Titanic Quarter gears up for increased active travel with new secure bike dock

Travel

James Ayre, CEO Titanic Quarter, Lord Mayor of Belfast Micky Murray, and Peter McParland, Deputy Director for Active Travel with Department for Infrastructure

​​​​​​​A new state-of-the-art bike dock has opened in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter – the third secure cycle facility to open in the city this autumn and the first of its kind in NI to be accessed via the Spokesafe app.

Like recent additions at Queen’s University Belfast and Finaghy Primary School, this latest facility has been supported by Belfast City Council, with additional funding from the Department for Infrastructure.Delivered by Titanic Quarter Ltd, the TQ Bike Dock, located at the junction of Queen’s Road and Olympic Way, provides secure cycle storage for standard and non-standard bikes to those living, working, visiting and staying in the Titanic Quarter and augments the cycle infrastructure already in place nearby. The dock is also fully step-free, making it accessible to all users visiting Titanic Belfast, the Titanic Hotel and other attractions across the Titanic Quarter and Maritime Mile.Visiting the new facility this week, Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Micky Murray, said: “It’s great to see this new facility encouraging sustainable transport options by providing a safe and convenient space for employees, students, and visitors to park their bikes and promoting cycling as an alternative to car travel.“This part of the city is really thriving in terms of education, housing, innovation, hospitality and tourism – and we want to see it better connected to the city centre. “Our partners in Titanic Quarter are aiming to reduce car dependency, while supporting health, wellbeing, and sustainability, and that’s very much in line with our Bolder Vision for Belfast. Together, these recent investments are developing a network of secure, accessible cycle parking across the city.”

James Eyre, Chief Executive of Titanic Quarter, said: “Titanic Quarter are proud to see this secure cycle facility completed and operational with the support of Belfast City Council and the Department for Infrastructure. “Our ambition in delivering this facility is to encourage the use of sustainable transport by way of cycling, providing an alternative to car travel for our employees, residents and visitors to Titanic Quarter.”Peter McParland , Deputy Director for Active Travel with the Department for Infrastructure, said: “It is great to see this new facility in the heart of the Titanic Quarter and I’m pleased that the Department was able to contribute some funding towards its delivery.

“As a department, we want people to think about how they travel. By making small changes such as choosing to walk, wheel or cycle for some of our shorter everyday journeys, we can all make a big difference in beating congestion, reducing our carbon footprint and improving our physical and mental wellbeing.”

For more information on council initiatives to support active travel in Belfast, visit www.belfastcity.gov.uk/activetravel

FASB proposes ASU to refine acquirer ID in business combinations 

Business News

The amendments aim to establish a more consistent approach for determining the accounting acquirer. Credit: Volha_R/Shutterstock. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has issued a proposed Accounting Standards Update (ASU) that seeks to refine the process of identifying the accounting acquirer in Topic 805, business combinations.   This topic focuses on accounting for contract assets and…

Hallmark calling: Tyler Hynes reigns as king of Christmas movies

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Bruce Miller

LOS ANGELES – Someone else had to take down Tyler Hynes’ Christmas tree this summer because he was too busy making Christmas movies for Hallmark.Five films in the span of four months. And that’s only the beginning.Dozens line his credits – including “Three Wise Men and a Baby,” which was basic cable’s most-viewed film of 2022. This year, he’ll be seen in three “Groomsmen” films, a sequel to “Three Wise Men,” and “Holiday Touchdown,” a romance that happens at a Kansas City Chiefs game.The king of Hallmark? Hynes could certainly make a case.The reason? “I’m a loyal person,” Hynes says. “I like to find where the value is and if there’s value there and there’s a playground to play in, I’d like to keep my focus on that and try to do it as best I can.”

