Cup Match, Bermuda’s famous 2-day cricket match, will take place on July 30 and 31 2009 at St George’s Cricket Club (Wellington Oval, Wellington Slip Road, St George’s Parish).
Admission is $15 ($5 for children aged 5 – 12, free for children under 5 and senior citizens with ID) and tickets are available on the door.
There will be a special seating section for tourists with guides offering an insight into the game.
Bermuda is set to lose two of its most famous residents; Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas.
The couple are relocating to New York for work and personal reasons. 64-year old Douglas is set to play Liberace in Scott Soderbergh’s biography of the flamboyant pianist, and also star in the sequel to the 1987 blockbuster Wall Street.
The celebrity couple have rented out their home in Warwick Parish and taken their children out of Warwick Academy.
Michael Douglas has strong ties to Bermuda. He is a shareholder in the Ariel Sands hotel and his mother, Diana Dill, was born in Bermuda in 1923.
They moved to the island in 2002 and supported local organisations such as the Bermuda Musical and Dramatic Society, Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute, Masterworks Foundation, National Dance Foundation of Bermuda, and the Bermuda International Film Festival. Douglas is a keen golfer and is a member of the Mid Ocean Club and Riddell’s Bay Golf & Country Club.
Bermuda was removed from OECD’s grey list of tax havens yesterday. The change was made after the island signed an agreement with the Netherlands to share tax information.
The tax treaty was Bermuda’s 12th Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TEIA). Signing it ensured the island crossed the threshold for inclusion in the list of countries that have substantially implemented the OECD’s requirement in this area.
Bermuda is the first country to be removed from the grey list. It is expected to sign more tax treaties with more OECD countries in the near future.
Bermuda has been placed on a ‘grey list’ of countries that need to substantially implement an internationally agreed tax standard.
The list was published at the end of the G20 meeting in London by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The ‘grey list’ comprised countries that had not signed Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEAs) with at least 12 other countries.
Bermuda currently only has TIEAs with the US, UK, and Australia.
The island did, however, avoid being blacklisted and not committed to an internationally agreed tax standard.
The blacklisted countries were Malaysia, Costa Rica, Philippines, and Uruguay.
The other countries on the ‘grey list’ were Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Bahrain, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Dominica, Gibraltar, Grenada, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Montserrat, Nauru, Antilles, Niue, Panama, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Vanuatu.
The Bermuda Department of Tourism has announced that its tourist office at LF Wade International Airport is now a self-service facility.
Previously the Visitor Information Centre (VIC) at the airport had been staffed. However from April 1 2009, new arrivals will only be able to collect brochures, maps, and other printed material.
Manned tourist offices are available in St George, Hamilton, and Royal Naval Dockyard.
The Phoenix Store will open a new pharmacy at the Royal Naval Dockyard in April.
The new store will cater primarily to cruise ship passengers docking at the former naval base.
The company also plans to move its store in the Clarendon Building to the new Victoria Place development on Victoria Road, Hamilton.
The Bank of Bermuda has announced that it will close its branch at LF Wade International Airport on February 6 2009.
Staff from the airport branch will be located to the branch in St George.
The bank has reassured the public that their ATMs and cash deposit services at the airport will remain operational.
Bermuda took a step towards allowing casinos on the island with an announcement last week of a feasibility study on gaming.
The joint venture between the Government and the Bermuda Hotel Association sees the Innovation Group appointed to conduct a study that would cover a casino gaming market assessment, the feasibility of a Bermuda lottery, gaming legislation, tax and revenue considerations, and the social and economic impact of gaming on Bermuda and its people.
In June the Government announced plans to allow cruise ships to operate casinos while in port.
Passengers departing Bermuda can now surf the internet for free at the airport.
Rock Media, the company responsible for advertising signage at LF Wade International Airport, have installed a wireless internet hot spot in the departure area.
The announcement was made yesterday by Ewart Brown, the Bermuda Premier and Minister of Tourism and Transport.
Bermuda is the number 1 island in the Caribbean and Atlantic according to Conde Nast Traveler readers.
Over 30,000 readers of the influential travel magazine participated in the 2008 reader survey. The results were announced at a ceremony in New York last week.