the high cost of a top quality newsgathering operation and the importance of maintaining the kind of in-depth reporting for which The Post is known,” Publisher Katharine Weymouth said. “Our digital package is a valuable one and we are going to ask our readers to pay for it and help support our newsgathering as they have done for many years with the print edition.”
The Post’s decision surprised many. Mathew Ingram of GigaOm predicted in July that WaPo would “never” cave to a paywall, emphasizing that the newspaper has always been a new media pioneer, with its Facebook social reader app and partnership with Trove news recommendation service.
Many argue that paywalls won’t end the industry’s problem of rapidly sinking revenue; they just put a band-aid on a gaping wound. The New York Times, seen as a paywall role model, is barely breaking even with digital revenue and falling print revenue, Ingram noted.
“This is like advising someone teetering on bankruptcy to fill out a form for another credit card, rather than cut their monthly expenses,” Sarah Lacy of PandoDaily wrote. “It might buy you some time, but that’s about it. Anyone with a long term view, has to be looking beyond paywalls.”
But others have been campaigning for The Post to join the paywall movement for months. Dean Starkman of Columbia Journalism Review reprimanded the newspaper: “Every day [without a paywall] … is a day wasted,” he wrote in November, adding that WaPo “has become the American newspaper industry’s poster child for the folly of clinging to a free digital strategy.”
Former WaPo Managing Editor Raju Narisetti wrote back in June that “the golden age of target digital advertising” is on the horizon, so it’d be silly to “trade that larger opportunity for the much smaller and unreliable pursuit of consumer dollars.” But Starkman noted that while digital ad revenue may increase, it will never be enough by itself to compensate for falling print subscriptions. He pointed to the fact that The Post’s online ad revenue has decreased by double digits for all but one of the past six years.
“Digital ads are fine, but alone they are not enough when there is a honkingly obvious supplementary source of revenue available,” Starkman wrote.


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Apple has a huge following, and currently the iPhone has been under pressure with their new iPhone 6 plus released this month. The problem that has arisen is that with enough heat applied, the iPhone bends right under the volume key to the point where it becomes unusable. Many people who have had their iPhone in their pocket and have sat down with it have realized that their $900 device bends to defying angle.
From a public relations perspective, this is a problem for Apple’s brand of integrity.
Research has been applied by Apple as they have seen their stocks fall and close.
“Apple shares closed down nearly 4 percent at $97.87 on Thursday, (Sept. 18) wiping out nearly $23 billion in market” (Reuters) Along with actual YouTube video feeds dedicated to “iPhone 6 plus bend test” and a hashtag feed on twitter has allowed social media to blow this up substantially.


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Electronics giant Samsung has unveiled an ambitious next day replacement service on several of its PC monitors in a move that was initiated by its Australian subsidiary.
Under its new swap out service, Samsung was offering to replace faulty monitors with brand new ones within a day, which it claimed is unique in the market. The company has employed a third party with national coverage to handle the returns.
Samsung declined to name the third party.
The service covers Samsung's range of SyncMaster 15 inch, 17 inch and 19 inch TFT models as well as the SyncMaster 15 inch, 17 inch and 19 inch CRTs. Only one 21 inch TFT model – the 213T – is covered.
The service does not cover the old CRT sub-brand Samtron monitor range which the company stopped selling earlier this year.
Three year warranties are offered on all these monitors meaning the customer can receive a new monitor within that warranty period.
If a customer returns a faulty monitor two years after purchase for example, a “like-for-like” replacement model would be offered, Joe Serra, market development manager at Samsung Electronics Australia said.
Existing repair service agents would not be affected by the new service, Serra said. While he admitted that Samsung has taken one aspect of their business away from them “to lose one category is not going to make or break these guys.”
Serra told CRN if a call for replacement is received before 3pm during business hours, a new monitor would be delivered to the customer on the next business day.
Under the old system, the faulty monitor would be sent to a service agent for repair. “It's not replaced with a refurbished unit – it's a brand new unit. This is setting a new benchmark and all the vendors are going to have to jump on this wagon,” Serra said. “Others may take six months to catch up,” he said.
Samsung's monitor return rate in this country is miniscule, around half a percent of all shipment per annum. Samsung moves over 10,000 units of TFT monitors and between 5500 and 6000 units of CRTs per month in Australia, Serra said.
Samsung was the number one monitor vendor in Australia unit-wise, according to research released in September by IDC Australia. In Q2, 2004, Samsung captured the lead with a 17.5 percent market share. LG Electronics was second with a 16 percent share.
The total market, unit-wise, grew sequentially by 12.8 percent. In January this year, Samsung competitor, Acer Computer Australia launched an LCD PixelPerfect guarantee across its range of notebooks and LCD monitors.
However, by March, the company had dumped the service, citing the worldwide LCD shortage for its decision. That policy was subsequently replaced with an optional 12 month guarantee which customers could purchase.
Under dumped the PixelPerfect program, an LCD monitor that contained an imperfect pixel would be replaced under the vendor's two hour warranty express


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A US activist investor has hailed the shock exit of Just Eat chief executive Peter Plumb, who will pocket a £750,000 golden goodbye after just 16 months at the helm.
Cat Rock Capital said Mr Plumb’s departure, which takes place with immediate effect, represented the board’s “recognition” that “change is badly needed at Just Eat”.
Insiders said the former boss Moneysupermarket.com had been too slow to drive change amid a burgeoning challenge from deep-pocketed rivals such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats.
As a “good leaver”, it is understood that Mr Plumb will be entitled to a severance package equivalent to 12 months of annual salary and benefits, which was £758,000 last year.
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PALMDALE – Cooks and cashiers at a McDonald’s in Palmdale held a lunchtime demonstration Wednesday to protest the burger giant’s alleged failure to address numerous safety concerns, including a broken ventilation fan for the nugget fryer that allegedly causes the kitchen to fill with hazardous smoke.
“Smoke from the nugget fryer has been filling the kitchen since before Thanksgiving, making my eyes red and giving me a cough, a sore throat and a headache,” according to Rosa Garcia, who has worked at the Palmdale McDonald’s for more than a decade. “The assistant store manager screams at us to get the food out faster, threatening us with retaliation in order to intimidate us. The real problem is that we do not have enough staff and the equipment we need to get the food out is broken, and these are safety hazards that must be fixed.”
Holding various protest signs, the group gathered around noon on Wednesday, Jan. 5, in the parking lot of the McDonald’s restaurant, located on the 37000 of 47th Street East in Palmdale.
In a formal complaint filed Dec. 21, 2021, with Cal/OSHA and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, the workers noted that the ventilation fan has been broken for four weeks, causing them to experience symptoms such as headaches, coughing and sore throats. They also laid out a longstanding pattern of broken equipment in the store, including the AC unit, which breaks down in dangerous heat. The group also raised the alarm about unsafe staffing levels at the store, which they said leads to excess fatigue and exhaustion among the workers. [Read the OSHA complaint here.]
According to “Fight for $15 California” — the organization that local employees have designated to represent them in all contacts with CalOSHA — California fast-food workers are demanding that state lawmakers pass AB 257, the Fast Food Accountability and Standards (FAST) Recovery Act. The legislation would give workers a voice on the job to help set industry-wide standards for health and safety and hold fast-food corporations like McDonald’s accountable for maintaining safe and healthy workplaces.
According to “Fight for $15 California,” AB 257 would also address sexual harassment, wage theft, safety violations, violence and other long-standing issues in the fast-food industry by:
- Giving workers a seat at the table. The bill would create a statewide Fast-Food Sector Council, which would include worker, government and industry representatives, to set minimum health, safety and employment standards across the California fast food industry.
- Giving franchisees a seat at the table. Under the FAST Recovery Act, franchisees get a seat at the table too. Oftentimes, large franchisors increase California operators’ costs. With AB 257, franchisees can push back if resources are needed to comply with wage and safety standards.
- Holding large fast-food corporations accountable. Corporate fast-food giants like McDonald’s will be required to ensure all their restaurants and franchisees have the resources they need to operate safely and in compliance with the law.
Management at the Palmdale McDonald’s did not immediately return calls seeking comment on Wednesday’s worker protest.


