Dateline Monday 3rd July 2023

Good morning, happy Monday, I hope you are fit and well and that you had a great weekend regardless of the rather cool “summer” weather I say summer in inverted commons because it was more like a spring day temperature wise, when the sun came out from behind the clouds it was hot but that didn’t happen too often, and the wind was chilly a bit like this morning.

The news from Paris is getting better 😊, the news from Israel is getting worse ☹ the news from Ukraine is pretty much the same, all the news in those areas of the world could be described as tragic. Fire, destruction and death and nothing will be solved, once it has calmed down it will go back to normal until maybe the next time.

Wimbledon starts today, my late Mum’s favourite two weeks of the year, when I went to visit her I wasn’t able to talk to Mum until the game was over and the players were switching ends, then a two minute conversation until the ball was in play then silence. The conversation would start with Mum talking about the tennis well it was only for two weeks of the year. Only once did I get to take Mum to Wimbledon that was the year Boris Becker won his first Wimbledon title and we saw him play an amazing match.

I am not much of a cricket fan but I watched the highlights as there was some controversy after England's Jonny Bairstow was controversially stumped by Australia wicketkeeper Alex Carey. After that incident Ben Stokes came to bat and you could see he was annoyed at the decision by the way he aggressively played even more aggressively than normal hitting the ball to the boundary several times while chalking up100+ runs.

It’s the summer so the news is rather slow I guess that is a good thing.

And that’s it, you are up to date from a David point of view.

MM and Company news update

The Meeting Show at Excel was last week it was great seeing and working with Nassos from AME DMC Group Greece Jyoti of Travco DMC Dubai Abu Dhabi and Oman Stephane of Hello Islands DMC Mauritius Eva of Cornerstone Meeting DMC part of Germanyinsight Muge of Blue DMC Turkey

According to Sandra who was Scan Sandra for two day in charge of scanning the visitor badges we had 72 genuine visitors to the stand lots of people we knew, some we didn’t know, some new to the C&I industry and some even from different parts of Europe that came to see a number of our DMCs

It was a busy week it was a TERRIFIC week. All the DMCs joined me for a really fun dinner in a terrific Italian restaurant in Soho on Tuesday night, on Wednesday night Nassos of AME DMC Greece and I entertained a great client who has a big group confirmed for Athens in September with Nassos then on Thursday evening I met up with some out of town clients for drinks. On Friday evening Muge and her husband Hakan who were staying in London for the weekend join us at home for a traditional Friday night dinner. All the other DMC personal had left London for their home destination.

New York

Beth and the team at Details NYC have told us that The Nobu organisation is to develop Plaza Athénée hotel in New York. Nobu and will re launch the hotel under the Plaza Athénée brand. The New York property is located in the historical Upper East Side near Central Park, museums, consulates, and high-end shopping. The hotel is scheduled to open in 2026, Set in a building that’s almost a century old, the Plaza Athénée Nobu & Spa New York will represent Nobu’s inaugural hotel in New York. The property will offer 145 keys, indoor and outdoor glassed terraces and gazebos, a townhouse, a traditional Japanese onsen, spa and wellness centre. The hotel will offer a Nobu omakase experience as well as a bar and lounge, and a rooftop area for private parties.

THE EXCITING NEWS FROM MM AND COMPANY CONTINUES

I told you last week that MM and Company has agreed in principle to represent DELTA DMC who we have known and successfully worked with for well over 10 years lead by Alexandra and Andreas based in Amsterdam but working throughout The Netherlands.

Amsterdam and DELTA DMC featured on the exhibition stand at The Meeting Show and we received a new request as a result of their DMC Destination being featured on the stand at The Meeting Show this bodes well for a great long relationship with the DELTA DMC team.