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Hallmark movies, he says, “are something I can pour my heart and soul into that’s creating an impact. I’m very happy spending my time focusing and trying to get the most of out that.”A strong startThe string of yuletide cheer began with “It’s Christmas, Eve,” a film he did in 2018 with LeAnn Rimes.“They called me up maybe three days prior to shooting and made the offer,” Hynes remembers. “I was at dinner but they needed an answer immediately.”Hynes called his mother – a huge Hallmark fan – and asked her to read the script. “I said, ‘Do I sing in it?’ And she said no. Then I said, ‘How do you feel about the movie?’ And she said, ‘I love it.’ That’s all I needed.”Mom’s track record, by the way, is pretty good. She reads all of her son’s scripts and lets him know how the films might go over with his core audience.Two days after the “Eve” offer, Hynes was on the set, enjoying the holiday. “I didn’t know what this was, the value of it or even my place in it. But I was very, very grateful to have been invited.”A different takeSince then, the 38-year-old Canadian has been a regular on the Hallmark circuit. Because many of the films are similar, Hynes now plays “a lot of little games that nobody knows about – that keep it interesting for me.”Example? He may be watching an Al Pacino film before making his latest holiday entry and think: What would Al do? The character, then, will have a Pacino-like attitude.“I kind of have my own fun,” Hynes says with a smile. “I also try my best to figure out what this move has to offer in terms of its value and try to create a character or rhythm that’s in service of that.”Fans, he says, have noticed the process and aren’t afraid to point it out. Because he does so many films in a year, Hynes can have this “continual conversation” with viewers. “I get to react to what they do and they react to what I do, which makes me react to what they do.”While Hynes has been on a number of series (like “Letterkenny”) and non-Hallmark movies, he likes the security the Hallmark ventures provide. “It’s a very sincere dynamic and this is a priority for me and my life.”Six months of Christmas doesn’t bother him, either. “I love Christmas,” Hynes says. “I’m fully prepared to leave the Christmas tree up all year long. When it leaves, (the house) feels empty. But I don’t want to lose the magic that occurs when you put it up because there’s something to that, too.”This year’s crop of films includes one set in Kansas City (home to Hallmark) and Arrowhead Stadium. There, he plays the director of fan engagement who meets someone who’s sure her family should win the Chiefs’ “fan of the year” title.While Hynes is now a Chiefs booster, he wasn’t a football fan growing up. “I couldn’t afford a lot of organized sports, so football was out of the question. I’m a skateboarder.”While shooting at the stadium, he got to meet Chiefs officials and players. “I don’t know why I’m so invested now, but this is kind of what my character goes through.”Before that film shows up, he has the first of three “Groomsmen” films and “Three Wiser Men and a Boy” on tap.All have the seal of approval. “My mother’s very happy I made these movies,” Hynes says. “And if this is my legacy, that’s great.””The Groomsmen” films are now airing on Hallmark+. “The Groomsmen: Last Dance” premieres Oct. 31. 
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Luxury Travel the Focus at UN Tourism Executive Training Programme for Asia and the Pacific

Travel

UN Tourism welcomed high-level officials from the National Tourism Administrations of 20 Asia-Pacific countries to redefine luxury tourism and explore common paths to growing the sector.
Organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts, Sarawak with the sponsorship of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea, the 18th UN Tourism Asia-Pacific Executive Training Programme on Tourism Policy and Strategy (Kuching, Malaysia, 28-31 October 2024) focused on luxury tourism growth across the region, taking into consideration the level of socioeconomic development, available natural and human resources and sustainability advancement and planning of each country.
Setting the scene for the training, the UN Tourism Forum on Luxury Tourism Market started with a keynote presentation from the UN Tourism Consultant, Angeline Tang, followed by a panel discussion gathering high-level representatives from the public, private and academic sectors involved in luxury tourism and in tourism development policies at the national, regional or global level.
Investments and marketing to grow luxury tourism
The executive training programme featured 4 interactive sessions, each focused on a key theme to build up a comprehensive approach of successful luxury tourism development strategies in the post-pandemic era. These included a deep dive into destination management strategies and marketing and promotion targeting luxury tourism; the core importance of personalized customer experience and service excellence; and investment guidelines for luxury tourism development.
Across the three days, experts presented and shared experiences on destination management, marketing promotion, customer experience and investment strategies in luxury tourism. The participants took this opportunity to highlight their respective countries’ key assets and arising opportunities, as well as their administrations’ efforts to tackle the challenges for the implementation of successful luxury tourism policy and strategies.
In particular, Member States agreed that each destination should rely on its own assets to develop a unique luxury tourism brand identity, by using digital marketing and AI and date insights.
Meaningful and exclusive experiences
The discussions between participants, speakers and UN Tourism Consultant also underscored the importance of human resources in luxury tourism, especially as human connection and interventions were recognised as essentials for luxury travellers. Mere opulence on luxury tourism is not enough: meaningful experiences including exclusive, personalize and sustainable aspects arranged in every steps of the luxury traveller journey are essential.
At the same time, policymakers would need to adopt a long-term strategic approach that identifies investment opportunities and enhances tourism capacities, positioning themselves as enablers. Investment in luxury tourism means strong brand equity and diverse revenue streams, especially when incorporating sustainable investment practices and quality tourism standards that help ensure long term environmental and cultural preservation.