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Entrepreneurs who participate in international trade and payments lose money due to changes in the exchange rate. The current situation in the world causes doubts about the stability of some of the world currencies. We analyzed and found the most stable and prospective currency and cryptocurrency in 2023.
Analysts are focusing on the Chinese yuan in light of the strongest anti-Russian sanctions in history and the redirection of trade flows. Analysts agree that the yuan has the potential to replace the dollar as the dominant reserve currency, but China will need to make significant changes to its rigid economic policies and implement reforms.
According to Markets Insider, University of Southern California professor Baizhu Chen is certain that a situation in Europe will make it inevitable for many nations to desire to abandon the dollar’s hegemony:
“The use of Chinese currency will inevitably expand and play a much bigger role in the world,” Baizhu Chen, professor of clinical finance and business economics at the University of Southern California, told Insider. “Some countries feel their economies could be held hostage to US policies because the dollar is dominant, and countries want to diversify their risk.” (1)
The rapid emergence and growth of the Chinese currency, the renminbi(Yuán), has been contributing to its increasing use of it in transactions across the Middle East and Africa. Saudi Arabia is reportedly planning on giving China direct payments in the currency. According to the International Monetary Fund, central banks all around the world are starting to diversify their holdings away from the dollar and are becoming more willing to use the renminbi(Yuán). This could lead to a significant change in the global currency’s power.
Are cryptocurrencies reliable?
A manifesto for cryptocurrencies was written in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, the person or group of persons who invented bitcoin. He aimed to change traditional finance by making it possible for people to send money to one another without the use of banks or other middlemen. Since its inception, Bitcoin has fundamentally altered the way we see money, and its price has risen to previously unheard-of levels.
The excessive volatility of bitcoin, according to opponents, makes it difficult to see it as a trustworthy asset. The volatility of cryptocurrencies must be understood, according to Ari Wald, CEO of the investment firm Oppenheimer, because it will persist for a very long time in this sector.
Bitcoin’s value is currently about $20,000, and it is depreciating as quickly as it is rising. Although the first cryptocurrency exceeded the value record of $66,000 in October and surpassed the Swiss franc in terms of capitalization, it subsequently went to a long-term slide due to the strategy of hiking rates in developed nations.
The situation with ether, bitcoin’s primary rival, is essentially the same. It originally cost almost $3,000, but by September 19 it had dropped to $1,552. Analysts claim that the possible rise of ether is tied to the growing acceptance of decentralized finance (DeFi) and the interest that major corporations and institutions have shown in the Ethereum blockchain. The second most expensive cryptocurrency in the world will therefore cost $1476 on March 9th, 2023.
Collect & Pay Is a licensed fintech company providing cross-border payment solutions for corporate clients. We are supporting more than 14 world currencies for transferring via SWIFT. Contact us to open a payment account email@example.com or use the link below


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Ritter Sport is swapping out its standard plastic wrappers for paper-based packaging in a first-time trial.
The chocolate company is reintroducing its limited-edition Chocolate & Weed to the Austrian market, now available in paper wrappers for as long as stocks last.
“The primary objective is to test paper-based packaging under practical conditions in retail stores,” Petra Fix, global sustainability communications at Alfred Ritter, tells PackagingInsights.
“We hope to gain insights into how paper packaging behaves, for example, during automatic packaging, transport and finally on the shelf. We want to find out whether the material proves itself on the typical route from production to the end consumer.”
Ritter Sport reportedly chose a limited edition chocolate variety to “inspire chocolate fans in Austria” with both innovative packaging and its milk chocolate with roasted hemp seed filling variety.
Chocolate needs strong paper
The trial builds on previous Ritter Sport paper prototypes tested in Germany earlier this year. The initial consumer feedback was “exceedingly positive” and demonstrated “a clear awareness of the issue of sustainable packaging,” says Fix.
The main challenge lies in finding a material that meets Ritter Sport’s high sustainability, protection and product safety standards.
“Chocolate naturally contains a relatively large amount of fat from the cocoa butter. Primary packaging must therefore contain a high fat content and protect the chocolate against external environmental influences,” Fix explains.
Notably, the new Austrian test papers use a grammage of 90 g/m2, which is 15 g/m2 stronger than the initial prototype.
The packaging also states it is “wrapped in paper” prominently on the front-of-pack. This taps into Innova Market Insights’ top packaging trend for 2020: “The Language Environmental Sustainability.”
FMCG brands are increasingly acknowledging the environmental attributes of packaging as a key selling point for consumer packaged goods.
Economically and environmentally sustainable
Ritter Sport’s standard chocolate packaging is made from polypropylene (PP), making it fully recyclable. As a single-material packaging, it is also “extremely economical” in terms of material consumption, says the company
“Nevertheless, we are working intensively on [creating] packaging based on renewable, recyclable raw materials, which at the same time meet high standards for product protection and safety,” Fix elaborates.
Importantly, Ritter Sport is using the Chocolate & Weed trial to distance itself from using fossil fuels, the main component in PP.
The company notes that plastic recycling is not as well organized as paper recycling. Moreover, simple, functioning recycling infrastructures already exist worldwide.
The courage to innovate is a long-standing tradition with Ritter Sport, says Fix, citing the invention of the chocolate square by Clara Ritter nearly a century ago and its signature color-coordinated chocolate wrappings.
“Today’s tests with paper-based packaging is also an example of our attempt to operate in harmony with humans and nature.”
by Anni Schleicher
International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) has announced the appointment of Frank Clyburn as CEO and member of the board of directors, effective 14 February 2022. Clyburn, who will step down from his position as executive VP and president of human health at Merck & Co, succeeds current IFF CEO Andreas Fibig
Jack Link’s-owned meat snacking brand Peperami has launched new chorizo five-packs to add to its extensive snack portfolio. The new chorizo sticks are made with 100% pork, packed with protein, contain 99 calories and are unpasteurised to maintain a fuller flavour — providing a shelf life of over six months.
While foam is certainly desirable in the bathtub or on beer, preventing foam – for example in industrial processes – is a much-discussed topic. A team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research has now shown that so-called “superamphiphobic surfaces” can be used to prevent foaming.


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- How to Avoid a Delayed Flight and Other Air Travel Woes
- IPhone 6 Feature Prevents Law Enforcement From Accessing Your Data
- Go Big or Go Home: The Million-Dollar Halloween Costume
- Pop Quiz: Does an Airline Have to Put You Up in a Hotel When Your Flight is Canceled?
- The Restless Project: $60K Income Doesn’t Cut It for My Family
- Target May Be Starting a Free-Shipping War
- Who is the Richest Person in Your State?
- MasterCard Introducing Fingerprint-Scanning Credit Card
CNN reports “the Federal Reserve finally has wiped its hands clean of AIG and turned a nearly $18 billion profit for taxpayers in the process.”
Insurance giant AIG, or American International Group, “played a major role” in the 2008 financial meltdown we’re still clawing back from. At the time, the government bought up a lot of AIG’s bad debt to keep things from getting worse – something that doesn’t usually happen, and a move that couldn’t quickly be undone.
The good news is that the U.S. Federal Reserve just sold the last of the debt it was holding, for a $6.6 billion profit. Combined with earlier sales and a line of credit, that adds up to the $18 billion figure.
The bad news is that another part of the government still holds a lot of AIG. The Treasury Department owns $29 billion, “roughly 53 percent of AIG’s common stock,” according to CNN.
But as the economy improves and the government continues to sell that stock, it also expects to turn a profit for taxpayers. It’s already been selling back to AIG – earlier this month, the company bought back about eight percent of itself. That’s about $3 billion worth.


