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The Essex tourism industry was under the spotlight recently, crowning the jewels of the county at the annual Visit Essex Tourism Awards. Radisson Blu Hotel London Stansted Airport was nominated in two categories and won the award in both, being named ‘Best Large Hotel’ and ‘Best Business Tourism Hotel’ on the night. 

First launched in 2009, the Visit Essex Tourism Awards were designed to showcase the professionalism and popularity of the county's attractions and amenities. Visit Essex, the official tourism body for the county, has been working in partnership with Archant to deliver the Awards and to provide businesses and organisations with the opportunity to promote themselves as quality establishments giving excellent service and great experiences to their visitors. 

The 500 bedroom hotel, which also offers 26 flexible meeting spaces, three restaurants and the 13 metre Angel’s Wine Tower, had to provide justification of why it should receive these awards and in return the judges visited the hotel to determine its unique attributes that put it in the running for these two awards. Judges were clearly impressed by the product and training processes in place at the hotel. 

“We are delighted to win these two awards. This is fantastic recognition for our hotel and an excellent motivation for our team”, remarked Jens Hallman, General Manager. “The awards recognise the Radisson Blu as the hotel of reference in our county for all kind of business and in particular business tourism which is key to the development and success of our hotel”.

As the school summer holidays end and thoughts turn to winter escapes, Stansted is gearing up with new ski links, additional winter sun destinations and new flights to the African Continent.      

Ryanair will bring Bulgaria's increasingly popular Bansko ski region closer to home in November with new flights to Plovdiv, and Air Berlin will launch services to Salzburg in December, landing passengers on the doorstep of some of Austria's best Alpine ski resorts.      

EasyJet are also heating things up with increased frequencies to Alicante, Bilbao and Nice this winter, and December will welcome the start of Serenity Holidays new services to The Gambia and Cape Verde.  

"Despite the difficult economic climate, it's encouraging to see our airline partners introducing new routes and extra flights, giving passengers even greater choice when deciding where they might want to head away to this winter," said Nick Barton, Commercial and Development Director at London Stansted Airport.

"AirAsia X's onward connections to Bali, Phuket, Perth and Brisbane will be popular once again with those looking to escape the cold British winter, and we're delighted The Gambia and Cape Verde join our route network, connecting Stansted to these tropical retreats in just six hours flying time."    

For further information visit www.stanstedairport.com

The Government has announced details of how it will remove the default retirement age of 65 permitted by the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006.  It proposes to begin phasing out the DRA from April 2011.  The proposals are subject to a consultation which will run from now until 21 October 2010.  The new plans allow for a six month transition from the existing regulations, following the announcement in the Budget that the DRA would be phased out from April 2011.  The intention is to enable and encourage people to work longer if they wish to and in response to the demographic change which is seeing people live longer.  The Government is also committed to help employers by removing the administrative burden of the current DRA associated retirement procedure “right to request working beyond retirement”. 

The consultation asks whether the Government could provide additional support for individuals and employers in managing without the DRA or statutory retirement procedure.  This includes the possibility of future guidance or a more formal code of practice on handling retirement discussions. 

Views are also being sought on whether the removal of the DRA could have unintended consequences for insured benefits and employee share plans. 

From 6 April 2011 employers will not be able to issue any notifications for compulsory retirement using the DRA procedure.  Between 6 April and 01 October 2011, only people who were notified before 6 April, and whose retirement date is before 01 October can be compulsorily retired using the DRA.  After 01 October 2011, employers will not be able to use the DRA to compulsorily retire employees. If the employer wishes to use retirement ages they will have to be able to demonstrate that they are objectively justified. Some Examples of jobs where this could possibly be applied include air traffic controllers and police officers.  

For more information please contact Simonne McIvor on 01279 758080.