Daily Archives: January 25, 2021

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Private Islands, Richard Vanhoff, has had diverse business background with his early career starting in the media working with one of Australias leading TV stations and then eventually moving to radio. Through these two major media agencies, Richard met the crme of international artists and personalities.

This provided access to the rich and famous, which brought with it a plethora of contacts that inspired the development of his real estate career with his wife Narelle.

Richard and Narelle lived on one ofAustralias best-known resorts, Hamilton Island, for over 17 years with the Beatles George Harrison as one of their neighbours on Hamilton Island. Richard again was introduced to some of the worlds best musicians and international celebrities. This furthered his and Narelles passion for sales and in particular islands and island resorts, using these well-established contacts over the last 20 years as a foundation of their client network.

Richard and Narelle have received many international and Australian awards for achieving the highest gross commission sales, which included the sale of Great Keppel Island, Pumpkin Island, Long Island & Bamborough Island just to name a few. As a single real estate agent, Richard can comfortably state that he has sold and negotiated the sale of some of themost exotic island properties in the Pacific.

Originally posted here:

Private Islands Online Australia

We recently released our annual travel industry trends forecast, Skift Megatrends 2025. Because of the havoc that the pandemic triggered, we wrote Travel Megatrends 2025 as a vision of how travel industry dynamics could play out five years from now. You can read about each of the trends on Skift, or download a copy here.

Years after overtourism became a pressing issue, followed by the cruise-shaming trend that emerged post-Covid, crowds are back on megaships in 2025, and cruise lines returned to generating billion-dollar earnings. But the nature of the cruise industrys business model had to undergo major shifts to make that happen.

The worlds biggest cruise companies have been recouping their extensive losses up until this point by merging with other lines for greater efficiency. The result? Big ships offer roller coasters on their decks and additional outsized activities continue to surface to help drive up onboard revenue. Ports of call are fewer, as cruise lines reduce their dependence on them, and instead focus on the growth of their private islands, particularly in the Caribbean.

Why offer shore excursions when one can sail to ones own private beaches while keeping 100 percent of the revenue in cruise coffers? Besides, the lines still lure cruisers with the promise of safety bubbles on these private islands, and many prefer staying put at sea rather than venturing into multiple ports.

Destinations that were once heavily dependent on big ships are dealing with fewer port calls, and focusing on niche offerings from smaller lines. These niche cruise players emerged from the cheap post-Covid divestiture and sale of older ships that debuted in the 2000s. Its a repeat of what we saw in the 1990s, when there were some upstarts bringing on vintage ships and offering niche kinds of products, said Ross Klein, a veteran cruise industry expert and professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

The travel bucket list isnt going anywhere port cities that faced overtourism pre-Covid continue to face the conundrum of whether to reject tourist crowds in 2025 after suffering a debilitating multiyear downturn. Theyre using innovative ways to control the crowds, such as higher day-tripper fees like the ones Venice approved back in 2020.

Whats for sure? 2025 is greener. More people are willing to be sensitive to environmental issues and not rebel at the notion that perhaps theres something wrong with cruising and it has a negative effect on the environment, said Jim Walker, a Florida-based maritime attorney who runs Cruise Law News. One of the biggest environmental fights that cruise lines continue to face in 2025 is their use of scrubbers, long found to cause cancer-linked discharge in ports, pollute waters, and otherwise negatively impact marine life.

Port citizens in North America and Europe, in particular, with localized movements and solid political partnerships, are making more headway in the passing of environmental legislation banning scrubbers. But the influence of broad-based coalitions such as the Global Cruise Activist Network, born during Covid, remains uncertain.

If past history is an insight, the activism will continue losing some of its potency, Klein said, explaining the power of the cruise industry to push back against these efforts. After all, Key West, Floridas big win against mass cruising back in 2020 resulted from decades of militant activism that began in 2003.

Meanwhile, 2025s headlines report that the cruise industrys major players are making financial gains. Those funds will come in handy for the heap of looming environmental bans and regulations, potentially signaling the beginning of the end of megaships.

Download Your Copy of Skift Travel Megatrends 2025

Skift Megatrends 2025 is made possible by our parters: Abu Dhabi Convention & Exhibition Bureau, Accor, and American Express.

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Photo Credit: Windstar Cruises crew source vegetables at a market in Mallorca, Spain. Windstar Cruises

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Travel Megatrends 2025: Cruise Lines Take Refuge in Their Private Islands - Skift

The MSC Grandiosa will set sail again in the western Mediterranean on Sunday, January 24th, following a month-long pause. The ship was the first to start operating in southern Europe last August, but was forced to take a break when the Italian government tightened travel restrictions in the pre-Christmas period.

As the number of active cases in Italy has declined in recent weeks, the government has loosened the rules again.