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By Amy Hinote –One in three leisure travelers has stayed in a private accommodation in the last year, up from one in ten in 2011, and almost 40 percent of those travelers booked online, up from 12 percent in 2008. We know this—and much more—about the vacation rental industry because of the research being conducted by Douglas Quinby and his team at Phocuswright, the travel industry’s research authority on how travelers, suppliers, and intermediaries connect.
Prior to joining Phocuswright, Quinby, senior vice president of research, led his own firm, which provided strategic research, communications, and marketing services to travel technology companies. Shortly after he joined Phocuswright in 2004, he began examining the vacation rental industry.
“We did a short analysis in 2004–2005 when HomeAway began rolling up URLs,” Quinby said. “At the time, there were a bunch of startups besides HomeAway, including LeisureLink and Zonder, who were working towards facilitating online booking on aggregated marketplaces.”
Phocuswright’s research in the vacation rental industry began to take shape in 2008 with its landmark study, Phocuswright’s Vacation Rental Marketplace: Poised for Change, which revealed the size and scope of the sector. Consequently, investment capital poured in, building up HomeAway, Airbnb, OneFineStay, HouseTrip, Zonder, Tripping, and more. Phocuswright’s follow-up study, U.S. Vacation Rentals 2009–2014, shed even more light on the industry as a $23 billion market with an online booking rate that had doubled in just a few years.
Quinby and his Phocuswright team have continued qualitative and quantitative research on the vacation rental industry, which has helped the broader travel market to segment and size the market and forecast consumer behavior in this high-growth and rapidly evolving segment of the travel industry.
Over the summer, VRM Intel partnered with Phocuswright to conduct a survey of businesses that manage vacation homes, condos, and other short-term rentals for travelers. This fall, Phocuswright published Phocuswright’s A Market Transformed: Private Accommodations in the U.S., which takes a 360-degree look at the current state of private accommodation rentals in the U.S.
I had the opportunity to interview Quinby to find out more about the growth in the vacation rental industry, his findings from Phocuswright’s most recent study, and what he expects to see in the category in the coming years.
AH: Phocuswright is now using the term “private accommodations” in its recent research instead of “vacation rentals” or “short-term rentals.” What does that term include?
DQ: For us, a private accommodation is any type of rental where the renter is staying for travel purposes, and it includes vacation rentals, new-generation rentals, and shared spaces.
AH: Since you’ve been researching the industry, there has been a huge shift in investment and interest from Wall Street and the broader travel industry. What is driving the escalation?
DQ: The industry has gone from one in ten travelers staying in private accommodations in 2011, to one in three in 2016. This kind of growth in a vertical category is unprecedented. To have a category explode like this into the marketplace and into the traveler consciousness is significant. Also, the big OTAs are under threat from hotels increasing their direct bookings and from enormous shareholder pressure to continue to grow, and they are looking for the next big, new category to drive that growth. The category has arrived. For years, it had been framed as “alternative accommodations,” but we are now at the end of that era. These “alternative accommodations” are no longer a nontraditional category. We are seeing the mainstreaming of private accommodations.
AH: From your perspective, what have been the major milestones or turning points that have shaped the industry?
DQ: There is no doubt that HomeAway played a huge role in the development of the space. HomeAway brought profound disruption to the industry. By nailing down “shopping and discovery,” HomeAway took us to a place where they successfully aggregated supply and demand. As a result, property managers found themselves having to compete with homeowners, putting downward pressure on management commissions. This also forced property managers to up their game—by making properties more attractive to online consumers and to become more engaged with owners and guests.
While HomeAway had a soft approach to supply with a subscription model, Airbnb had online booking baked in from the beginning because that is what consumers want, just like they want reviews. When it came to online booking and traveler reviews, HomeAway fell behind. Airbnb showed us that online booking does work.
AH: Comparing HomeAway’s performance with Airbnb’s performance in the professionally managed space, which company seems to have the advantage?
DQ: In terms of sites used, HomeAway.com and the HomeAway family of sites are far and away the most important for property managers. The vast majority list on HomeAway, but Airbnb has grown quite significantly. If you speak to the Airbnb guys, they did not consider traditional vacation rental accommodations to be part of their core business. They were supplemental to their core business, which was urban supply. They came later to vacation rentals as an obvious area of growth and revenue. In our most recent research, we found that the percentage of property managers listing on Airbnb increased from 7 percent in 2012 to 47 percent in 2016. The overall impact of Airbnb has been incredibly positive.
AH: We’ve heard reports from property managers that Airbnb’s approach is hurting the industry, especially with its impact on regulations. Are you seeing any resistance from property managers in listing their vacation homes on Airbnb?
DQ: In the course of the study we are doing, we are not seeing that as a big issue, and I think that reflects the maturation of the industry over the last decade. There is a realization by property managers that there are other models that are here to stay, and they need to adapt. And there is a recognition by the industry that these changes are going to come. Any animosity towards Airbnb is being driven by the hotel associations and by residents in certain communities.
AH: As you know, HomeAway and TripAdvisor recently adopted Airbnb’s revenue model by adding a traveler/service fee for bookings. In a recent interview with VRM Intel, Booking.com’s David Mau said that this model is not sustainable. In your view, is the shift to this revenue model of having a consumer fee sustainable?
DQ: I think it is still early days for the debate over the business model because there is still enough disparity of supply among the channels, so there is not as much of an issue. It may become more of an issue as there is increasingly more overlap across the major channels.
We did see in the latest study that, among property managers, one in three are seeing and forecasting a drop in rentals from listing sites like HomeAway and VRBO, and we attribute that to the change in the business model. That being said, half of property managers are reporting that their business from third-party online channels is growing.
AH: Is there room for another player in the OTA/intermediary space?
DQ: There is always room for great product and innovation, and there is always room for creating something customers want. There has been significant consolidation, and two online giants—Expedia and Priceline—have what many consider to be a duopoly. But then three guys without a lick of travel industry experience got together to create Airbnb, a company that is now the third-largest online seller of accommodations worldwide and is probably the fourth-largest online travel intermediary by gross bookings. So who says you can’t build an online travel company today? It doesn’t mean it is going to be easy, and it is going to require rolling up the sleeves, but it can certainly be done.
AH: With the increase in the number of new travelers choosing private accommodations, are you seeing customers having higher hotel-like expectations for their accommodations?
DQ: It really hasn’t been an issue. When travelers want a hotel experience, they stay in a hotel. Even with the influx of new rental travelers, guest satisfaction has remained consistent. However, it does favor the RBO side slightly over property managers. While travelers who stay in professionally managed rentals say they have access to more services, those who stay in owner-managed rentals report higher levels of guest satisfaction, driven by increased interaction with the host or owner.
Airbnb is the most standout example of this, as they have made the host the linchpin in selling of the property. The traveler is not just buying the place; they are buying the host. Property managers that are moving to a virtually managed experience with no interaction with the guest may want to reconsider by finding opportunities for personalization. If you are not interacting personally with guests, you might want to consider finding ways to make guests feel welcome. Personalized interaction does have a positive impact on guest satisfaction.
AH: What trends are you seeing in the homeowners’ decision to self-manage their vacation rentals or work with a professional property manager?
DQ: Owners who self-manage, we see, start out managing their rental by themselves, and after one or two years, they realize the time and expense, and they start to work with professionals.
We estimate that there are between 6,000 and 7,000 vacation rental management companies in the US, and most manage fewer than 25 properties. 35 percent of homeowners rent their vacation rentals through a property manager, 35 percent self-manage their rentals, and 25 to 30 percent do both.
There is a full spectrum of services needed to manage a vacation rental, and homeowners choose a service level that falls somewhere along that spectrum. The RBO versus PM debate is so five years ago. There is no more “us and them.” Technology has broken all of that down, so that now property managers are competing on service. Looking forward, property managers should ask themselves if they are offering all of the services that their competitors are offering, including both homeowners and other property managers.
AH: Looking ahead over the next two years, what do you predict will cause the biggest shift in the marketplace?
DQ: There has been substantial growth in online booking, which we expect to increase from just under 40 percent this year to 55 percent by 2018, being propelled by growth at Airbnb, changes at HomeAway, and adoption by property managers. But the big shift we are forecasting in the market is the increase in the number of bookings going through intermediaries. Rental sites and travel agencies will account for 70 percent of online bookings by 2018.
Phocuswright’s A Market Transformed: Private Accommodations in the U.S. can be purchased on the company’s website. Douglas Quinby will be speaking at the VRMA National Conference in Chandler, Arizona, on October 19, at the ARDA Fall Conference on November 11 in Washington D.C., at the Phocuswright Conference, held November 14–17 in Los Angeles, and at the Airbnb Open in Los Angeles on November 18-21.