Japan’s shelf-sharing bookstores bring back book browsing in the digital age, fuelling revival amid closures

Arts & Culture, Books

TOKYO, Nov 1 — “I’m holding an illustrated book of cheeses,” says a delighted Tomoyo Ozumi, a customer at a growing kind of bookshop in Japan where anyone wanting to sell their tomes can rent a shelf.The concept brings back the joy of browsing real books to communities where many bookstores have shut, and gives readers more eclectic choices than those suggested by algorithms on online sellers, its proponents say.“Here, you find books which make you wonder who on earth would buy them,” laughs Shogo Imamura, 40, who opened one such store in Tokyo’s bookstore district of Kanda Jimbocho in April.“Regular bookstores sell books that are popular based on sales statistics while excluding books that don’t sell well,” Imamura, who also writes novels about warring samurai in Japan’s feudal era, told AFP. This picture taken on July 18, 2024 shows a bookshelf at bookstore ‘Honmaru Jimbocho’ in Tokyo. — AFP pic “We ignore such principles. Or capitalism in other words,” he said. “I want to reconstruct bookstores.”His shop, measuring just 53 square metres, houses 364 shelves, selling books — some new, some used — on everything from business strategy and manga comics to martial arts. This picture taken on July 18, 2024 shows (from left) bookshop owner and novelist Shogo Imamura and creative director Kashiwa Sato posing for photographs at bookstore ‘Honmaru Jimbocho’ in Tokyo. — AFP pic The hundreds of different shelf renters, who pay ¥4,850-¥9,350 (RM140-RM267) per month, vary from individuals to an IT company to a construction firm to small publishers.“Each one of these shelves is like a real version of a social media account, where you express yourself like in Instagram or Facebook,” said Kashiwa Sato, 59, the store’s creative director. This picture taken on July 18, 2024 shows bookstore ‘Honmaru Jimbocho’ in Tokyo. There is a growing kind of bookshop in Japan where anyone wanting to sell their tomes can rent a shelf. — AFP pic Cafes and gyms For now, his store Honmaru — meaning the core of a Japanese castle — is only in Tokyo, but Imamura hopes to expand to other regions hit hard by bookstore closures.A quarter of Japan’s municipalities have no physical bookstores, with more than 600 shutting in the 18 months to March, according to the Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture.Imamura in 2022 visited dozens of bookstores that have managed to survive the tough competition with e-commerce giants like Amazon, some by adding cafes or even gyms.“But that is like putting the cart before the horse. Because if a gym is more profitable, 90 per cent of the shop may become a gym, with 10 per cent for bookselling,” Imamura said. This photo taken on August 1, 2024 shows the shelf-sharing bookstore Passage operated by Rokurou Yui, president of book review site All Reviews in Tokyo’s Kanda Jimbocho district, one of the world’s largest ‘booktowns’.— AFP pic Crowd-pullers Rokurou Yui, 42, said his three shelf-sharing bookstores in the same Tokyo area are filled with “enormous love” for shelf owners’ favourite books,“It is as if you’re hearing voices of recommendations,” Yui told AFP.Owners of regular bookstores put books on their shelves that they have to sell to stay in business, regardless of their personal tastes, he said.“But here, there is no single book that we have to sell, but just books that someone recommends with strong passion and love for,” he said.Yui and his father Shigeru Kashima, 74, a professor of French literature, opened their first shelf-sharing bookstore, called Pvassage, in 2022.They expanded with two others and the fourth opened inside a French language school in Tokyo in October. This photo taken on August 1, 2024 shows books written by former Tokyo governor Naoki Inose displayed on part of a bookshelf at the shelf-sharing bookstore Passage in Tokyo’s Kanda Jimbocho district, one of the world’s largest ‘booktowns’. — AFP pic Passage has 362 shelves and the sellers help attract customers with their own marketing efforts, often online.That is in contrast to conventional bookstores that often rely on owners’ sole sales efforts, he said.On weekends, Yui’s store sometimes “looks as if it were a crowded nightclub with young customers in their 10s, 20s, 30s” with edgy background music playing, he said. This photo taken on August 1, 2024 shows Rokurou Yui, president of book review site All Reviews and president of three shelf-sharing bookstores, working at his bookstore in Tokyo’s Kanda Jimbocho district, one of the world’s largest ‘booktowns’.— AFP pic Customers and shelf-owners visit the bookstore not only to sell and buy books, but to enjoy “chatting about books”, he said.Japan’ industry ministry in March launched a project team to study how to support bookstores.“Bookstores are a hub of culture transmission, and are extremely important assets for the society in maintaining diverse ideas and influencing national power,” it said. — AFP

