La Conciergerie Indian Ocean® announces partnership with myconcierge in Dubai

Leading Dubai-based concierge service, myconcierge.com, has been selected by La Conciergerie Indian Ocean® to offer local luxury and personal experiences, to travelers on their way to Indian Ocean. Dubai is the hub for airline passengers flying for leisure and holidays towards Indian Ocean destinations thanks to the extensive Emirates Airline route network. myconcierge delivers high-end services to guests seeking the best experiences in the destinations they visit and reside within – offering a sophisticated online platform and back-office concierge team. The partnership has been secured to enhance the guest experience Concierge & Hotels will deliver to its travelers arriving in the UAE from Europe and to conciergerie members in the Indian Ocean. Expanding VIP guest experiences from departure to holiday destination VIP guest experiences are provided by La Conciergerie Indian Ocean® (sister brand of Concierge & Hotels) that operates throughout Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Reunion Island and Seychelles before it opens Zanzibar and Sri Lanka Q4, 2015. Expanding outside the region to offer a unique experience from departure to arrival in the region is actually being built with strategic conciergerie partners around the world in famous capitals of Europe, USA, Africa, Asia and Australia. “Dubai is the 1st half way destination towards Mauritius that we are releasing with a partner, myconcierge, as we already operate in La Reunion, that stands for our VIP guests as the second stop for travelers flying to Indian Ocean and mainly for Mauritius”, said Arnaud BILQUEZ, CEO. myconcierge presence on La Conciergerie mobile app As exclusive partner for La Conciergerie Indian Ocean® in Dubai and the UAE as whole, myconcierge will be integrated in the mobile app of Concierge & Hotels in the restricted access area reserved to visiting guests in Indian Ocean and local members. These members will be driven directly to myconcierge to book online activities in Dubai or call their usual personal concierge to organise special treats on their behalf. The mobile application and Concierge & Hotels networks reaches monthly over one million visitor from Europe and 600,000 from Indian Ocean looking for exceptional and unique services. “Dubai is receiving an increasing amount of guests from the Indian Ocean and we are very pleased to ensure that they will receive only the very best experiences and services while they are here with us in the UAE. Partnering with La Conciergerie is an important moment for us as it is the first time we have established such a cooperation anywhere in the world,” said Founder and Managing Director of myconcierge, Rob Nicholas. About My Concierge MyConcierge curates the best experiences available in the UAE and offers an online platform where these can be viewed (often accompanied by professionally shot video) and booked. A more personalised service is offered through online chat or direct contact with the concierge back-office team who can make all arrangements based on specific guest requirements/preferences. Contact: Ankur BAGGA – Chief Concierge – ankur.bagga@myconcierge.com  About La Conciergerie Indian Ocean® La Conciergerie Indian Ocean® offers the Key to Indian Ocean Lifestyle for local privilege experiences. Its philosophy is to be in the heart of bringing its guests and members, serenity, happiness and peace by providing them with a complete offer of Concierge Services from Zanzibar to Sri Lanka. LA CONCIERGERIE is powered with love by Concierge Hotels® wide Indian Ocean hotel reservation platform, established since 2010, that developed its own concierge services to serve its hotel guests at destination and bring special services to local brands, individuals and corporates. Contacts: Arnaud GLANNES – Conciergerie Manager – arnaud@concierge-hotels.com Clea VEDRINE – Communication and Marketing – clea@concierge-hotels.com

The Eiffel Tower in France, the Piton de la Fournaise in Reunion Island!

The beautiful Reunion island, sunny most of the year, is famous for its mountains and hiking, in short, for its unique landscapes in the world. But the island is also famous for its volcanoes. Today, we count between 50 and 70 volcanoes erupting each year worldwide and the Piton de la Fournaise is still amongst the most active ones.

Emblematic of Reunion Island, the volcano rises to 2631 meters. With its large columns of smoke, its sparkling jets in the night and its lava flows coming down the mountain and illuminating it, the Piton de la Fournaise offers every year extraordinary shows for those who have the chance to be present during an eruption. This is something that must be seen at least once in a lifetime.

Prime attraction of the island, the Piton de la Fournaise, like its neighbor Piton des Neiges, is a classified UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site. The volcano erupts on average every eight months. Note however that some years are more active than others. As demonstrated by the year 2015: the Piton has delighted many by erupting in February, May, July and August; and the year is not over yet...

Obviously, these are scenes to admire from afar. For example you can observe the volcano from Grand Brulé or Bois Vert. The risks are very minimal for local people. The eruptions are usually known weeks in advance by the Volcanological Observatory. Security measures are taken at the first sign of eruption, but often the authorities prohibit access to the public only in the early days, in order to give time to the volcano to stabilize. The magnificent lava flows are still visible by flying over in an helicopter or if you’re lucky enough, on board of a motorized ultralight glider. That’s for sure an unforgettable memory, for both locals and tourists.

The Piton, whether active or not, remains a sensational Natural Heritage site, with its incredible lunar landscape of lava rocks and its land covered with orange-brown slag. If you travel to Reunion Island during a period where the Piton de la Fournaise is not erupting, you can still see these sensational traces everywhere on the island, especially in the south where the successive lava flows from the volcano came down to the ocean to form black sand beaches such as the one at Etang-Salé. That’s for sure an exceptional landscape to be seen.

"Footgolf" in Mauritius

Why settle for a single sport when you could practice two at once? In recent years, the creation of hybrid sports has become more and more popular worldwide. Back in 2009 the Dutch had the idea, a weird idea admittedly, to mix two very popular sports in the Netherlands: Football and Golf. The "footgolf" is a precision sport whose principle is quite simple: You need to send a soccer ball into a hole with the fewest strokes possible. That’s actually how the rules are similar to traditional golf. This new sport has grown popular very rapidly throughout the world.

Introduced in Mauritius more than a century ago by the British, golf is an extremely popular sport here. There are no less than ten golf courses across the island nowadays. If you add to that the passion of Mauritians for football, there’s no way "footgolf" will not be popular. It will most definitely generate interest amongst Mauritians and tourists.

The Heritage Hotel Group will be the first one to take a try at "footgolf" at the Heritage Golf Club. One could not ask for a more perfect spot to launch "footgolf". For it to be launched at the Domaine de Bel Ombre, in the south of the island, is just awesome. Nestled between mountains and ocean, this is where one of the most beautiful golf courses in Mauritius is located. The variety of the landscape makes each hole exceptional, providing residents of the domain and golf aficionados an unforgettable experience.

The first "footgolf" course in Mauritius will be accessible to all residents of the three Heritage hotels of the island. This course will be used for both traditional golf and "footgolf". The establishment will transform its green so that both sports can be practiced without disturbing each other.

Whether you are already a fan of "footgolf" or simply curious, this is one sport you need to try. You will not regret it !