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A war of the malt is brewing ahead of the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTPS) next month after South Africa’s beer industry has called on Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to consider taxing beer differently to wine in line with inflation-based excise duty increases.
This as the beer industry earlier this week said it would take another two years to recover from the economic hangover of the Covid-19 pandemic, which did immense damage in terms of sales, jobs and growth.
The Beer Association of South Africa (Basa), in its submission and presentation on the 2022 Draft Tax Bills to the Standing Committee on Finance (SCoF) in Parliament, yesterday also called for South African policy commitment to a three-year inflation-based increase strategy.
Basa’s membership includes: The Craft Brewers Association of South Africa, Heineken South Africa and South African Breweries.
Basa explained that beer was taxed at an excise duty based on the litres of absolute alcohol (LAA) or alcohol by volume (ABV), while wine is taxed at a rate based on litres irrespective of the ABV, which makes the excise duty liability for wine to remain at R4.96 irrespective of the ABV.
ABV ranges between 4.5 percent and 14 percent. The excise duty liability for beer is based on the ABV, calculated at a rate of R121.41 per LAA.
“This disadvantage becomes apparent on beer products above 4.5 percent ABV, with the highest prejudice experienced by the craft beer sector, where beer ABV is generally around 7 percent. Beer is taxed R3.54 more than wine with the same ABV,” it said.
“Another increase in the excise duty rate on beer above the inflation rate, as has been experienced in the past, is neither beneficial to the government nor to industry; let alone the compounding effect on the consumer.
“In addition, the deviation by the government from its own fiscal policy is counter-productive to economic recovery as it decimates investor confidence,“ Basa said.
Basa drew the attention of the SCoF to the continuing plight of the sector as presented to National Treasury and the SA Revenue Service on the sustainability of the historic relative disadvantaged position beer was subjected to both in relation to the inconsistent application of an ABV excise duty rate and inconsistent excise duty payment terms.
Basa also called out the government on how the wine industry had been preferential treatment with a reduced excise adjustment rate versus the beer industry.
“The beer industry advocates for the disjuncture between the excise policy framework and its implementation to be minimised,” Basa said.
It said the relative year-on-year increases in excised duty rates over the past six years had incrementally widened the gap between the excise duty rate and the relative annual inflation rate.
“Ultimately the burden of above inflation increases is not on the producers but ultimately on the consumers based on the elasticity of the industry,” Basa said.
The presentation comes hot on the heels of Basa earlier this week releasing a study, which showed that beer makes a value-added contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) of R71 billion in 2019, or 1.3 percent of GDP and that 249 000, or about one job in 66, were supported by the industry in one form or another. The sector also contributed some R43bn in taxes to the government in 2019.


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Andy Meyers, bought Transworld Business Advisors of Kent in 2017, as a bolt-on business to work alongside his existing business, ABMV Chartered Accountants.
The ex-Military, Hercules pilot, discovered his business brokerage to be perfectly aligned with his accountancy business. It gives him an opportunity to support those of his clients who are business owners, who want to buy and sell a business.
Throughout the UK Coronavirus lockdown, his team of eight have been able to continue working from home, and supporting their clients.
As a service provider, Andy has found a way of working which has a semblance of normality.
“For our buyer clients, the buy and sell markets are still open, though tipping slightly in their favour. However, we successfully completed on two deals at the beginning of May, and there are two more deals which we expect to complete within the month.”
Discover more about how Andy is supporting clients throughout the current situation, in this YouTube interview with #Brilliantbusinesses https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVyNEiWIj14&t=1s


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Shoplifting incidents on the rise at AAFES stores
SEOUL — Despite video surveillance, security personnel and television spots warning of the consequences of the crime, shoplifting is on the rise in AAFES stores in the Pacific, officials said.
George Shaffer, a loss prevention manager for the Army and Air Force Exchanges Service, confirmed recently that AAFES stores in South Korea, Okinawa and mainland Japan have seen a 31 percent increase in shoplifting cases this year compared to the same time in 2006. From the start of AAFES fiscal year in February, 311 people have been caught in the region with more than $87,000 in shoplifted merchandise, he said. By this time the previous year, 237 shoplifters had been caught, Shaffer said.
But Shaffer said the problem is probably bigger than those numbers represent. He said retail industry estimates are that only one in 10 shoplifters are caught.
“This includes observed shoplifting — those caught — and unobserved shoplifting — empty packages found hidden in the store and filling station drive-offs,” Shaffer said.
For AAFES worldwide in 2006, more than 7,000 shoplifters were caught, “so that translates to some pretty big numbers,” he said.
Shaffer said there is no pattern as to who shoplifts: active-duty enlisted and officers, retirees, spouses, children and civilian contractors have been nabbed. Most of those caught at Yongsan Garrison this year have been minor dependents, according to a column in the Dec. 7 edition of the U.S. Army’s Morning Calm command newspaper.
Garrison commander Col. Dave Hall’s column also said Yongsan has seen a 30 percent increase in shoplifting over the past year.
Shaffer said items most likely to be stolen are computer games, DVDs, compact discs, memory sticks and clothing. He said paying customers bear the brunt of the costs from shoplifting.
“Any added expenses associated with shoplifting losses have an impact on operating costs, which are passed on to the customer directly,” he said.
Shoplifting also cuts into AAFES dividends to Morale Welfare and Recreation programs and affects unit readiness as well as families involved.
Shoplifting statisticsThe following are numbers of shoplifters caught and values of merchandise stolen at Army and Air Force Exchanges Service stores in Okinawa, South Korea and Japan, according to AAFES.
Fiscal 2006 (Feb. 1 to Jan. 31)
Okinawa — 109 shoplifters caught with $22,868 in merchandise.
Japan — 43 shoplifters caught with $7,696 in merchandise.
South Korea — 117 shoplifters caught with $17,258 in merchandise.
Fiscal 2007 to date
Okinawa — 118 shoplifters caught with $68,000 in merchandise.
Japan — 56 shoplifters caught with $4,200 in merchandise.
South Korea — 137 shoplifters caught with $15,353 in merchandise.