Benin: Tapping the potential of luxury tourism [Business Africa]

Travel

In this Business Africa episode, you’ll get to meet the head of Benin’s first 5-star hotel. Also on the program, funding cultural and creative industry and we’ll look at how Morocco built an investor-friendly climate.
The global luxury tourism market was worth around $1.2 trillion in 2021. Benin is looking to position itself in this niche.
Morocco has centred its economic strategy around the development and the diversification of investment flows

Finally, more and more African financial institutions are seeking to address the financing gap in the creative industries.
The luxury tourism sector hasn’t reached its full potential in Africa. Citing market studies in the global sector of luxury travel, consulting firm Deloite projected a compound annual growth rate of 7.6% until 2030.

Additional sources • UNESCO

8.4 mil. tourists visited Bahamas up to Sept.

Travel

Tourism Director General Latia Duncombe said yesterday that year to date, The Bahamas welcomed 8.4 million tourists up to September of this year.Duncombe said at the Cat Island Business Outlook yesterday that Cat Island had a 12 percent increase in hotel leads stemming from an increase in visitor traffic to the Bahamas.com website.“When we look at the website traffic, and when we look at the islands that we’re speaking about today, we’ve had 136,000 visits on these pages here today, not the entire website, just these pages.“So, 136,000 visitors understood, want to see more, and went directly to the Cat Island and San Salvador pages, and said, I want to see more. That’s what they have done. And based on the numbers, we can see what the leads were that have been generated. Looking at it, it’s a 12 percent increase year to date from hotel leads generated.”The marketing of Cat Island and the southern islands has been a successful effort, Duncombe explained, with the goal being promoting each of the islands as “self-sustaining, economically viable destinations”.Duncombe added: “We don’t just want to hear about the numbers, but how do our communities benefit? How can they play a part? How can they feel the impact of the numbers in regard to driving tourism development?“The data tells the story, the data gives us the direction. And then after we look at the data, then there are public-private partnerships. If we’re in the communities, understanding the needs, then we’re making sure that we’re all on the right track, and doing exactly what we need to leverage cutting edge technology.”By isolating individual islands in the Ministry of Tourism, Investments and Aviation’s (MOTIA) marketing program, it allows the representation of the individual strengths of those islands, so they can be packaged for individual travelers who have particular tastes.Duncombe said: “There are times when we lift Cat Island, and we send it off, and we put it on the world stage, and everyone sees Cat Island as we see it…. We give every island an opportunity to stand on its own, we show the beauty of our islands.”Duncombe said there are other things that the MOTIA has done with industry partners to benefit Cat Island’s tourism sector.“In 2019, we saw almost double growth in Cat Island. That’s amazing, and it’s through all the efforts that we’re doing. But it’s not just the ministry, but when the visitors come to the destination, it’s that you are delivering on the experience. So, we’re going to lift it, package, promote it, and put it out there for the billions of the traveling public to see.”

8.4 mil. tourists visited Bahamas up to Sept.

