Financial Solutions

More flexibility for tourism projects

July 24th, 2011

Western Australia’s tourism industry has heralded new guidelines for the planning of tourism projects as the incentive needed to kick-start much-needed new developments in the sector.

The state government today announced changes to legislation it says will allow more flexibility for tourism development proposals.

Tourism development plans will now be assessed against a list of factors on a case by case basis, rather than have their residential components determined by pre-set percentages.

Planning Minister John Day said the changes would offer more flexibility, provide a greater mix of residential sites and encourage tourism investment. Read more…

Tags: Projects, Tourism Projects

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U.S. airlines fight prospect of higher security fees

July 23rd, 2011

– U.S. airlines are fighting the prospect of sharply higher passenger security fees that could be part of any deficit-reduction plan.

The approach is among a handful involving aviation that have swirled around the ever-changing complexion of efforts by Congress and the White House to avert a debt default.

While those proposals would cover only a fraction of any deficit remedy, they represent flashpoints in relations between industry and government over aviation policy.

Business aircraft manufacturers, the powerful private pilot and aircraft owners association and, now, the biggest commercial airlines have in recent days aggressively lobbied issues around the debt talks that would affect their members.

According to sources with knowledge of the talks and documents circulating on Capitol Hill, a proposal would double the security fee paid by airline passengers to raise at least $15 billion over 10 years.

Read more…

Tags: Fees, Security Fees

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AT&T Stays Strong Against Threat of Verizon iPhone

July 22nd, 2011

NEW YORK – AT&T Inc. saw a rebound in the number of new contract subscribers in the second quarter, showing resilience in the face of competition from Verizon’s iPhone.

The country’s largest telecommunications company said Thursday that it added a net 331,000 new subscribers on contract-based plans, up from a record low of 62,000 in the first quarter.

Verizon Wireless started selling its version of the iPhone on Feb. 10, ending three and half years of exclusivity for AT&T Inc.

For AT&T, retaining iPhone subscribers is crucial, because they pay far more every month than those on other phones.

There’s little sign that the Verizon iPhone is prompting AT&T subscribers to jump ship: AT&T said the number iPhone subscribers leaving them actually declined from the first quarter.

However, AT&T is clearly losing some new customers to Verizon.

Read more…

Tags: Iphone

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Unlimited Vacation: a Blessing or a Curse?

July 21st, 2011

Unlimited vacation time: It sounds like a major fringe benefit. What just a few companies started enticing employees with in the 90s has gathered steam in recent years. But is the open-ended approach—in which workers have no set number of days theyre restricted to but generally have to get their time off OKed and make sure their work is covered while theyre gone—all its cracked up to be? The Wall Street Journal takes a look. A rep for Netflix, which has such a policy, estimates that employees have bumped up their average yearly vacation time since it switched to an unlimited plan; taking 3 to 5 weeks off is the norm.

But he admits that “people are on all the time,” checking in even while on vacation. Oth

Read more…

Tags: Unlimited Vacation, Vacation

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