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A ghost is haunting the world—the ghost of inflation. The sustained rise in prices of everyday goods and services in the last two years—the global inflation rate was close to 9% in 2022—has kept policymakers and central bankers up at night. Every tool at their disposal—-primarily interest rate hikes—was deployed to rein in this economic phenomenon that has been squarely blamed for slowing global GDP growth.
Yes, high inflation erodes the purchasing power of money and hurts the value of your savings. But, is inflation always the villain as it is painted to be? Will the absence of inflation by default boost economic growth? Or, does inflation have multiple facets? To answer these questions, we need to thoroughly understand inflation and more importantly, its innocent-sounding cousin, deflation.
What is inflation?
Inflation measures the rise in prices in an economy, best experienced while tanking up at the petrol pump or buying your monthly grocery.
Some economists think that inflation is the result of the increase in the amount of money in circulation relative to the supply of goods. In economic terms, inflation is a function of the supply and demand of money. In other words, printing more currency notes will decrease the value of each rupee, forcing the general price to rise. Yet, there is more to inflation as we will find out.
Pressure on the supply side or the demand side in the economy can create inflation. Supply shocks that disrupt the production process such as natural disasters, or push up production costs such as a rise in crude oil prices can reduce the supply of goods, leading to cost-push inflation. The rise in tomato prices in India last month is a classic example of cost-push inflation.
Conversely, demand shocks, such as stock market rallies, central banks cutting interest rates, or increased government spending can temporarily boost overall demand and economic growth. More demand for goods and services that exceeds the production capacity of the economy in the short run, fuels demand-driven inflation.
This article will focus solely on inflation that results from the supply and demand of money in the economy. Read on to learn how it can make or break an economy.
Central banks keep inflation balanced
Milton Friedman famously said inflation is caused by too much money chasing too few goods, pointing to the supply of money in the economy. Central banks control the circulation of money in an economy, and hence too much money supply results from a loose monetary policy. A central bank’s job is to maintain the optimal supply of money that is just a little above the demand for money in the economy.
The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the RBI in its October 2023 meeting observed that “Inflation has moderated from its July peak, bolstering macroeconomic fundamentals.” The statement makes it clear that controlled moderate inflation will boost India’s economic growth.
Meanwhile, in the most recent US Fed meeting held in November 2023, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System voted unanimously to approve the establishment of the primary credit rate at the existing level of 5.5 percent as inflation remains elevated. However, the Fed did not cut rates as it thinks inflation is still high.
While keeping inflation low is their mandate, it is to be noted that neither the RBI nor the Federal Reserve has talked about bringing inflation down to zero. For India, the medium-term inflation target is 4% with a tolerance limit of +/- 2%. For the US, the inflation target is 2%. In other words, the idea is to maintain a planned, controlled price rise in the economy.
Therefore, it follows that low, stable, and predictable inflation is good for an economy. The predictability factor makes it easier to capture it in price-adjustment contracts and interest rates, reducing its distortionary impact.
A healthy dose of inflation is good
Inflation, we know, is a situation where consumer prices are rising. But if people buy less and save more, it will reduce aggregate demand, leading to less production, layoffs, and a faltering economy. Thus, too much savings and too little inflation can also hurt economic growth, a phenomenon British economist John Maynard Keynes called the paradox of thrift.
Thus, it follows that an increase in consumer prices isn’t always a bad thing. While rising production costs push up the prices of goods over time, the increase in household income balances it out.
Everything in moderation is good, even inflation. In fact, it creates a win-win situation for all stakeholders in an economy—businesses invest more to meet increasing demand, wages rise, consumers buy more, and overall employment rises. The cycle continues. More jobs lead to higher earnings, resulting in more spending, increasing the demand for goods and services, and thus contributing to overall economic growth.
What is deflation?
Deflation—a decrease in consumer and asset prices—is widely understood as the exact opposite of inflation. Sounds good, right? But it is not, as we will find out in a bit.
While it may sound beneficial, persistent deflation signals weak economic growth and can lead to a recession. Ideally, declining prices should be good news for consumers as they will be able to buy more with less. Well, not exactly. In a situation of falling prices, people postpone spending hoping to buy goods at an even cheaper price in the near future.
Falling demand will force businesses to cut production, leading to unemployment and further fall in prices. If this cycle is prolonged, it is likely to lead to a recession or a fall in economic activity.
Truth be told, an economy in deflation is as risky as an economy facing sky-high inflation. Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, is a case in point.
How persistently low inflation set Japan back for decades
Japan endured economic stagnation and deflationary pressures for almost three decades beginning in the 90s. The Bank of Japan has a single mandate — to ensure sustainable price stability. The BOJ has adopted a “super” accommodative economic policy with negative short-term interest rates and limits on longer-term rates.
Japan officially declared a state of deflation in 2001. The Japanese government and the BOJ have made preventing price falls their policy priority. The government launched a big fiscal spending program to rev up the economy for many years. Additionally, the BOJ has been under pressure to maintain ultra-low interest rates.
An example of BOJ’s policy response to boost inflation is negative interest rates. The BOJ in a bid to reinflate the economy first adopted the negative interest rate policy in February 2016. To spur credit creation, the bank imposed a rate of negative 0.1% on excess reserves that financial institutions place with the central bank. This effectively meant the central bank was charging commercial banks for deposits.
Japan’s three-decades-long battle against deflation appears to have borne fruit at last. Japan’s core inflation hit a four-decade high of 4.2% in January 2023 and remained above the BOJ’s 2% target for 16 straight months in July, as more firms pass on higher raw material costs along to consumers. In addition, companies offered their highest pay hikes in three decades in 2023. The pay rise is an impact of a steady price rise in the economy,
Despite favorable inflation numbers, the Japanese government has refrained from officially declaring an end to deflation, arguing that doing so requires not just underlying price rises but clear signs that Japan won’t return to periods of price falls. The government thinks that the entrenched deflationary mindset of households and companies needs to change before it can officially declare an end to deflation.
Inflation as a barometer of economic health
Japan’s example demonstrates how deflation can set an economy back for decades together. To use an everyday analogy, inflation is the blood pressure of an economy. Just like you need to maintain a level of blood pressure to be alive, an economy needs a certain amount of inflation to grow. Too much inflation, like hypertension, can prove fatal for the health of an economy. At the same time, deflation, like low blood pressure, can lead to economic stagnation.


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Almost half of companies still can’t detect IoT device breaches, according to a Gemalto study. But, use of blockchain technology might provide a solution IoT device breaches continue to frustrate companies and put user data at risk image
‘With IoT devices continuing to immerse themselves deep within organisations’ networks, it’s frightening to see that so many UK businesses don’t know if and when these devices have been breached.’
The Internet of Things (IoT) is beginning to creep into most aspects of consumer and business life; whether you’re talking about a smart home or smart office.
Jason Hart, CTO of data protection at Gemalto, commented: “The push for digital transformation by organisations has a lot to answer for when it comes to security and bad practices. At times it feels organisations are trying to run before they can walk, implementing technology without really understanding what impact it could have on their security.
“With IoT devices continuing to immerse themselves deep within organisations’ networks, it’s frightening to see that so many UK businesses don’t know if and when these devices have been breached. Although the UK’s new Code of Practice is a great first step toward securing the IoT, it’s won’t truly be effective until these are made mandatory and all organisations are forced to adhere to them. Only once every device, new and old, is given these same standards will the UK see a decrease in successful attacks.”
To read the full article click here.


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Nissan has recently unveiled the 2012 NV200 compact cargo van at the 2012 Chicago Auto Show.
With its competition “battling” in unveiling concept cars, SUVs or new models, the Japanese based automaker Nissan is focusing on the 2012 NV200 compact cargo van, and the Chicago Auto Show has been chosen in order to promote the vehicle. According to the car manufacturer, the new generation of the Nissan NV200 compact cargo van is already sold in over 40 countries.
“There is an increasing need for a ‘right-sized’ van that optimizes cargo space while offering the best possible fuel economy and affordable price – the exact sweet spots of innovative new Nissan NV200. Businesses today, both large and small, are also looking for vehicles that represent their brands in the best light – smart, innovative and professional. NV200 does that and much more”, said the vice president for Nissan Commercial Vehicles and Fleet, Joe Castelli.
The 2012 Nissan NV200 is offering a cargo capacity of 123 cubic feet, a 7.9 inch extended body compared to models sold in other markets, 186.2 inches in overall length and 115.2 inches wheelbase, 1.500 pound maximum payload, cargo area dimension for standard US 40×48 inch pallets, 40/60 split opening doors, center console for laptop, dual upholders, CD holder, 12-volt power outlet, optional sat-nav, Bluetooth, XM satellite radio, rear view camera and telematics pre-wiring.
Under the hood, the 2012 Nissan NV200 is coming with a 2.0 liter four-cylinder engine, which is mated to an Xtronic CVT transmission. Prices and more details will be announced soon.


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DUBAI — A smart real estate and car sales index established by Dubai Courts continues to make great strides since its launch six years ago, boosting confidence in the state-of-the-art technologies adopted by the emirate of Dubai, with the number of its consumers increasing to over 159,000 from different parts of the world.
The Dubai Courts has previously entered Guinness Book for most expensive property sold via an e-auction conducted through smart applications.
Commenting on the sustained successes achieved by the department, Tarish Eid Al Mansouri, Director-General of Dubai Courts, has stated that the value of e-auctions staged by the authority has always been on the rise over the past years, reflecting bidders’ confidence in the smart services launched to cater to needs of different segments of society as they save time, effort and cost to customers and partners.
“The number of bidders using the auctions over the past six years increased to 159,862 from different parts of the world,” he said, highlighting that a 30-minute e-session recently witnessed transactions worth more than AED1.6 billion.
Source: Emirates News Agency


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Euro 2020 is still on in PES 2020, even if it isn’t in real life
UEFA’s Euro 2020 nationwide crew match will come to eFootball PES 2020 on April 30. Whether or not it occurs in actual life continues to be TBD.
So, sports activities followers, add PES 2020 to your record of substitute experiences with virtually all main sporting occasions postponed for the close to future, in mild of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. However within the socially-distant consolation of our residing rooms, Euro 2020 continues to be on PlayStation 4, Home windows PC and Xbox One, as a free replace to Konami’s soccer title on the finish of subsequent month.
That replace will embrace all 55 nations in UEFA (whether or not their groups are among the many 24 certified for the group stage or not) of their genuine kits, with their real-world lineups. London’s Wembley Stadium, web site of the ultimate and semifinals, additionally joins PES 2020 as a playable venue.
UEFA Euro 2020 is unique to PES 2020, a pleasant prize in Konami’s simmering licensing battle towards EA Sports activities’ FIFA collection. Nonetheless, rumors have it that the match itself could possibly be postponed as much as a yr, if not canceled outright. On Saturday, the BBC reported that FIFA had advisable all worldwide competitions in March and April be known as off.
That call is as much as soccer’s regional governing our bodies, although, and Euro 2020 nonetheless has 4 group stage berths to resolve from an 8-team playoff on March 26 and March 31. A number of nations have requested their matches be postponed due to journey issues and restrictions associated to the outbreak. UEFA, in the meantime, will hold a video conference on Tuesday to find out what to do about Euro 2020, whether or not that’s postponement by as much as a yr, or known as off completely.
COPYRIGHT_BP: Published on https://bingepost.com/euro-2020-is-still-on-in-pes-2020-even-if-it-isnt-in-real-life/62392/ by - on 2020-03-15T15:46:01.000Z
Nonetheless, the present will go on for PES 2020. That features the sport’s myClub mode that includes standout gamers from Euro 2020 all through the match. Nonetheless, it could not embrace Konami’s plans to stage particular match days, the place gamers select a nation to play in on-line multiplayer.
Eurogamer noted on Saturday that EA Sports activities’ common Group of the Week promotion in FIFA 20’s Final Group mode wouldn’t be launched for Week 27. That is partly as a result of main soccer in Britain — comprising the Premier League, Soccer League, Girls’s Tremendous League and Championship, and the nationwide membership leagues of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Eire — has shut down till April 3.


