Jetsettersblog

A new strategic alliance gives small and medium-sized tourism operators in ASEAN a powerful online presence even if they don’t have a website.

The initiative is the result of strategic collaboration between Creative Advances Technology (CAT) and the ASEAN Tourism Association (ASEANTA), both based in Kuala Lumpur, and the ASEAN Competitiveness Enhancement Project (ACE), based in Bangkok.

The new platform allows tourism players to go online and get new business for free. The collaboration boosts ASEAN tourism business opportunities by putting operators’ travel packages on multiple travel trade and consumer online sites, including ASEANTA’s new www.southeastasia.org portal. The ASEANTA portal uses Standard Online Tourism Architecture (SOTA). SOTA utilizes networking linkages to connect travel businesses with potential customers, both trade and consumer. SOTA currently connects over 900 travel agents and more than 15,000 travel suppliers worldwide.

Through this electronic tourism platform, tourism players can be linked and networked within the industry more effectively. Hundreds of tourism players in ASEAN are expected to benefit from the collaboration.

PATA is backing the SOTA initiative and is promoting the SOTA platform to its members and through its global PATA Chapter network.

For more information, visit www.visitASEAN.travel

Located in the heart of the Tuscan Maremma region of Italy, Terme di Saturnia Spa & Golf Resort is opening six new luxury Blackrose Spa Suites, bringing the total number of the resort’s treatment rooms to 54 and allowing the resort to serve as one of the world’s largest destination spas.

The private suites are a departure from the resort’s standard offerings as they serve as an ultra-exclusive spa within a spa, featuring customized signature treatments and services, as announced by Maria Beatrice Zanchi, director of marketing and spa.

The Blackrose Suites opened in fall 2009 and treatments in the luxury suites range in rates from 200 to 300 euros, per treatment.

The Terme di Saturnia Blackrose Spa Suites were designed by one of Italy’s leading architecture firms, Studio Parisotto & Formenton, which specializes in luxury Italian boutiques including Salvatore Ferragamo, Valentino and Cruciani Cashmere Lotto Sport.

Guests may choose Blackrose Spa services on an individual basis or the largest room features two treatment tables and a large Jacuzzi for select twin treatments.

The Terme di Saturnia also expanded its spa menu with new Blackrose signature treatments, which incorporate the use of natural and precious elements such as gold.

These treatments mark the evolution of the hot spring traditions such as the sprinkling of oils, massage therapies and dedicated beauty treatments.

Each Blackrose treatment concludes in the Relaxation Room.

The resort, a member of Leading Hotels of the World and the Virtuoso, offers daily and weekly rates that include use of the resort’s thermal pools, Roman Bath with Sauna and Steam bath, and thermal water falls.

The rates also include a guided morning hike, use of the gym, not including classes, and a reserved deck chair and sun umbrella in the pool’s park.

In addition, guests are also invited to take advantage of the resort’s newly opened championship golf course. Daily 18-hole greens fees for hotel guests are 48 euros ($69) and 60 euros ($87) for non-resort guests on weekdays, and 64 euros ($93) for hotel guests and 80 euros ($116) for non-resort guests during weekends and holidays.

The Golf Academy also offers half-hour private lessons with a golf trainer for 33 euros ($48) for resort guests and 38 euros ($55) for non-resort guests.

For more information, call 011-39-0564-600111 or visit www.termedisaturnia.com

Orient-Express Hotels Ltd., owner or part owner and managers of 50 luxury hotels, restaurants, tourist trains and river cruise properties operating in 24 countries, confirmed that it has completed its acquisition of Grand Hotel Timeo and Villa Sant’Andrea in Taormina, Sicily, from The Framon Group for a combined price of 81 million euros ($117 million).

In addition, the company confirmed it had concluded the sale of its Australian property, Lilianfels Blue Mountains, to Lilianfels Hotel Pty Ltd for AUD 21 million ($19.3 million).

Orient-Express Hotels’ President and Chief Executive Officer Paul White said,

“The sale of Lilianfels, and the sale of other non-core assets in 2009, significantly strengthened our balance sheet.

“We are delighted to have secured this rare opportunity to acquire the internationally renowned Grand Hotel Timeo, with its sister hotel, Villa Sant’Andrea and we are confident we can make significant improvements in performance at both properties.”

Mantis, manager and marketer of luxury boutique hotels and game reserves across South Africa and Europe, is making its first foray into Rwanda with a five-star lodge scheduled to open on March 14.

The Nyungwe Forest Lodge is set in Rwanda’s mountainous southwest, the largest remaining extension of uninterrupted montane forest in Central and East Africa, and one of the most ancient. Mantis’ Nyungwe Forest Lodge is the only five-star accommodation within the Nyungwe National Park area.

It lies in a tea plantation on the edge of the Nyungwe closed-canopy rain forest.

Each of the lodge’s 24 sumptuous suites has a private deck affording views of the vast forest terrain.

The lodge has a bistro with an outdoor heated swimming pool, a boma for al fresco dining and sundowners, a restaurant with private terrace, a tea lounge and bar, and a retreat comprising two treatment rooms, a Jacuzzi and a fitness center equipped with treadmill, cycle and weights.

