Australia will reduce the number of visas issued to skilled migrants for the first time in 10 years to protect jobs in an economy teetering on recession.

The skilled visa intake will be cut by 18,500, or 14 percent, to 115,000 this year from 133,500 forecast in December as the global financial crisis puts pressure on the labor market, Immigration Minister Chris Evans said in an e-mailed statement.

“We don’t want people coming in who are going to compete with Australians for limited jobs,” Evans said in the statement today. The government will also remove builders, plumbers, carpenters and steel welders from the critical skills list.

Australia’s economy unexpectedly shrank 0.5 percent last quarter from the previous three months, the first decline since 2000. The jobless rate in February rose to 5.2 percent from 4.8 percent as companies fired full-time workers and the government forecasts the unemployment rate will reach 7 percent in the year ending June 30, 2010.

Pacific Brands Ltd., Australia’s biggest underwear maker, and raw material producers including BHP Billiton Ltd. are among companies firing workers as consumers cut spending and the global financial crisis deepens.

“Australia still needs to maintain a skilled migration program but one that is more targeted so that migrant workers are meeting skills shortages and not competing with locals for jobs,” Evans said.

Government Spending

To curb job losses, the government will spend A$42 billion ($28 billion) on cash handouts to households and on infrastructure. The central bank last month cut its benchmark lending rate to a 45-year low of 3.25 percent.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s package announced Feb. 3 aims to create 90,000 jobs in the next 18 months while a A$10.4 billion stimulus announced in October would create 70,000 jobs, according to the government’s Web site.

“The global financial crisis means the outlook for employment has changed dramatically,” Employment Minister Julia Gillard told parliament in Canberra. “Our visa scheme should meet skills shortages and not compete with locals for jobs.”
Source :Bloomberg

A Hilton subsidiary has entered into an agreement with Sun Travels and Tours, to manage the Hilton Maldives/Iru Fushi Resort & Spa. A conversion hotel project, the property currently known as the Irufushi Beach & Spa Resort is scheduled to open as a Hilton Worldwide Resort in July 2009.

Martin Rinck, President Hilton Hotels Corporation – Asia Pacific, said, “The beauty of the Maldives, its pristine white beaches, turquoise waters and fascinating underwater world continues to entice yachting and diving enthusiasts, spa seekers and honeymooners looking for an island hideaway. This is one of the most exotic and idyllic island destinations in the world, and we are delighted to add the Hilton flag to the Conrad brand already present.”

Comprising 220 villas, the Hilton Maldives/Iru Fushi Resort & Spa will sprawl over 52 acres of powdery white sands and abundant tropical vegetation on Medhafushi which is nestled within the unspoiled Noonu Atoll.

The resort will offer a range of room options, from beach villas that open onto private shores and are surrounded by rich tropical foliage, to over-water villas with private whirlpools and sundecks from which guests can take in uninterrupted views across the Indian Ocean.

Four unique restaurants will enable guests to embark on an epicurean journey during their stay. From an alfresco restaurant with live stations and grills serving freshly caught seafood to a fine dining restaurant blending local and international flavours. A selection of distinctive bars and an over water wine cellar will allow guests to unwind with beverages and watch the famous Maldivian sunsets.

Located approximately 60 kilometres north of Malé International Airport, the resort is easily accessed by a 45-minute seaplane flight.

A spa sanctuary with 21 private spa pavilions will be complemented by a fitness centre, swimming pool, tennis courts and a range of water sport activities, while book lovers can curl up at the resort library and Internet cafe.

Famed for its beautiful and rare underwater reefs, warm water temperatures and high visibility, the Maldives enjoys a reputation as one of the best diving destinations in the world. The Hilton Maldives will have a diving centre on property to enable guests to learn to scuba dive with qualified trainers as well as enable dive enthusiasts to make the most of their experience of the house reef and crystal clear waters of Noonu Atoll. Over 30 dive sites are available to explore within an hour from the island, all with an abundance of marine life and a rich variety of colourful corals.

“We’re thrilled to welcome the Hilton Maldives/Iru Fushi Resort & Spa to our portfolio,” said Jeff Diskin, senior vice president – Brand Management, Hilton Hotels & Resorts. “This beautiful location, coupled with our unique brand of Hilton hospitality is sure to make this hotel a favorite among the world’s travellers.”