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Ceremony Help has actually gone into a sweeping technology collaboration with Google Cloud created to offer the pharmacy, drug store treatment and also health and wellness solutions firm a much more versatile, data-driven and also reliable system for development and also procedures.
Strategies ask for Google Cloud modern technologies to equip Philadelphia-based Ceremony Help with sharper understandings, even more dexterity and also improves consumer experiences, the business claimed the other day. Up-to-date applications for customized electronic experiences, also, will certainly place Ceremony Help’s over 6,400 pharmacologists to invest even more time engaging straight with clients.
Under the multiyear contract, Ceremony Help is slated to move essential applications to Google Cloud’s Anthos handled system for application implementation. Those applications will certainly consist of Ceremony Help’s injection organizing device, consumer messaging framework and also electronic involvement system.
Google Cloud kept in mind that Anthos with offer Ceremony Help drug stores shadow calculating capacities on-site, making it possible for even more resistant procedures. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based tech titan claimed calculated service connection will certainly Rite Help to remain to give raised treatment throughout all-natural calamities with durable person info, progressed prescription monitoring and also the capacity to provide referrals without requiring to be linked to streamlined, heritage data processor technology.
A lot more especially, Ceremony Help claimed, the Google Cloud collaboration will certainly assist the firm “understand its vision of a modern-day drug store.”
” The power of drug stores, and also the vital function pharmacologists play in the health and wellness of their areas, substantially broadened throughout COVID. Understanding that prospective ways making calculated financial investments in technology that can absolutely assist our clients and also make best use of the capacities of our pharmacologists,” according to Justin Mennen, executive vice head of state and also principal electronic and also technology policeman at Ceremony Help. “Google Cloud’s remedies are distinctly placed to perform at each drug store place to enable our shop groups to assist our clients to attain entire health and wellness forever.”
What’s even more, Ceremony Help has actually employed Google Cloud to drive electronic improvements throughout various other components of its service. Those initiatives consist of the following:
• Venture information movement: Ceremony Help will certainly move its venture information to Google Cloud making use of BigQuery. With the relocation, its drug stores stand to have much better understandings right into its financial resources, supply chain stock and also consumer info, making it possible for data-driven choices for service procedures.
• Boosted search: Google Cloud’s Retail Look remedy will certainly offer Ceremony Help clients extra specific search engine result when buying on Ceremony Help’s ecommerce website and also mobile application. The boosted search experience leverages Google-quality search versions to recognize consumer intent and also faucets Ceremony Help’s first-party information– such as promos, readily available stock and also cost– for item ranking outcomes.
• Upgraded PBM application collection: Potion, Ceremony Help’s drug store advantage monitoring and also solutions device, will certainly upgrade its existing PBM application collection to a cloud-first experience, with expert system and also maker learning-infused service reasoning capacities. New Google Cloud information analytics and also handling capacities will certainly assist the PBM much better take care of prescription advantages for health and wellness insurance providers, the business claimed.
” As a healthcare firm with a retail impact, Ceremony Help goes to the junction of 2 swiftly progressing markets and also making calculated technology financial investments to fulfill climbing consumer assumptions,” Carrie Tharp, vice head of state of retail and also customer remedies for Google Cloud, claimed in a declaration. “With these technologies, Ceremony Help is specifying the contemporary drug store.”
The country’s third-largest pharmacy chain, Ceremony Help amounted to financial 2022 earnings of $24.57 billion. That consisted of around $17.37 billion in its Retail Drug store service device (front-end sales of $5.22 billion and also drug store sales of $12.15 billion) plus approximately $7.2 billion in sales from its Drug store Solutions device.
Ceremony Help adheres to a series of business in the food, medication and also mass network partnering with cloud and also IT solutions titans in the last few years. Business partnering with Google consist of C&S Wholesale Grocers, Albertsons Cos., Hy-Vee and also The Kroger Co., to name a few. Food, medication and also mass stores partnering with cloud and also tech solutions competing Microsoft consist of Loblaw Cos., Kroger, Albertsons, Walmart, Costco Wholesale, Walgreens Boots Partnership and also Titan Eagle. Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon.com Internet Solutions (AWS) subsidiary additionally has actually brought food and also grocery store gamers right into a cloud-based computer design, consisting of Instacart, Ocado, Sainsbury, HelloFresh and also, certainly, Amazon.com and also Amazon.com Fresh.


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Pluckers Wing Bar in Killeen experienced an increase in customers Wednesday as residents flocked to the restaurant during a fundraiser for Fort Hood’s Santa’s Workshop.
“Usually Wednesday lunches aren’t too bad, but we had a lot of tables (of people for whom) this was their first time in Pluckers,” said Sarah Roulston, local store marketing manager. “They came because of Santa’s Workshop.”
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Viet Nam News
Investors, start-up founders and experts gathered in Singapore for a two-day Tech in Asia 2016 conference. Việt Nam News talked with some of them to discover why Việt Nam is becoming a hot-spot for start-ups.
By Thu Hương Lê
SINGAPORE – When Singaporean Alvin Koh was running his coffee shop in Hà Nội ’s Tây Hồ District a few years ago, he noticed that it was nearly impossible to track the number of customers who came back to the shop, in essence, their loyalty to the place.
Most of the coffee shops run their loyalty programme using paper cards, which Koh thought was inconvenient for customers because they had to carry too many cards. It was also inconvenient for merchants who could not track the frequency of the coffee-goers.
“I don’t really know how often customers come, whether they come during the weekend or weekdays, or how much they spend,” Koh said. “Sometimes the ladies carry too many bags and they don’t know where their coffee cards are. Sometimes the paper cards go bad because of the rain.”
Inspired partially by the Starbucks Loyalty Programme, which enables Starbucks’ customers to scan their smartphones at the store to gain reward points, Koh and his 10-member team are looking at launching Peko Peko, a mobile platform that allows users to accumulate reward points at coffee shops. It would also allow coffee merchants to track such users and monitor the loyalty programmes the merchants run.
The launch is scheduled to be in Hà Nội next month, with the vision of expanding it to other major cities in Việt Nam. So far, they have 10 coffee merchants signed up, and hope to hit 50 by next month.
Koh believes Việt Nam is among the most attractive emerging markets for start-ups in Southeast Asia because of the young population and the many still untapped needs in the market.
“Everyone knows Singapore is a place to start, but it’s not really a place to make money because the market is very small. The population size of Hà Nội is like Singapore, and then you still have HCM City and Đà Nẵng,” he said.
Koh was among hundreds of start-up founders attending the two-day Tech in Asia 2016 in Singapore this past week, pitching their start-up ideas to potential investors who have the same vision to tap into Southeast Asia’s emerging markets.
On Tuesday, the news also broke about Alibaba’s expansion into Southeast Asia with the US$1 billion deal to acquire Lazada, which sells products in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Việt Nam. This further validates Southeast Asia’s attractiveness for start-ups and investors alike, with a 600-million mobile-driven consumer market.
Speaking at the conference, Facebook co-founder and Founding Partner of B Capital Group, Eduardo Saverin, noted Southeast Asia’s lack of infrastructure in many markets in the region as an opportunity to force entrepreneurs to innovate and think outside-the-box.
Besides, the region is a truly mobile-first environment where cheap mobile devices are making it much easier for people to access services and products, according to Saverin.
“Soon a young girl in rural Indonesia will have more information at her fingertips than I had when I started at Harvard,” Saverin said.
A report released last year by Ericsson suggested that almost two-thirds of mobile phone subscriptions in Southeast Asia and Oceania would be smartphones by 2020, reaching a staggering number of about 800 million people.
In Việt Nam, the number of smartphone users is around 22 million, according to some reports, and predicted to reach 26 million in 2016.
The greater availability and affordability of smartphones has paved the way for strong download growth of mobile applications in the region, said Danielle Levitas, senior vice president for research and marcom at App Annie, a California-based business intelligence company and analyst firm.
App Annie considers Việt Nam among the frontier markets for mobile application growth, with download growth of mobile applications having risen nearly 60 percent year-on-year in Việt Nam (2014-15). Notably, mobile games are undoubtedly a big part of Việt Nam’s culture, accounting for nearly half of downloads on both Google Play and iOS in 2015.
The mobile-first environment and densely populated cities in Southeast Asia also make services such as ridesharing or other services in the so-called “sharing economy” continue to thrive, Levitas emphasised.
For Facebook co-founder Saverin, who has continued stepping up his investments in Southeast Asian start-ups, Southeast Asia is also a less crowded market for investors, and governments across the region are rolling out initiatives to support entrepreneurship.
The Vietnamese government has also stepped up efforts to support start-ups and cultivate the spirit of entrepreneurship in the country.
A new set of rules are being drafted by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, aimed towards easing up procedures for local and foreign venture capital funds to operate in Việt Nam.
The government is ambitious about turning the country into a start-up nation with 5,000 tech firms by 2020. Last month, Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam called for a renewal in thinking in terms of supporting start-up initiatives to catch up with the rest of the world.
Topica Founder Institute, which offers training courses for start-up founders in Việt Nam, estimated that at least 67 tech start-ups in Việt Nam received funding last year, with 48 percent of angle/seed deals coming from overseas investors.
Many start-ups in Singapore are also looking at Việt Nam for users.
Rinita Vanjre, co-founder and CEO of BonAppetour, is among those. The Singapore-based start-up is about food sharing, connecting home cooks with travellers and foodies, for a unique local dining experience. A local host can post his or her offering on the site, prepare the meal, and then travellers can come to the host’s place to dine.
The concept of dining with strangers, Vanjre admitted, might be harder to take off in Việt Nam due to language barriers and the fact that street foods are technically available for most of the day.
However, “there are already people who have expressed an interest in becoming a host on the site,” she said. “So we are very excited about that.” – VNS