The lodge also offers state-of-the-art Wi-Fi and exclusive conference facilities accommodating up to 18 delegates.

The main lodge is wheelchair friendly.

Suites are air-conditioned and appointed with a fireplace for cooler months, en-suite bathroom with shower, and a flat-screen TV with digital satellite channels.

The architecture of the lodge is loosely based on traditional Rwandese buildings and, like them, is designed to blend with the landscape. To the extent possible local materials and construction methods have been used. The resulting spaces are comfortable and elegant, and celebrate the uniqueness of the site, an area so old it predates the last Ice Age. Known for its rugged terrain and complex mosaic of vegetation, from tall, dense forests to open, flower-filled marshes, the park is home to more than 200 different tree species and a myriad of flowering plants. Found here are the African mahogany, Mulanje cedar, the evergreen Waterberry tree, the other-worldly giant lobelia and a host of colorful orchids.

Nyungwe is an ideal area for walking and trekking, with no fewer than 13 species of primates ranging from chimpanzees (man’s closest living relative) to acrobatic black and white colobus monkeys, from blue and golden monkeys to the baboon-like Grey-cheeked Mangabeys.

Guests can walk to the Kamicanovu swamp or enjoy the extensive network of well-maintained walking trails leading through the forest to a variety of waterfalls and viewing points for beholding old mahoganies, ebonies, giant tree ferns, orchids and other epiphytes, brightly colored birds, butterflies and some larger forest residents.

The Nyungwe Forest Lodge is an hour’s drive from the town of Kamembe on the shore of Lake Kivu. Nyungwe Forest Lodge is managed and marketed by the Mantis Group. The rate per person per night of $400 includes accommodation, breakfast and dinner, selected beverages and VAT.

For more information, visit www.mantiscollection.com

Marriott International rolled out its first GoThere Virtual Meetings studios at the New York Marriott East Side Hotel and Bethesda North Marriott Hotel near Washington, D.C. GoThere Virtual Meetings are part of a roll-out of AT&T TelePresence Solution, using Cisco TelePresence studios enabled by AT&T network and the AT&T Business Exchange at Marriott Hotels & Resorts, JW Marriott Hotels and Renaissance Hotels around the world.

Marriott is the first major global hotel company to offer Cisco TelePresence meeting options with the AT&T network to its customers in locations worldwide.

The first GoThere Virtual Meetings studios are now open at the New York Marriott East Side and the Bethesda North Marriott just outside of Washington, D.C. Marriott plans to expand to 25 hotels around the world in the first phase. The next hotels to offer GoThere Virtual Meetings will be Grosvenor House, a JW Marriott Hotel; JW Marriott Hong Kong; Renaissance Sao Paulo; JW Marriott Marquis Miami; Renaissance Washington, D.C.; Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway; and Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Marriott, with more to follow.

Marriott’s corporate customers told the company they would hold more meetings at its hotels if an appealing virtual meeting option was available. GoThere Virtual Meetings will give Marriott customers additional opportunities to hold more productive, collaborative small meetings.

By being the first major global hotel company to build out a global network of Cisco TelePresence rooms with AT&T, Marriott International expects to gain a competitive edge and attract more small business meetings typically of 20 or fewer people in multiple locations. Marriott hotels will be able to offer corporations a whole new meeting experience built around telepresence.

GoThere Virtual Meetings will create new revenue streams for Marriott hotels, and we expect that most of this new business will be incremental. Customers will now have real time, high-definition meeting alternatives to less productive global telephone or video conference calls.

GoThere Virtual Meetings will expand the current private Cisco TelePresence network by making the technology more widely available worldwide. Customers will also be able to connect to other Cisco TelePresence rooms on the AT&T Business Exchange, AT&T’s unique intercompany, multipoint, meet-me bridging capability. There are nearly 700 existing private Cisco TelePresence locations throughout the world connected to the AT&T Business Exchange.

To book a meeting room online or keep updated on new locations, visit www.gotherevirtualmeetings.com

An eco-friendly 12-room lodge called Amee Farm is now open to the sporting and vacationing public in Pittsfield, Vt., on scenic Route 100.

Amee Farm is designed for sustainable yet luxurious living with such touches as hand-selected antiques in guest rooms that are dressed with organic bed and bath linens and organic toiletries.

Rooms offer king, queen and double beds.

The structural refurbishment of the lodge was executed in a sustainable manner.

On-site operations are fueled with hydroelectric, geo thermal and solar; there is soy insulation throughout and the interior is dressed with milk paint.

There is also a solar green house across the road servicing Amee Farm’s organic gardens.

In season produce is available at an on-premise farm stand. A new working barn is designed to accommodate a herd of Scottish Highlanders, sheep and chickens.