The management contract will further enhance Hilton Hotels’ presence in the Maldivian archipelago, where the company will have several of its Hilton Family of Hotels Brands. The Hilton Maldives will build on the success of the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island which opened in 1997 (originally as a Hilton hotel before being rebranded to the Conrad in 2007). The Doubletree by Hilton Malé is also scheduled to open in the Republic’s capital, Malé, in 2011.
Source: asiatraveltips

catch Mr.Namal Rajapaksa the Chairman of Tharunyata Hetak speech at Super Sports 2009!

The latest survey on the apparel sector in Sri Lanka shows that the industry has been steadily shrinking since 2005.

The findings showed that from mid-2005 to now, 75 factories in seven provinces have closed down. From these, around 24 factories have shut in the past six months. These factories were mainly located in the Free Trade Zones of Katunayake, Biyagama, Koggala and Seethawaka.

The findings also show that many major foreign buyers of Sri Lankan garments have closed their offices in Sri Lanka within the past three years and taken their orders to other countries.

The main reason for this shift in business is the comparatively higher cost of production in Sri Lanka.
(Source: www.just-style.com – Latest News)

Hotel rooms that can access everything from your favorite food to your musical preferences- while running on technology that’s clever enough to repair itself-might sound like a page torn right out of a pulp sci-fi novel. It isn’t.
Hotels are doing it today, and many more are on the verge of implementing these innovative technologies. If you’re a guest at one of these forward-looking properties, get ready for a completely different kind of experience-one in which technology anticipates your every need and gives it to you without you ever having to ask.

And it isn’t just hotels that are leveraging these new tools to their advantage; so are theme parks, restaurants, and casinos. The overall effects of these new tools on the hospitality business promises to be far-reaching. From the perspective of a hotel, casino, or restaurant, these important advances have the potential to create more efficient and profitable businesses, and make your business more appealing to guests.

Here are the five biggest technology trends in the hospitality industry.

1. No more “20 questions” at check-in.

Remember all those queries when you pick up your room key, such as, What kind of newspaper do you prefer? Would you like a poolside or oceanside room? Asking such questions eats up hotel employees’ valuable time and, after a while, guests get tired of answering them. New customer relationship management (CRM) tools allow a hotel to gather guest preference information from various systems at property level and distribute them throughout the company. So your hotel knows what you like, right away.

For example, one hotel chain asks guests signing up for its loyalty program to fill out a preferences questionnaire that is entered into its CRM system at the property level. The information can be made available for any hotel in the chain that the guest checks in to, while the CRM system itself is still maintained locally, at the property level. (This is made possible by merging the property level CRM data with the larger CRM system held at the headquarters-level for the chain.)

When the day of arrival comes, the preference data is pushed to the property and generates an activity list to prepare the guest’s room. At the same time, historical transaction data about the guest is made available, which can help predict the behaviors and likely service consumption the guest will have. “If the guest typically orders room service shortly after checking in to their room, then you can proactively suggest-or offer-the in-room dining specials for that day, even take their order at the front desk to shorten the wait for their dinner” says Bill Frizzell, the industry technology strategist for the Microsoft Worldwide Hospitality Team.

“This has been a long sought-after capability for the industry,” he adds. “Defining a single view of the guest, without duplicate stores of information, is the key to understanding their habits, trends, and behaviors.”

Cutting-edge CRM solutions leverage the latest Microsoft technology, including Microsoft Dynamics CRM and BizTalk Server 2006.

2. TVs that deliver music, movies-and much more.

Today’s leading-edge hotels have in-room systems that do far more than allow guests to watch their favorite first-run movie. They can also control in-room music, provide gaming options, display your bill-even control the thermostat and lights.

The Hotel 1000 in Seattle, Wash., for instance, has centered the room around the availability of favorite media and services on a number of widescreen plasma monitors located throughout its rooms and suites. You can control content, multi-area volume of the sound system, and interact with your profile through these devices. And because it’s a multi-use property-part residence, part hotel-the same entertainment offerings are available for their property owners. That lessens the typical multi-use management burden of maintaining multiple service offerings per type of area on the property.

State-of-the-art media and services delivery are offered today through the Microsoft Media Center by using plug-ins. See some of the latest plug-ins to MediaCenter at Windows Marketplace. For more on direct media delivery for in-room services and entertainment, see the latest on Microsoft IPTV.