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Australia was one of the countries that placed progressive outlook on Cryptocurrencies. Australia’s crypto regulatory framework came into existence in 2017, particularly specifying Bitcoin to be treated as property subjecting to capital tax gains. Previously, there was controversial double taxation under Australia’s goods and services tax (GST), which was quickly replaced by the progressive outlook.
Cyrpto Exchanges has been mandated by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) to register and verify users, also complying with government AML/CFT reporting obligations. Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has issued regulations for initial coin offerings (ICOs) and cryptocurrency trading which resulted in many exchanges delisting anonymous coins/tokens.
Overall, Australia is continuing to introduce crypto regulations with the objective of providing a clear policy framework to crypto businesses. Government is also planning holistic regulations for cryptocurrency exchanges to operate and built vibrant crypto industry in Australia, in December 2021, a new licensing framework has been introduced specifically for cryptocurrency exchanges with consultation period scheduled for 2022. The proposed framework powers consumers to safely purchase and sell crypto assets in a regulated environment.


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Manufacturers across the world are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in many different ways. These are some of their stories.
Viral Sign Inc., Birmingham, Ala., has launched the company's screening technology at the manufacturing facility for Precise Tooling Solutions in Columbus, Ind. Viral Sign will enable Precise Tooling to identify the presence of virus, including COVID-19, in individuals prior to the onset of symptoms. Early identification of the potential for a contagious virus will help ensure a safe work environment for employees. Viral Sign leverages infrared imaging and an advanced screening algorithm to produce a comprehensive thermal signature of the face. In real time, Viral Sign's screening science algorithm assesses the thermal signature across regions of interest in the face to identify patterns consistent with early, pre-symptomatic influenza-like illness, including COVID-19. The total time required per person is approximately two seconds.
New England’s Butler Bros., a distributor for Monaghan Tooling Group, Dayton, Ohio, had a customer that needed custom tooling to produce 2,500 ventilator components a week by mid-April. The team turned the project around – from purchase order to signed approval print for custom tooling in 5 hours and 15 minutes. Monaghan and its Elliott Tool Technologies partners committed to help speed the production of ventilators. After review of the application, MTG engineers determined a custom designed flat-face multi-roller burnishing tool would produce the desired surface finish. The project initially had a scheduled ship date of 4/14, but ETT and MTG working closely together, were able to ship the product on April 8 – nearly a week ahead of schedule.
Advanced Industrial Marketing (AIM), Indianapolis, a supplier of technology for heavy industrial and manufacturing facilities, has launched new social distancing and people counting tools in the U.S. Piloted in Europe, the two products, EGOpro Active Tag and LASE PeCo, are being used in industrial warehousing facilities and large retailers to ensure employees and customers observe social distance restrictions. This wearable tech utilizes UWB radio technology to measure the distance between two tags with a constant radio pulse. When two tags – and the people wearing them – are too close to one another, the tags vibrate and flash a red LED. This alerts the user and those around them that they have breached a minimum safe distance. In addition to wearable tags, sensors can be set in facility “hotspots” like entrances, break rooms and bathrooms to ensure social distancing is maintained off the floor and in heavily trafficked areas.
The Irish manufacturer Combilift, a manufacturer of space-saving forklifts and other handling solutions, has developed the Combi-Ventilate, a splitter device that turns one ventilator into multiple ventilation stations. Designed to address the requirements of medical professionals in the current COVID-19 emergency, the Combi-Ventilate was developed by a team of mechatronic and software engineers with a unit currently undergoing laboratory tests with Ger Curley, Professor of Anesthesia & Critical Care at Royal College of Surgeon’s in Beaumont Hospital.
The U.S. FDA has granted Sterilucent Inc., Minneapolis, an Emergency Use Authorization to allow the emergency use of the Sterilucent HC 80TT Vaporized Hydrogen Peroxide Sterilizer for decontaminating single-use compatible N95 and N95-equivalent respirators. Test results have demonstrated that filtering facepiece respirators may be reprocessed for use during the COVID-19 pandemic in the HC 80TT Flexible Cycle up to 10 times without a detrimental impact on filtration performance or a significant reduction in respirator fit. The system can reprocess up to 12 respirators at a time. For more information, visit www.sterilucent.com .
Synaptive Medical, Toronto, a developer of robotic surgical and imaging technologies, has established a partnership with O-Two Medical Technologies Inc., a manufacturer of controlled ventilation, for the production of O-Two’s e700 portable transport ventilator for patients impacted worldwide by COVID-19. As part of the agreement, Synaptive will help scale up O-Two’s production. The e700 is portable and reduces the burden on medical staff through its automated features by adapting to the needs of patients in a variety of settings. O-Two, along with several other companies as part of a consortium in Ontario, recently entered into an agreement with the Province of Ontario to manufacture 10,000 ventilators for physicians in Canada.
Together with six medical and technology companies, Henkel AG & Company, KGaA, a German chemical and consumer goods company headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany, has developed a smart health patch that allows continuous, remote and wireless monitoring of the respiration, heart rate and soon also temperature of patients. The product – initially set up to monitor the vital functions of patients with heart failure and epilepsy – will be tested for the use of monitoring coronavirus patients in a Belgian hospital. The partners aim to further roll-out the technology to respond to a potential new coronavirus surge in autumn.
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REFRESH PAGE FOR UPDATES
5pm: Miners hold up FTSE 100
Russia’s decision to halt supplies of gas exports to Bulgaria and Poland cast a shadow over markets, with miners doing their best to keep the FTSE 100 index in positive territory.
It closed 39.42 points, or 0.5%, higher at 7,425.61. The mid-cap FTSE 250 index ended down 54.35 points. The CAC 40 index in Paris closed up 0.5%, while the DAX 40 in Frankfurt ended up 0.3%.
CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson stated “It appears that Russia is striving to create division by cranking up the pressure on European countries to pay in roubles or risk being cut off.
“The FTSE 100 is outperforming, largely due to a rebound in metals prices, led by gains in the likes of Anglo American, Rio Tinto and Antofagasta, after a strong recovery in Chinese markets.”
Lloyds Banking Group reported a rise in first quarter pre-impairment profit (see below) and noted that the outlook for the UK economy “remains uncertain”, but the lender still upgraded its guidance for all of 2022.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said Lloyds’ first quarter update reveals a lot about the state of the UK economy.
“The country has been getting back on its feet, which is reflected by an increase in lending and savings deposits for Lloyds. However, the outlook is less than rosy.
“It’s serious when a bank talks about proactively contacting customers that could be facing financial troubles to offer help and guidance.
“This is quite a different tone from a company whose key messages were recently focused on expansion into wealth management – i.e. helping the rich to look after their money.
“The bank doesn’t want bad debts on its books, but neither does it want customers to be in trouble, so it is in its own interest and of society to help people manage their finances during this cost of living crisis. Lloyds is in a strong position financially to weather any storm but many of its customers won’t be.”
7am: Lloyds Banking Group
Lloyds said underlying profit before impairment was up 26% to £2bn in the first quarter, driven by strong net income growth.
It was down 14% from a year earlier after accounting for a £177m charge related to possible defaults linked to the cost of living crisis.
House builder Persimmon said it has had an encouraging start to 2022 with trading in line with expectations and private average weekly sales rates running c. 2% higher year on year.
Demand for new homes continues to outstrip supply with good levels of customer enquiries and cancellation rates remaining at low levels.
Dean Finch, Group Chief Executive, said: “We continue to expect to deliver volume growth for the full year 2022 of around 4-7% of 2021 levels, with resilient industry-leading margins.”
7am: M&G seeks new CEO
M&G is on the hunt for a new chief executive after John Foley announced his intention to retire.
The search will be led by chair Edward Braham.
Mr Foley will continue in his role until a successor is in place.
7am: WH Smith
WH Smith said it had successfully navigated the business through the pandemic and that its recovery is well underway. It said it is well positioned to benefit from new store opening opportunities in the global travel market.
Total Travel revenue in the eight week period to 23 April 2022 at 114% of 2019. There is a new store pipeline of over 125 stores.
Headline profit before tax and non-underlying items came in at £14m (2021: loss of £19m)
Total Travel trading profit was £10m (2021: loss of £28m). High Street trading profit came in at £26m (2021: £24m).
7am: Ted Baker bid interest
High street fashion chain Ted Baker said that after putting itself up for sale it has now received a number of non-binding proposals from potentially interested bidders.
The board is inviting a focused selection of such parties to enter into a due diligence process under which the company will provide information on its business.
Markets European gas prices surged higher yesterday after Russia announced that it would cut gas flows to Poland and Bulgaria, given that these buyers failed to agree to pay for Russian gas in roubles.
A concern for the EU market, as well as global gas markets is whether Russia will escalate further by cutting supplies to other European countries.
On Wall Street, any upbeat expectations were dashed by a widespread sell-off triggered by mounting economic worries.
At the closing bell, the S&P 500 plunged 2.81% weighed by a 12% slump in the Tesla share price, with most sectors in the index down except energy.
The Dow Jones fell 2.38%, closing at its worst level since mid-March, dragged down by a steep decline in global consumer bellwether Nike. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq 100 plummeted 3.87%, re-entering into bear market territory and setting a new 2022 low amid widespread tech weakness.
There was no specific trigger for the rout, other than growing fears that the US economy is headed for a downturn on the assumption that the Fed’s aggressive tightening cycle in response to soaring inflation will strangle growth and undermine corporate profits in the future. Risk aversion was evident in the bond market, with Treasury prices higher across the board.
Asian stocks indices were mostly falling too. Japan’s Nikkei shed 1.25% whilst Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rebounded to trade in positive territory, up 0.5%.
The Shanghai Composite, meanwhile, rallied by more than 2%.


