Fuente: © Beijing 2008
http://en.beijing-2008.org/

BEIJING 2008:Olympic Family hotels begin operating

/noticias.info/ A ceremony marking the official start of operations for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Family Hotels was held on the front square of the Raffles Beijing Hotel on Wednesday morning, July 23.

The Olympic Family Hotels include the Beijing Hotel, the Raffles Beijing Hotel, the Grand Hotel Beijing, the North Garden Hotel, the Park Plaza Beijing Wangfujing, the Beijing Hotel (Second Phase) office zone and the Hualong Street service zone.

BOCOG Executive Vice-President and Secretary-General Wang Wei attended today's opening ceremony. On behalf of BOCOG, he warmly congratulated the auspicious official start and offered sincere gratitude to all of the members of the OFH team. He noted that the OFH team has met the Olympic schedule on-time, and all of its operations will accept international inspections.

During the Beijing Olympic Games, the Olympic Family Hotels will serve as the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and all IOC departments and offices will operate at the venue. The 120th IOC Session, the IOC Executive Board meetings and daily coordination meetings with BOCOG will be held there.

As the home to members of the Olympic Family during the Games, the hotels will accommodate guests that include IOC members, president and Secretary-Generals of National Olympic Committees, president and Secretary-Generals of International Sports Federations, members of IOC commissions, representatives from the World Anti-Doping Agency, the Court of Arbitration for Sports, future Olympic Games Organizing Committees and Olympic bidding cities, and IOC staff. More than 2,600 guests will stay at the five hotels.

The venue team for the Olympic Family Hotels consists of about 269 working staff, 1,700 volunteers, more than 5,000 contractor or sponsor employees, security personnel and transport personnel. The venue team will work closely with the IOC Protocol, events and Reception Department to deliver round-the-clock service for the IOC from July 23 to August 27. The venue team consists of 36 functional areas which will offer 12 major services, including accreditation, meet-and-greet services for arrivals and departures, transport, one-to-one service for Olympic Family members, coordination of IOC members' presence at medal ceremonies, visits to co-host cities, administrative support and VVIP service for IOC President Jacques Rogge and the like.

At the opening ceremony, IOC Olympic Games Executive Director Gilbert Felli showed deep appreciation toward the OFH team members. He made an important remark to them: everyone should keep his or her smile at work. He said, "Smile, smile, smile. And enjoy your work." Then, he asks everyone loudly and joyfully, "Are you ready?" notas_de_prensa_archivo