Travel

Tourism Director General Latia Duncombe said yesterday that year to date, The Bahamas welcomed 8.4 million tourists up to September of this year.Duncombe said at the Cat Island Business Outlook yesterday that Cat Island had a 12 percent increase in hotel leads stemming from an increase in visitor traffic to the Bahamas.com website.“When we look at the website traffic, and when we look at the islands that we’re speaking about today, we’ve had 136,000 visits on these pages here today, not the entire website, just these pages.“So, 136,000 visitors understood, want to see more, and went directly to the Cat Island and San Salvador pages, and said, I want to see more. That’s what they have done. And based on the numbers, we can see what the leads were that have been generated. Looking at it, it’s a 12 percent increase year to date from hotel leads generated.”The marketing of Cat Island and the southern islands has been a successful effort, Duncombe explained, with the goal being promoting each of the islands as “self-sustaining, economically viable destinations”.Duncombe added: “We don’t just want to hear about the numbers, but how do our communities benefit? How can they play a part? How can they feel the impact of the numbers in regard to driving tourism development?“The data tells the story, the data gives us the direction. And then after we look at the data, then there are public-private partnerships. If we’re in the communities, understanding the needs, then we’re making sure that we’re all on the right track, and doing exactly what we need to leverage cutting edge technology.”By isolating individual islands in the Ministry of Tourism, Investments and Aviation’s (MOTIA) marketing program, it allows the representation of the individual strengths of those islands, so they can be packaged for individual travelers who have particular tastes.Duncombe said: “There are times when we lift Cat Island, and we send it off, and we put it on the world stage, and everyone sees Cat Island as we see it…. We give every island an opportunity to stand on its own, we show the beauty of our islands.”Duncombe said there are other things that the MOTIA has done with industry partners to benefit Cat Island’s tourism sector.“In 2019, we saw almost double growth in Cat Island. That’s amazing, and it’s through all the efforts that we’re doing. But it’s not just the ministry, but when the visitors come to the destination, it’s that you are delivering on the experience. So, we’re going to lift it, package, promote it, and put it out there for the billions of the traveling public to see.”

Why do we need quantum computers and what will they be used for?” target=”_self” data-before-rewrite-localise=”/technology/computing/quantum-computers-are-here-but-why-do-we-need-them-and-what-will-they-be-used-for