A press statement from MSC Cruises read: Following the latest ministerial decree issued by the Italian government and related updated health measures, the companys flagship will resume her planned weekly cruises leaving every Sunday from Genoa, Italy and calling on other Italian ports of Civitavecchia, Naples, and Palermo, as well as Valetta in Malta.

While cruises departing from North American ports have been suspended since March 2020, MSC was able to restart last summer with two Italy-based ships. The line worked closely with government officials to develop comprehensive health and safety protocols, both on the ship and during shore excursions.

READ MORE: Europe-Based MSC Cruises Plans Cruisings Biggest Expansion

The latest ministerial decree authorised the resumption of cruise operations under the protection of the unique health and safety protocol that had been developed with and authorised by the Italian health, transport and safety authorities last summer, the MSC statement added. Since then, MSC Cruises has safely welcomed over 30,000 guests on board its two ships based out of Italy.

As the worlds largest privately-owned cruise line and one with a massive expansion plan over the next several years MSC hopes to use the knowledge gained in Europe to streamline its North American restart once guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention are finally made clear.

Were leveraging the fact that we were the first ones to start operating in Southern Europe to set the tone on how to operate a safe cruise, Ken Muskat, EVP and COO of MSC Cruises (USA) told Cruise Industry News.

It is expected that many of the initiatives MSC has taken, including universal testing, social distancing, closely-monitored excursions, and shorter itineraries, will be part of North American rules as well.

READ MORE: 15 Tips for Visiting Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve

When it can restart here, MSC will have three ships based in the Florida ports of Miami and Port Canaveral. Initial plans are for short cruises of three, four, and seven nights, with MSCs private destination Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve playing a key role. The line says the same health and safety protocols will be in place on the island as they are on its ships.

Unlike some other private islands, Ocean Cay, which opened in December 2019, features programming that extends late into the evening, adding diversity to the experience. As well as sunning, swimming, and water sports during the day, evening events including a Bahamian-style Junkanoo parade and a dazzling light show projected from the islands lighthouse.

READ MORE: MSC Cruises Releases Summer 2022 Schedule

Geneva, Switzerland-based MSC Cruises is planning the largest single expansion in the industry, with a dozen ships on order from 2021-2027. These include four 5,400-passenger, liquefied natural gas-powered mega-ships, the largest ever for a Europe-based cruise line. The plan represents a massive investment of $11.3 billion dollars and will add nearly 45,000 berths to the lines fleet.

Late this year, MSC plans to begin sailing the MSC Seashore from Miami. The brand-new, 4,560-passenger ship promises the highest ratio of outdoor space per guest in the companys fleet.

MSC has suspended cruises from U.S. ports through March 31, 2021. At present, its first scheduled voyage is a three-night sailing out of Port Canaveral on April 1, with a stop at Ocean Cay.

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MSC Grandiosa to Resume Cruising Southern Europe on January 24 - Cruise Radio

The shuffling of diplomats around the UKs Caribbean territories rarely makes much of a splash. But Gus Jaspert ensured his last days as governor of the British Virgin Islands would be remembered.

In an emotional Facebook video post to the BVIs 30,000 inhabitants, he accused the countrys government of overseeing a plague of corruption, interfering in the criminal justice system and attempting to silence anyone who raised concerns about the misuse of funds, including 30m given by the UK to help the islands fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Jaspert claimed that the BVI government had deliberately delayed legal reforms and hindered local inquiries into a string of corruption allegations including 5m spent on a non-existent airline and nearly 1m on building a short wall around a school. Tens of millions more spent on a hospital and a cruise ship dock are in question. Citing concerns about organised crime, he mentioned $250m (180m) of cocaine seized from the home of a police officer last year.

Amid reports that the EU is getting ready to blacklist the BVI as a tax haven, the career civil servant who for a time served as private secretary to Britains former prime minister David Cameron had a message for BVIs citizens: Your voices have been heard. We have received the message loud and clear the people of BVI want better.

The allegations will now be examined in a commission of inquiry, a formal process overseen by a British high court judge. Jaspert is acting with the backing of Dominic Raab, the British foreign secretary, who issued a written statement saying the UK had a constitutional and moral duty to protect the interests of the people of BVI.

The surprise move has plunged the BVI into a constitutional crisis, and the coming months could determine whether these islands sever the last of their ties with the British crown.

The BVI exports rum and fruit, and hundreds of thousands of tourists disembark each year from yachts and cruise liners to bask on its white sand beaches, but more than half of government receipts come from the financial sector.

Around 400,000 offshore companies are registered in the BVI. While most ordinary citizens will never need to park money in a tax haven, the Panama Papers and successive data leaks have revealed just how widely used they are by the rich and famous. The anonymity they provide also appeals to shady oligarchs and corrupt despots.