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What It’s Like Inside the Head of a Reactant Person
9:58 AM Tuesday June 1, 2010
by Andrew O’Connell | Comments (7View)
“When I was younger, I used to go to cocktail parties and listen to what people were talking about and deliberately insert myself into conversations to argue positions that I didn’t believe in but that seemed entertaining to advocate. Sometimes to the detriment of my friendships.”
This is Gavan Fitzsimons of Duke’s Fuqua school, speaking about trait reactance, an issue that’s central to his current research, vitally important to businesses — and personally important to him.
“The reason I got into studying reactance years ago as a doctoral student is that it’s an issue I struggle with — my family would say ‘suffer from,'” he says.
Reactance, a burgeoning field of social-psych study, refers to the backlash response to a perceived threat to freedom. You can provoke reactance a million ways: By limiting people’s choices, as Wal-Mart did when it wiped more than 300 familiar products off its shelves last year; by telling people that they have to pay a tax on tea, as the British Parliament did in 1773; and even by doling out expert advice, as countless climate-change activists have been doing (thus the recent finding that numerous people are rejecting the concept of global warming).
But not everyone responds to freedom threats with the same level of vehemence. The biggest backlash comes from people with high trait reactance, which is more or less a very sensitive you’re-trying-to-control-me internal meter. Highly reactant people do the opposite of what authority figures expect of them.
“One of the agreement-or-disagreement items in our kit for measuring trait reactance in research subjects is the statement ‘I find contradicting others stimulating,'” Fitzsimons says. “That’s classic trait reactance. And that’s me.”
People with high trait reactance boycott stores that annoy them. They dump tea in Boston Harbor. They stop believing climate-change experts. They also have a tendency to get themselves into trouble in organizations.
“Reactance can be costly for the individual, there’s no question,” Fitzsimons says. “But there are some real positives in an organization to having someone bristle against the path that everybody is following. If everyone is yea-saying, you really want a reactant person around to say ‘Hold on a second, this is ridiculous’ and push for considering alternatives.”
He adds: “Of course, if you have too many people saying that, it becomes problematic.”
One of the issues he’s planning to study is the impact of reactant people on teams. “Our speculation is that a mix of high-reactance and low-reactance people leads to better team outcomes. We hypothesize that an all-low-reactance team will converge too quickly on a consensus opinion, and an all-high team will battle too much. In fact, it’s quite possible that from a societal perspective, it’s good for populations to be a mixture of high- and low-reactance individuals.”
And it’s probably good for high-reactance people to marry low-reactance people. “Having two people who are both highly reactant seems like a recipe for disaster,” Fitzsimons says. He speaks from experience: His wife, he says, “has mastered the art of managing me.”
Andrew O’Connell is an editor with the Harvard Business Review Group.


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A press release from the Ministry of Tourism of Honduras states:
The Port of Amapala could become a shipping center for cruise passengers, reported the Honduran Minister of Tourism Nelly Jerez after a tour of the zone by the executives and the president of the Federation of Cruise Lines in Florida and the Caribbean FCCA, Michele Paige.
After the inspection these foreigners expressed their satisfaction with the island Isla del Tigre’s facilities and the destination could become an option in the medium-term.
Dr. Jerez explained that they will develop a Central American Route across the Pacific to link several countries in the region, embarking from that site travelling towards Costa Rica and Panama, and therefore taking advantage of the delights offered by each destination.
The Committee of this organization based in Miami, made up of Colin Murphy Vice President of Destinations of the Norwegian Cruise Lines, Jose Negron director of operations from Carnival, and Stephen Nielsen Vice President of Operations for Princess Cruises, left today for Omoa, Puerto Cortes and Trujillo to complete their tour of inspection.
Source: Secretaría de Turismo de Honduras
More on this topic
The Florida Caribbean Cruise Representatives Association (FCCA) wants to personally see sites that may be suitable for installing luxury cruise terminals in the future.
A high level delegation from the Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) will visit Honduras next week to learn about different locations in the Honduran Caribbean that could become luxury cruise terminals, revealed the Ministry of Tourism.
The ministers of tourism and major cruise lines agreed to explore a new route for CA, departing from Panama.
During the last Conference Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA), held in late October in the Dominican Republic, tourism authorities agreed not to set high taxes on cruise ships and in turn cruise lines will develop itineraries.
FCCA Central America Cruise Summit Guatemala Teaches Local Tourism Shareholders How to Optimize Cruise Industry's Benefits
Antigua Guatemala - A congregation of tourism shareholders-including government officials, tourism ministries, tour and port operators and more- and cruise executives from FCCA Member Lines gathered today in Antigua, Guatemala for the FCCA Central America Cruise Summit.
With an investment of $70 million, the construction of the Carnival’s cruise terminal on the island of Roatán is 80% complete.
The developers of Carnival’s pier hope to finish the Project by September.
According to Laprensahn.com, “The Project–which covers 75,000 square feet, includes a commercial area being built to quality specifications that enable it to withstand earthquakes and hurricanes-was visited by international representatives of the cruise industry that have been on the island since the weekend with the purpose of attending the meeting of the Federation of Cruise Lines of the Caribbean and Florida, FCCA.