Technology

Technology companies are pouring billions of dollars into quantum computing, despite the technology still being years away from practical applications. So what will future quantum computers be used for — and why are so many experts convinced they will be game-changing?Building a computer that harnesses the unusual properties of quantum mechanics is an idea that has been in contention since the 1980s. But in the last couple of decades, scientists have made significant strides in building large-scale devices. Now, a host of tech giants from Google to IBM as well as several well-funded startups have invested significant sums into the technology — and they have created several individual machines and quantum processing units (QPUs).In theory, quantum computers could solve problems that are beyond even the most powerful classical computer. However, there’s broad consensus that such devices will need to become much larger and more reliable before that can happen. Once they do, however, there is hope that the technology will crack a host of currently unsolvable challenges in chemistry, physics, materials science and even machine learning.”It’s not just like a fast classical computer, this is a completely different paradigm,” Norbert Lütkenhaus, executive director of the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo in Canada told Live Science. “Quantum computers can solve some tasks efficiently that classical computers simply cannot do.”The current state-of-the-art The most fundamental building block of a quantum computer is the qubit — a unit of quantum information that is comparable to a bit in a classical computer, but with the uncanny ability to represent a complex combination of both 0 and 1 simultaneously. Qubits can be implemented on a wide range of different hardware, including superconducting circuits, trapped ions or even photons (light particles).Today’s largest quantum computers have just crossed the 1,000 qubit mark, but most feature just a few tens or hundreds of qubits. They are far more error-prone than classical computing components due to the extreme sensitivity of quantum states to external noise, which includes temperature changes or stray electromagnetic fields. That means that it’s currently difficult to run large quantum programs for long enough to solve practical problems.Related: Radical quantum computing theory could lead to more powerful machines than previously imaginedSign up for the Live Science daily newsletter nowGet the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.That doesn’t mean today’s quantum computers are useless, though, said William Oliver, director of the Center for Quantum Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA. “What quantum computers are used for today is basically to learn how to make quantum computers bigger, and also to learn how to use quantum computers,” he said in an interview with Live Science.Building ever larger processors provides crucial insight into how to engineer larger, more reliable quantum machines and provides a platform to develop and test novel quantum algorithms. They also let researchers test quantum error-correction schemes, which will be crucial for achieving the technology’s full promise. These typically involve spreading quantum information over multiple physical qubits to create a single “logical qubit,” which is far more resilient.Lütkenhaus said that recent breakthroughs in this area suggest fault-tolerant quantum computing might not be so far off. Several companies including QuEra, Quantinuum and Google have recently demonstrated the ability to generate logical qubits reliably. Scaling up to the thousands, if not millions, of qubits that we need to solve practical problems will take time and a lot of engineering effort, says Lütkenhaus. But once that’s been achieved, a host of exciting applications will come into view. Where quantum could be a game changer The secret to quantum computing’s power lies in a quantum phenomenon known as superposition, said Oliver. This allows a quantum system to occupy multiple states simultaneously until it is measured. In a quantum computer, this makes it possible to place the underlying qubits into a superposition representing all potential solutions to a problem.”As we run the algorithm, the answers that are incorrect are suppressed and the answers that are correct are enhanced,” said Oliver. “And so by the end of the calculation, the only surviving answer is the one that we’re looking for.”This makes it possible to tackle problems too vast to work through sequentially, as a classical computer would have to, Oliver added. And in certain domains, quantum computers could carry out calculations exponentially faster than their classical cousins as the size of the problem grows.One of the most obvious applications lies in simulating physical systems, said Oliver, because the world itself is governed by the principles of quantum mechanics. The same strange phenomena that make quantum computers so powerful also make simulating many quantum systems on a classical computer intractable at useful scales. But because they operate on the same principles, quantum computers should be able to model the behavior of a wide range of quantum systems efficiently.This could have a profound impact on areas like chemistry and materials science where quantum effects play a major role, and could lead to breakthroughs in everything from battery technology to superconductors, catalysts and even pharmaceuticals.Quantum computers also have some less savory uses. Given enough qubits, an algorithm invented by mathematician Peter Shor in 1994 could crack the encryption that underpins much of today’s internet. Fortunately, researchers have devised new encryption schemes that sidestep this risk, and earlier this year the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released new “post-quantum” encryption standards that are already being implemented.Emerging possibilities of quantum computing Other applications for quantum computers are, at present, somewhat speculative, said Oliver.There are hopes the technology could prove useful for optimization, which involves searching for the best solution to a problem with many possible solutions. Lots of practical challenges can be boiled down to optimization processes, from easing traffic flows through a city to finding the best delivery routes for a logistics company. Building the best portfolio of stocks for a specific financial goal could also be a possible application.So far, though, most quantum optimization algorithms offer less than exponential speed-ups. Because quantum hardware operates much slower than current transistor-based electronics, these modest algorithmic speed advantages can quickly disappear when implemented on a real-world device.At the same time, progress in quantum algorithms has spurred innovations in classical computing. “As quantum algorithm designers come up with different optimization schemes, our colleagues in computer science advance their algorithms and this advantage that we seem to have ends up evaporating,” added Oliver.Other areas of active research with less clear long-term potential include using quantum computers to search large databases or conduct machine learning, which involves analyzing large amounts of data to discover useful patterns. Speed-ups here are also less than exponential and there is the added problem of translating large amounts of classical data into quantum states that the algorithm can operate on — a slow process that can quickly eat into any computational advantage.But it is still early days, and there is plenty of scope for algorithmic breakthroughs, said Oliver. The field is still in the process of discovering and developing the building blocks of quantum algorithms — smaller mathematical procedures known as “primitives” that can be combined to solve more complex problems.”We need to understand how to build quantum algorithms, identify and leverage these program elements, find new ones if they exist, and understand how to put them together to make new algorithms,” says Oliver.This should guide the future development of the field, added Lütkenhaus, and is something companies should bear in mind when making investment decisions. “As we push the field forward, don’t focus too early on very specific problems,” he said. “We still need to solve many more generic problems and then this can branch off into many applications.”