THE hotel owner GPT has announced that its earnings for the full 2008 financial year, to December 31, will be down by 27 per cent on the previous year.

The downgrade was due to the increasing risk of a major credit crunch

GPT who are owners of the largest hotel in the country, by room number - Four Points at Darling Harbour - and the Ayers Rock Resort. Occupancy rates for both are down because of the high Australian dollar discouraging international visitors and high petrol prices, which are keeping domestic tourists at home.

In its latest report on hotels, CB Richard Ellis's hotel's business and marketing analyst, Nathan Wiltshire, said that over the past 12 months much had been made of the turmoil facing tourism.

"Local tourism industries are said to be facing a substantial challenge in the face of a high Australian dollar that is pushing Australians overseas for their holidays, while helping dissuade foreigners from making the opposite journey," he said.

"Add to this high inflation, including record fuel prices, increasing interest rates, and negativity surrounding the global liquidity crisis and you could be easily forgiven for thinking the floor is about to fall out from under Australia's major hotel markets."

A lack of supply will help underpin Sydney's market. Mr Wiltshire said about 810 new rooms would be added to Sydney's total in the next 18 months, representing an additional 4 per cent. The inner-city, which represents 76 per cent of the total rooms, will have an increase in supply of just 1 per cent.

"This lack of new supply in the nation's biggest tourist destination, Sydney, is assisting in stifling both domestic and international visitor number and visitor night growth," he said.

"Additionally, this has implications for business by hindering the city's ability to service the substantial corporate travel sector."

Colliers International's national director, hotels and leisure, Michael Thomson, said the latest hotel figures showed Perth remained the most popular state, because of the mining boom, with revenue per available room increasing by 17.1 per cent to $114.03.

Sydney once again achieved the highest room rates in Australia, he said, with the average room rate increasing by 4.9 per cent over 12 months to an average price per room of $182.30. Sydney's occupancy was 81.5 per cent, and in Melbourne it was 80.9 per cent.

Canberra also experienced strong room rate growth, increasing by 10.4 per cent to $134.31 over the year.

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For all your Hotels in Torquay and Torquay Hotels
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Travelodge, one of the UK's fastest growing budget hotel company, today announces the acquisition of two hotels from Swallow Hotels, and the exchange on a further five hotels for a combined investment total of £69.9 million.

All seven of the buildings, which will follow Travelodges preferred leasehold model, are located in England, Scotland and Wales, and will add 669 rooms to the company's portfolio.

Travelodge are planning to invest £5 million in refurbishing and branding the Swallow Hotel located in Scarborough and, pending planning permission, invest £2 million converting the Swallow Hotel in Edinburgh. Both hotels will be trading under the Travelodge brand by early 2009.

Of the total £69.9m, £34.5m will be invested in the remaining five hotels, which are located in London Finsbury Park, Porthmadog, Gloucester, Caernarfon and Egham.

Paul Harvey, Travelodge's Property Director, said: "As price and location continue to drive consumer behavior we are seeing customers shift to budget hotel accommodation. These new hotels, in some of the top UK tourist spots, will add nearly 700 new rooms to our portfolio - helping us to make hotels available to more people than ever before.

"We continue to actively seek and pursue, new development and growth opportunities are looking to open a further 4000 new rooms in 2009".

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For all your Hotels in Torquay and Torquay Hotels
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MACAU - After winning a major legal battle last week, Stanley Ho's Sociedade de Juegos de Macau (SJM), will finally list this Wednesday on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

SJM's IPO was set last Wednesday but Ho's estranged sister, Winnie Ho Yuen-ki, filed an injuction to stop the listing arguing that the listing should not be allowed since a pending litigation between her and SJM's parent company, Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau (STDM).

However, the HK court presided by Justice Anselmo Reyes, ruled that the female Ho "had no grounds to halt the listing and that it was ironic for her to seek an injunction" since for Ho to uphold HK's public policy against gambling is contradictory to her reaping the rewards that gambling is giving her and her company.

Unfortunately for SJM though, despite the court ruling on their favour, they had to delay the listing of the company for legal reasons. Nevertheless, SJM expressed delight over the decision.

"We are happy with the verdict," said SJM CEO Ambrose So Shu-fai."SJM will proceed to list on July 16."

He further said that the delay in the listing was take to protect the interest of investors and "give them an option to further consider the circumstances."

"No retail investors have cancelled their orders," Mr. So said. "And I am not worried about the response from institutional investors as they are very familiar with our company and should know about the legal charges."

The billionaire casino magnate Stanley Ho and sister Winnie Ho had a falling out sometime in 2001 and since then, Winnie has filed a total 37 lawsuits in Hong Kong and Macau against her brother and SJM.

Prior to the current sibling feud, Winnie Ho worked for STDM for 25 years and retains a stake in STDM.

MACAU / HONG KONG -- Market sources said that a secondary listing in Hong Kong might just be what casino magnate, Steve Wynn, needs to finally get his ambitious Cotai Strip project underway.

Wynn's company, which operates Wynn Macau in the former British colony, is aiming to raise about US$3 billion should a secondary listing prove feasible. UBS, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley have been contracted to arrange the transaction according to market sources.

Further market sources believe that funds raised from the listing will be used to finance a resort on a 21.04 hectare waterfront land on the Cotai strip that the Macau government has tentatively reserved for Wynn. The location is between the Melco Crown Entertainment's City of Dreams project and the Macau International Airport.