3. Find yourself (and pay for lunch).
People in the hospitality industry have found a variety of uses for new radio frequency identification (RFID) technology-from helping guests find each other at a ski resort to allowing them to pay for a meal. That’s because, increasingly, this technology is gaining traction with hotels and resorts in the form of cashless payment systems that can be used on-property and, more and more often, off-property as well.

For example, at Wild Rivers, a water theme park in Irvine, Calif., RFID locator bracelets can be preloaded and used to pay for food and beverages (which is especially useful when everyone’s wearing a bathing suit). The RFID systems, developed by Guest Technologies, have yielded an almost immediate return on investment. After the system was introduced at Wild Rivers, guest spending quadrupled, with the average family of four spending twice their normal amount on meals.

Another key capability of this offering is location-based services, where groups of individuals can be instantly found at the property, simultaneously allowing for more freedom and security in these safety-conscious times. “Imagine taking a group of seven 12 year-olds to a water park for a birthday party,” says Frizzell. “You can go to any information kiosk in the park and instantly find where all of the kids you are responsible for are, and what activities and payments they have made, using their RFID bracelet. All of this is enabled through the implementation RFID and location-based services, using Microsoft technologies and Microsoft MapPoint Location Server.”

For more information on RFID technologies in the hospitality industry, please see this Guest Technologies article. .

The Guest Technologies product is developed in the Microsoft Visual Studio development system with the Microsoft .NET Framework. It also relies on Microsoft BizTalk Server to help integrate applications and technologies from disparate systems, and Microsoft’s MapPoint Location Server for location-based services.

4. Back-office systems that are actually on speaking terms.
Hotel guests might not have noticed this (and if it was done right, they shouldn’t have), but applications that handled property management, food and beverage, and sales and catering functions often couldn’t communicate with one another easily. Now they can.

A large, multi-property hotel chain in Las Vegas is currently integrating systems and platforms that were in application silos-meaning that they were running as stand-alone applications, not intended to share their information with other applications-to better integrate each other’s data. Through this interchange of data, they are better able to implement efficient business processes that rely on the delivery of data between these systems that were previously separated. For example, if you dine on-property the morning you intend to check out, you can get a final bill that is inclusive of your full folio of charges-even the breakfast you had five minutes ago. That’s because there’s no more “batching” of data to be sent to the property management system for posting to your guest folio. Instead, the interchange of your transaction to your folio is now happening at the time you make it.

“To achieve this level of integration between property-level systems, hospitality organizations had to create specific interfaces between them,” says Frizzell. “But these interfaces are not typically designed with flexibility and scaling of processes in mind, which had the unfortunate side effect of making the interfaces very brittle in use.”

Think of it this way: If you have 10 on-property systems that all needed to share the same base set of guest transaction data, it would result in 90 separate interfaces being built to accommodate the integration. Considering the inflexible nature of these point-in-time interfaces, keeping them running and orchestrated to perform the simple task of sharing data can easily become a huge financial and management burden.

But by implementing an “Information Hub” at the property level, all systems and applications that need to share data report that data in an open format, based on industry standards, to the hub. The hub is then responsible for routing the information to the various systems and orchestrating the intended business processes. In effect, the hub streamlines the exchange of data, reducing the number of integration interfaces from 90 to 10.

For more information on how the Information Hub can help you realize the value of coordinated integration activities at your property, see the corresponding information at the Microsoft Hospitality site. The Information Hub is powered by Microsoft BizTalk Server.

5. Self-healing hotel technology.
A hotel’s information technology (IT) systems are typically managed in a reactive way, which is to say that when something breaks down an IT person is called upon to fix it. But bringing systems offline to repair them can affect the whole operation-think of the long check-in lines when the credit-card systems aren’t working. The solution? A dynamic platform that constantly monitors a hotel’s systems for problems and fixes them before they affect the whole property.

A large multi-concept fine dining chain has added a system to keep an eye on its restaurant-level systems and enterprise servers. This system controls everything from the deployment of operating systems to the handheld devices the company’s employees use. System problems and failures are reported to the IT help desk as they occur, minimizing the time it takes to get mission-critical systems back online.