BVI businesses are black boxes, with no public register of their owners and no duty to publish accounts or pay taxes. Many hold property. In London alone, the real estate held by BVI shells is worth billions of pounds.

The BVI is an overseas territory, where the Queen remains head of state and the judicial committee of the privy council in London is still the court of final appeal. Following recent clashes over UK legislation designed to limit its activities as a tax haven, the number of incorporations has plummeted and many on these islands are now calling for greater independence.

Is this a prelude on a pre-step to the United Kingdom coming in and taking over? Claude O Skelton-Cline, a well-known BVI talk radio host, asked last week. A paid government consultant, Skelton-Clines views are though to be aligned with many of those in the higher echelons of BVI politics.

His fears are not unfounded. In 2009 the UK suspended the constitution of the Turks and Caicos and assumed day-to-day control, after a commission of inquiry found widespread corruption.

Victor Bulmer-Thomas, a fellow at Chatham House and Caribbean expert, said the situation looks very much like a rerun of the Turks and Caicos crisis a few years ago and is a reminder of how vulnerable the overseas territories are to the actions of unscrupulous individuals.

He believes Westminster may have been prompted to intervene by reports that the EU plans to exploit Brexit by adding the nation to its list of tax havens. The sanction is largely symbolic, although banks could in future be reluctant to hold accounts for companies in blacklisted jurisdictions.

As Brexit continues to shake the foundations of Britains foreign relations, its ability to protect its territories from censure has been diminished. The onus is now on Raab to convince the EU that corruption will be stamped out.

Sir Gary Hickinbottom, whose experience includes a period as a supreme court judge in the Falkland Islands, has been chosen as the man for the job. He has already arrived on the main island of Tortola, where he gave a press conference on Friday. He has until July to make recommendations for action, including whether criminal proceedings should be brought against individuals.

For its part, the BVI government had been due to review its constitutional relationship with the UK later this year. Officials had talked of moving to a model of free association with the old colonial power, which would mean having a political alliance with the UK but more independent governance.

In 2018 a cross-party coalition of Westminster MPs led by the Labour politician Margaret Hodge and her Conservative colleague Andrew Mitchell won parliamentary support for legislation obliging the BVI and other UK dependencies to publish the names of shell company owners in public registers.

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Islanders took to the streets in protest, branding Hodge a modern-day imperialist. The slogans held aloft by the crowd made no bones about it: No imperial legislation; You chained us, didnt sustain us, now you constrain us; and Racist UK.

This weeks shocking revelations that corruption may be rife in the BVI are a shameful indictment of the tax haven model, Hodge said. It is clear that an economy based on secrecy and low taxes is a recipe for bad governance, corruption, and criminality.

In a statement, the BVI premier, Andrew Fahie, said he welcomed the commission of inquiry, but appeared to suggest local inquiries into the allegations should be completed before the Hickinbottom investigation can begin. It is only after these stages of the process are completed and investigations deemed inconclusive would the way be paved for a commission of inquiry. This has always been the process followed because it is the only process that allows for good governance to function in a manner that keeps the tenets of democracy sacred, he said.

Jaspert is being replaced this month by the governor of Bermuda, after four years in post. Signing off from his Facebook video address before packing up his bags in Government House, the official residence of the governor, he implored islanders to get involved with the inquiry. It will be your opportunity to shape the way things are done and help put things right for the next generation.

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British Virgin Islands at a crossroads as outgoing governor decries corruption - The Guardian

Jan. 23, 2021Updated: Jan. 23, 2021 11p.m.

The Islands of Rockport offers luxury waterfront living with views, amenities. Located on Estes Flats, one of the most famous fishing waters on the Gulf Coast and directly on the Intracoastal waterway, world-class fishing and boating is right outside residents back doors.Within proximity to the culturally rich downtown Rockport, The Islands of Rockport offers modern luxury.

At the Islands of Rockport, home-side private docks and wide canals provide residents instant access to the waters of Estes Flats/Redfish Bay. Located directly on the Intracoastal waterway and within proximity to the open waters of the Gulf, every home is custom-built with a southern coastal architectural design creating the casual, relaxed elegance of the community.

Spacious private boat docks, a clubhouse and pool are nestled in the serene gated community. Brought together by a common vision of the good life, residents of The Islands of Rockport enjoy living among water-loving neighbors who happily open their doors and docks to enjoy food and drinks as they share the days fish tales. Good neighbors become great friends, connected by water and brought together by the shared experience of living the coastal lifestyle in a gated community.

The Development was designed with the highest quality canal system, high property elevations and pristine water quality. A boating and birding paradise, Phase I is finalizing completion and in 2021 The Islands of Rockport is rolling out Phase II expanding the community.

Open seven days a week. Call 361-255-3223 to make an appointment for a private tour or visit http://www.TheIOR.com for more information.

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The Islands of Rockport spotlights modern luxury (Sponsored) - Chron