While actual work has yet to get started, Mr. Wynn has expressed his plans for his Cotai resort on several occasions including plans to develop an all-suite luxury resort with 1,500 to 1,800 hotel rooms.

"We're in design development very intensely now on Cotai ... I'm not done yet," Mr. Wynn was quoted. "But I'm dying to finish the job and get it to where I'm ready to price it and break ground."

Check out this blog posting on the radioon station site I do a show for.... It is the ONLY end result in 2008 for Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers

http://www.team990.com/blog/view/article/brett_favre_will_start_rodgers_will_be_moved/

Más adelante, y ya no hablando de maravillas naturales, en el centro de la ciudad hay atracciones turísticas hechas principalmente para los niños, aunque para los adultos hay dos casinos. Yo no fui, la verdad no me interesaba. Al único lugar que fui, fue a la tienda de chocolates Hersheys. Mmmm chocolate!

Bueno, se acaba la primer semana y faltan tres. Seguimos reportando y disfrutando. Ciao! Les dejo el link de la wikipedia si quieren leer más de las cataratas.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

My buddy Gisela and I have been e-mailing on a consistent basis and also talking on the phone a few times.  I love to hear her laugh!  She is such an animated and funny gal!  She wrote me something the other day which I would like to address at this blog, because it is something I, too, felt once and I am sure many other compulsive gamblers do as well.

"I always say: not TODAY. Thats all I can do. I am still afraid of saying: NEVER."

How true, how true!!! That was EXACTLY me at one point when I was still gambling.  That little fear was like a little pin prick in the back of my brain somewhere, everytime I considered stopping.  That's what made me never stop permanently before.  I would be all gung-ho about quitting, and quitting for good!  And not 60 seconds after making that "resolution", I would feel the inevitable pin prick - not hard enough to make me give up my "resolution" at the moment, but enough to make me uneasy about the future.

Now that I am no longer gambling, I can finally understand that the "pin prick" was, in essance, only a mirage in my brain.  Think about when you are driving on a hot road.  Up ahead, you see a shiny reflection  on the pavement that appears to be water.  You ARE actually seeing "something" but it is only your brain working in its mysterious ways...

You keep on driving and lo and behold, you realize there is no water on the road up ahead.

This is how I like to think of the "pin prick" in your brain.    You ARE actually feeling something, but just like the water on the road, it is only your brain working in mysterious ways.  And until you drive down the road towards a gamble-free-life, you will never get close enough to realize that your fear (although it feels real) is actually.... nothing.  It is a just mirage.   "Never" is not as scary as you think it is!   Just the reverse - it brings so manny new blessings and wonderful opportunities into your life!

I keep a personal journal in addition to this blog.  Today I was reflecting why this time around, quitting has been entirely an entirely different expereince for me .  Why have I now been able to stop - for good - when so many other times I just failed, no matter how good my intentions were?

It dawned on me that this time, it was not about stopping the physical act of gambling.  It was about stopping the LIFESTYLE of gambling.  The lies.  The cover-ups.  The long road trips. The endless cycle of bounced checks.  Running every two weeks to the payday store.  Never allowing myself to enjoy simple material things. Robbing Peter to pay Paul.  Berating myself at every turn..... the list goes on and on. 

Amazingly, once I realized I wanted to stop the LIFESTYLE, by default the gambling ceased to be an issue for me.  I didn't have to fight the fight anymore because I was 100% through with living "that way"...  And as a result, if gambling wasn't going to happen anymore,  then.... oh well!!  Too bad!!

Thus, I finally realized (aha!!) that it wasn't gambling per se that was causing the misery I was experiencing in my life... it was the lifestyle I built around it in order to feed the addiction!!  Thinking about this today was another "aha" moment.  I've had so many amazing "aha" moments ever since quitting, and each one is as new and exciting as the first!

~Mingtha

Elsewhere on this blog, I have published a review of Peter Sagal's The Book of Vice: Very Naught Things (And How to Do Them). The host of NPR's "Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me" has written a funny, amusing, and at times even a bit insightful, book on the worlds of swinging, gambling, adult entertainment, conspicuous consumption, and more. Click here to read the review, or see the links at the top of this page.

(nella foto: Capitano carabinieri Salvatore Vitiello decorato con Croce Pace da Agnese Ginocchio. A seguire da destra: il maresciallo dei carabinieri Colarusso, il presidente della Comunità Montana del Matese Fabrizio Pepe, Il presidente del consiglio della comunità montana del Matese Marco Fusco )

Alife (ce) - "Mentre c'è chi non risparmia fatiche per lavorare affinché prevalgano azioni di Pace e di Giustizia, c'é invece chi non perde occasione per concedersi al vizio e abbandonare così se stesso alla devianza mentale più profonda, tutto per uno sporco gioco di interessi". Read the rest of this page »

Yay! The 1st time i strike 4D!!!

Though it's only Starters Prize and I've bet just small amount for fun while helping Ai Ai buy hers last Saturday!

I'll consider that some extra 'Lucky' money. So all these amount of money came just in time, and it's just enough to buy Bert & Ai the Air Tickets to Perth, Aussie :) I'm sure Dad & Mum is gonna enjoy this pre-planned trip later on.

and of cos, to buy a little gift for my dear son, Shiro too! The number is actually inspired by him!

So this little prize makes everyone a bit happier today! :)