For more information on enabling automated management and monitoring, see the Microsoft System Center site (http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/default.mspx). For specific information on system management, visit the Microsoft Systems Management Server site. And for specific information on monitoring systems, please refer to the Microsoft Operations Manager site.

So whether you’re trying to make your hotel guests feel more at home or making your back-office systems more reliable and productive, there are new technology tools that can help make these processes a snap. Best of all, these applications are being tested and implemented right now, using proven Microsoft technologies and platforms.

Source : Hotel Tech Resource

Hotel website design is one of the most subjective issues that hotel marketeers face. Here are some guidelines for briefing your hotel website designer.

So, you have finally read one too many articles about how 30.0% plus of your revenues should be arriving via the internet and that a further 30.0% are influenced by what they discover online about your hotel from your website…and the end of month reports show you are way short of those numbers.

You have taken an objective look at your website and you have decided its time to act…you need a new website for your hotel. You want to get it right this time but where do you start?

For the sake of this article, I’m going to assume, rightly or wrongly, that you have prepared and written an online strategy for your hotel that you will also share with your chosen website designer; you now need to provide them with some design guidelines…a briefing document that is both tactical as well as creative. Our focus here is more on the “look and feel” of your site…I have penned many other articles on hotel website search engine optimisation; Google me for the SEO stuff.

What I am about to share with you has to be taken in context…these recommendations are meant to provide you with a starting point, a foundation upon which to build your online presence… but they are not set in stone. We know that these principals work…and by following these guidelines you will end up with a hotel website that:

* has a good chance of turning up on the first couple of pages of the Search Engines
* will be attractive and engage visitors to your hotel website
* will convert a high percentage of visitors into online revenues

However, once you have prepared a brief, it is important to let your designers…well…design. Don’t restrict their creativity because that is really what you are paying for. You should expect at least two and maybe three alternatives to review, refining these through a series of iterations until you have a design that is both visually appealing as well as Search Engine-friendly.

Layout – work in a grid, usually in thirds (navigation, text, call-to-action buttons or images, usually on the right) or quarters. See that your website designers align the core elements both vertically and horizontally using the grid as a basis for allocating space. We get our best online results where vertically, one third is navigation (left or right) and two thirds body or text. Horizontally we like to see half of the screen as your header/brand and including a dominant image. The lower half of the screen should show visitors a headline including the keywords they were searching for, text and the start of the navigation, all without them having to scroll…you can have long pages but visitors shouldn’t have to scroll initially to get the idea of what the page is all about.

Navigation – even experienced web searchers don’t want to learn how to navigate through your site – they need to quickly know how to get to your accommodation, special offers, room rates and web booking engine. Consequently, we recommend vertical navigation bars…people are used to this, it allows easy drill-down to sub-pages and you can see where you are at any time…none of those pretty but painful horizontal “drop down” menus that keep disappearing and getting you lost and frustrated when they keeping folding up again.

Sub-pages and “landing” pages – many hoteliers do not realise that with a well constructed site, nearly half your visitors will “land” on a sub-page first rather than all arriving via the “home” page. This is why you must include your address and contact details in the footer of every page. As much attention should be given to the design of lower level pages as the home page so make sure during the initial design stage that you get to see examples of what your sub-pages will look like.

There are two broad design principles we prefer for sub-pages. A single dominant image “floating” in space draws the eye of visitors and captures their interest…it becomes extremely memorable, especially if the image is striking. Alternatively, use multiple images on a page and keep them the same size, or the same proportion; repetition creates a feeling of consistency and quality.

When it comes to colours, keep it simple…choose one dominant colour and use variations or tones of that base colour as highlights. Unless you have a particularly funky property, stay on the conservative side in your colour selection…blues, greens or beige/parchment can be a great palette to develop a quality theme from.

Don’t be afraid of open or white space…this is ideal for creating an uncluttered combination of imagery and text. Your website needs to capture the hearts and minds of your visitors once they arrive at your site as well as being very Search Engine-friendly and open space is a great way to carry this off. Even a small image, placed in open space, can work wonders on creating the unique nature of your property. Use “drop shadow” effects to create a three dimensional or embossed look.

You need buttons too…we call them “call to action” buttons to be precise…graphics that prompt visitors to act…”make a reservation”, “check availability” or “make an online enquiry” are just a few examples. Every page should have at least one button, designed to stand out but not overpower the overall design and that complements the base navigation.

Copy writing – not just the facts…write stories, create experiences, develop an emotional connection with your visitors. Tell them about the romance of your packages, the professional efficiency of your business centre team or those small touches that make your hotel stand out from the crowd. And remember that online visitors scan rather than read verbatim so use headlines, bold, italics and bullet points to create visual “hooks” for their eyes to pause on. Write enough to keep your visitors interest but not so much that you bore them.

We also like guest testimonials (yes, I know that no one has ever published a poor testimonial on their website)…apart from the visual impact, these are an implied third party endorsement that shouldn’t be underestimated.

Don’t forget that Search Engines can only read text and design code…they can’t see images so you need your design to allow for at least 200 words on each page, within which you can insert the keywords that you are targeting…in the headlines, the main copy and emphasised elements like bolding, as well as in the meta data and title tags.

Fonts should be simple, san serif (no curly bits or heavy styling) and easy on the eye. Use a dark grey or dark tone of your base colour for page font as black can be too “in your face” on screen. Where appropriate, reversing text in white from a darker background can evoke the feeling of confidence and security…but use this cautiously as it can also be very overpowering.

And as a final hint, use your common sense…you hotel website must be easy to build, easy to maintain or add to and compelling to visitors. If your website designer wants to take three months or more to design the “front end” and build the “back end” for your mid-size property, they are probably over-engineering it…from acceptance of design it should take no longer than a month to complete. Nowadays, they should be providing you with a website based on a Content Management System which will allow you to edit or add pages in-house quickly and easily…this will also reduce your ongoing costs. Finally, your website should indeed look smart and stylish…simple, fresh and not too busy…enough to capture visitors imagination without trying to do too much.

Use the above guidelines wisely (and remember these are guidelines, not gospel) when you document your hotel website design brief…then let your designers design…and both you, and your website designer, will have a sound foundation upon which to design and build a great website that sells more rooms…after all, that is why you are making this investment, and this time you definitely want to get it right.

© Keith Paulin

After 3 years with Windows mobile i picked a motorola V3i for backup till i get an iPhone. its so easy to install apps with windows mobile but with Motorola PC suite i cant find a direct link, over the web its easy to install but with computer have to do it this way.

1. Collect all the java games/Apps into your computer
(java games are files with the extension .jar)

2. Connect V3i With Computer using USB Connection

(Phone should be switched on when u connect it to the pc, the pc will recognize the cell phone as a mass storage device(Hard Disk Partition in My Computer),Open the New drive and you will see a filder call ” Mobile ”
open mobile,next open the kjava folder inside,paste the game files u downloaded on your pc into this folder)

3. Now unplug Mobile

4. open the cell phone-> open menu -> go to games & applications ->hit the menu key,and switch storage device to Memory card ->scroll down and select the option install new ->the games you copied will be listed there

Enjoy!

Martin Gommel is a photographer on Flickr that I’ve been admiring for a while. Martin also has a blog called KWERFELDEIN (German) and has generously offered to to translate one of his photography articles for Digital Photography School. I’ve also made a few minor amendments/translations – and hope that between us we’ve created a helpful article for you. PS: the images in this post are all Martin’s – enjoy.
1. Never do photography to become a rock-star.
2. Enjoy what you are shooting.
3. Prepare well for your shooting, realizing that your battery isn’t charge when you’re setting up for that sunrise shoot is too late!
4. Always take one warm garment more than you actually need with you
5. Pay attention to your thoughts and emotions while you are shooting
6. Set goals you can achieve
7. Write tips about photography, because writing is also learning
8. Never go shooting without a tripod
9. Be pleased with the little prosperities
10. Build relationships with potential photo buddies
11. Watch the place you want to shoot first with your heart then with the camera
12. Always stay calm
13. Know that you tend to overestimate yourself
14. Perspective is the killer
15. Dedicate yourself to photography, but never browbeat yourself too much
16. Take part in a photography community
Treeklein17. Keep your camera clean
18. Never compare yourself to others in a better or worse context
19. Find your own style of photography
20. Try to compose more and to hit the shutter less
21. Seek out and learn to accept critique on your images
22. Do something different to recover creativity
23. Get inspiration from the work of other photographers
24. Criticize honestly but respectfully
25. Get feedback from your lady
26. Don’t copy other photographer’s style
27. Be bold
28. Take care of the golden ratio
29. 10mm rocks!
30. Take selfportraits
31. Read books about photography
32. To give a landscapephotograph the extra boost, integrate a person (maybe yourself)
33. Every shooting situation is different than you expect
34. Pay attention to s-curves and lines
35. Always shoot in RAW
36. Keep your sensor clean, so you can save some work cleaning your image in post production
37. Discover the things you think are beautiful
Redgreenklein38. It takes time to become a good photographer
39. The best equipment is that what you have now
40. You can’t take photographs of everything
41. Break the rules of photography knowingly, but not your camera
42. Pay attention to the different way that light falls on different parts of your scene
43. The eye moves to the point of contrast
44. Clouds increase the atmosphere of a landscape
45. Start a photoblog
46. Accept praise and say “thank you”
47. ‘Nice Shot’ is not a very useful comment to write
48. ‘Amazing!’ isn’t useful either. Try to describe specifically what you like or don’t like about an image.
49. You are not your camera
50. Ask a question at the end of your comment on a photo to get a ping-pong conversation with the photographer
51. Do a review of your archives on a regular basis, the longer you photograph – the more diamonds are hidden there
52. Always clarify what the eyecatcher (focal point) will be in your image
53. No image is better than a bad one
54. Everyone has to start little
55. Your opinion about photography is important!
56. Leave a funny but thoughtful comment
57. Speak about your experiences with your photo buddies
58. Limit your photograph to the substance
59. Participate in Photocontests
60. Post processing = Optimizing your image to the best result
61. Shoot exposure latitudes as often as possible
Wideklein62. Use photomatix as seldom as possible, HDR’s always have a synthetic flavor
63. Always remember what brought you to photography
64. Never shoot a person who doensn’t want to be photographed
65. Always turn arround, sometimes the better image is behind you
66. It’s who’s behind the camera, not the camera
67. Mistakes are allowed! The more mistakes you make, the more you learn!
68. If you have an idea and immediately you think : No, this is not going to work – Do it anyway. When in doubt – always shoot.
69. Understand and look to your histogramm while shooting. It delivers very important information about your image
70. Know your camera, because searching the menu button in the night is time you don’t want to waste
71. Shoot as often as possible
72. Believe in yourself
73. Don’t be afraid of getting dirty
74. Pay attention to qualitiy in your image
75. Your photographs are a personal map of your psyche
76. Re-check your ISO-Settings. It’s aweful to detect the wrong settings on your screen.
77. Be thankful for long and thoughtful comments on your images
78. Never trust your LCD. Normally it is brighter and sharper as the original image.
79. Provide for enough disc space, because it’s cheap and you will need it.
Autoklein80. Learn to enjoy beautful moments when you don’t have a camera with you.
81. Always arrive at least half an hour earlier before sunrise / sundown, composing in a hurry is a bad thing.
82. Try to amplify your mental and physical limits. Takes some extra shots when you think “it’s enough”
83. Pay attention to structures in the sky and wait until they fit into structures in the foreground
84. Visit the same place as often as possible. Light never shows the same mountain.
85. Print your images in big size. You will love it.
86. Calibrate your monitor. Working with a monitor that is not accurate is like being together with someone you can’t trust. It always ends badly.
87. Don’t think about what others may say about your image. If you like it, it’s worth publishing.
88. Never address reproaches to yourself. Learn from your mistakes and look forward, not backward.
89. Fight your laziness ! Creativitiy comes after discipline.
90. Ask yourself : What do you want to express in your images ?
91. Always try to think outside the box, collect new ideas about photographs you could do and ask yourself : Why not?
92. Search for a mentor.
93. Photography is never a waste of time.
Fogklein94. Every community has it’s downsides. Don’t leave it out of an emotional response.
95. There will always be people who will not like what you are doing.
96. Henri Cartier-Bresson was right when he said that “Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst.”
97. A better camera doesn’t guarantee better images.
98. Always have printing in mind when you postprocess your images.
99. Photography is fair : You gain publicity with the quality of your images. Unless the images are stolen, there is no way of cheating yourself higher.
100. Write a 100 things list

Source: Digital Photography School

‘Tharunyata Hetak’ youth organization is committed to unite, develop and nurture the youth of Sri Lanka together in the name of peace. The ‘Tharunyata Hetak’ youth organization works towards creating bonds between the youth of Sri Lanka with mutual understanding, national patriotism and development highlighting significant qualities of goodwill, friendship and harmony. Carving a peaceful environment among the youth of Sri Lanka regardless of political geographical location, economic differences, religion or race is the motto of this enlightening youth association. All youth from different ethnicities encompassing Sinhala, Tamil, Burgher, Muslim, Malay, Borah, Memonis and other races and religions will help towards the goal of bringing peace to not only for the youth but for the whole country. By signifying our country’s unity is helping those around you who have no means of life and those who find it difficult to sustain their lives. The youth of today are the lifeblood of this country and we must make sure that we keep their interests at heart. Sympathy surrounds Sri Lanka’s poignant history that has taken a number of young lives hence we are dedicated to learn from our country’s grave mistakes by ensuring that youth are not needlessly wasted for unintelligible acts of suffering and rebellion. We hope to instill faith and hope in the hearts and the minds of the youth of Sri Lanka, the future generation that will take the country forward.

Traditionally, hotels were largely dependent on cards and paperwork at the front desk to keep in touch with old and current customers. They were largely at the mercy of the desires of vacationers to arrive, and on their own efforts and staff to be ready for potential surges or long droughts of occupancy. Luckily, such inconvenience and old-fashioned methods are long since past, thanks to advances in information technology.

The first area in which information technology became important was in regards to billing. Old-fashioned paper-based book-keeping was time consuming and inefficient, and was not able to quickly tell a hotel owner what the situation of their hotel was. Luckily, advances in modern record keeping allow for a hotel owner to keep track of what they have on hand, how much of it they have, and how much it costs. Accounting is complicated, but advanced accounting software, especially that tailored to the unique needs of the hospitality industry, helps to enable hotel owners to make smart decisions. Services and products that are no longer used can be quickly cut off to save money, while those who show demand can be increased in quantity or modified so as to reduce the heavy usage.

Most hotels are familiar with booking rooms and reservations over the phone, but information technology has expanded well beyond that. Hotels can now work with various online travel companies and booking services to have their rooms booked online, with no need to employ expensive staff. This also allows a hotel to advertise their open rooms and special deals directly to persons who would be most likely to purchase them, instead of wasting lots of money advertising in an unfocused manner. High quality information technology thus allows for better arrangement and management of bookings in order to allow a hotel to better maximize occupancy, and to know in advance when large groups or lean times are approaching. This allows a hotel manager to make plans regarding temporary staff, good times to renovate or expand, or other concerns, because he/she can determine the state of their hotel currently and for the next few months with only a few clicks on the computer.

The advances in information technology extend well beyond booking, however. The internet is essential for vacationers who wish to contact those back home, and for those traveling on business to get in touch with the office. Therefore, wireless internet has become a very common and very useful service for hotels to provide. Many business minded persons even require that a hotel offer internet services so that they can keep working while on the road. Luckily, such services are easy to provide, as all that is required is a wireless router and various devices to ensure the entire hotel is filled with the network. Modern advances in wireless internet also allow for the wireless internet provided for hotel visitors to be used to network the hotel itself. Security cameras, door locks, and other devices essential to hotel security and safety can be wired into the network, so that staff are alerted whenever a door is propped open, a fire alarm goes off or suspicious activity occurs. Though the hotel guests are wholly unaware of it, this sort of added safety and security keeps them safe, and in the event of a problem they will most certainly appreciate the benefits of such a system.

As advanced as it is, information technology in the hospitality industry is still going forward. Intelligent booking systems enable rapid and efficient guest feedback, along with the ability to predict who is likely to use the hotel again and inform them via e-mail or text messages when good deals arrive. Hotels with room service or other guest services can offer their menus online, allowing for quick updates, high-quality photos, and other ways to allow guests to see and order services before they even arrive. There are also advances in terms of payroll and inventory which make information technology a valuable asset for saving money and maximizing profits. The unique nature of the hospitality industry makes it a great place for new and emerging information technology, and forward-thinking hotel owners and managers are always looking for smart equipment and software to invest in.

Source job-maldives.com