For more information, call 802-746-8196 or visit www.ameefarm.com

The Park Hotels group, in India, is expanding its portfolio with the addition of the Apsara, The Park on Vembanad Lake and The Park Hyderabad. In January 2010,

The Park Hotels is launching its first luxury lake cruiser — Apsara — a two-level, eight-cabin cruiser on Kerala’s Vembanad Lake. Each week, the Apsara boat sets sail on four-day/three-night itineraries that take cruisers through Vembanad Lake and the backwaters. The boat will dock at The Park on Vembanad Lake (a new resort that opened this month) when it is not sailing.

In addition to eight guest accommodations, the 28-meter Apsara has a crew cabin, galley, dining area (seating 24 people), saloon (with a capacity of 14), sundeck and panoramic forward-seating area (with comfortable corner sofas and tables).

Cabins feature teak wood furnishings, LCD television, DVD player, double bed, desk and chair, mini bar, safe, satellite receiver and private bathroom.

The textural furnishing applied to the walls and ceilings of the interiors include veneer, rich leather, silk and natural cottons, plus marble in the bathrooms.

An on-board spa deck offers treatments, such as foot, head and shoulder massages, while sailing.

Rates now through April 30, 2010, start at INR 99,000 per person, based on double occupancy, for a four-day/three-night sailing inclusive of roundtrip airport transfers, accommodations, all meals, happy hour (complimentary drinks and cocktails on select pouring brands), and all taxes.

The quoted rate is approximately $2,130 per person, double, based on today’s exchange rate. Single occupancy prices can be provided upon request. A third person/extra bed option is not available.

As a complement to the Apsara, the company unveiled The Park on Vembanad Lake, a lakeside resort with 10 luxury rooms (four deluxe lake-view rooms, four luxury lake-view rooms, The Vembanad Room and The Vembanad Suite), a tented spa featuring Ayurvedic and international treatments, a gym, restaurant, two bars, a pool and adjacent deck, and performance space.

Rates start at INR 17,500 per person per night, based on single or double occupancy in a deluxe lake view room, valid now through Feb. 28, 2010 (nightly rates are from INR 15,000 per person, single/double, March 1 to April 30, 2010).

A minimum two-night stay is required.

Up to two children under 12 years of age stay complimentary in the same accommodations as their parents. Major features of the new hotel are a 3-D horizon pool and the hotel’s Aura Spa.

On the ground floor of the property, Tresorie luxury retail mall is accessible to guests and visitors. In addition to ever-evolving product and service innovations, The Park Hotels group focuses on relevant social issues (including the environment) and nurtures art and culture in each region.

For more information, email sales.usa@theparkhotels.com  or visit www.theparkhotels.com

Paris’s 16th arondissement, home to the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Elysées, saw the opening of the new Villa & Hotel Majestic on Jan. 12.

The property offers a choice of 52 guestrooms and suites, the MajClub Wellness Centre, Le Premium Bar and a restaurant. In addition to the property’s custom-designed décor, wellness and sustainability are guiding philosophies, from the Majclub Wellness Centre to the selection of materials, fabrics and fixtures chosen according to ethical and eco-conscious positioning.

In the Villa, the interiors combine classic French style with contemporary abstract artwork and furnishings resulting in a modern aesthetic throughout the public spaces and guestrooms.
Each individually decorated accommodation uses a mix of earth tones, silvers, grays and clean whites with splashes of color.

The 27 spacious villa accommodations are equipped with kitchenettes including an oven, refrigerator, washing machine, coffee maker, and cooking and dining utensils, making it a good choice for extended stays.

Many accommodations are complimented with extended private landscaped terraces.

The 25 bedrooms and suites offer period antiques.

In-room amenities throughout the entire property include flat-screen televisions, iPod docks, DVD player and Wi-Fi.

The MajClub Wellness Centre devotes 4,800 square feet to beauty, relaxation and body care offering a sprawling fitness center, treatment rooms, hammams, infrared saunas, and a heated, indoor swimming pool with teakwood lounge chairs.

The center also features “Clé des Champs,” an organic line of products and treatments inspired by traditional Chinese medicine that reflect the changing seasons.

Founder Céline Claret Coquet, has also created an innovative face lifting treatment though the use of acupuncture and gold needles, exclusive to the MajClub. Villa & Hotel Majestic rates begin at 500 euros ($705) per room, per night.

Rates include tax and service charges.

For more information, call 011-33 (0)1 45 00 83 70

or visit www.majestic-hotel.com

As part of a four-night package, the Mavida Balance Hotel & Spa in Austria offers guests an icy experience at an altitude of 8,200 feet.

From now through April 11, visitors can first stay in Mavida for three nights including food and spa treatments before venturing to the igloo village at the top of the Kitzsteinhorn glacier for their last night.

The camp was set up together with Nokia and Volvo offering seven igloos, an ice bar and an igloo restaurant. Winter sports enthusiasts are invited to take on several outdoor activities such as archery and rock climbing and relax in the open air Jacuzzi and in the barrel sauna afterwards. A dinner and night-time walking tour round off the day. Rates start at 570 euros ($809) per person based on double occupancy.

For more information, visit www.designhotels.com

Tourism New Zealand launched a new-look corporate website featuring news, research, market information and in-depth campaign information. TNZ Chief Executive Kevin Bowler said the new website provides comprehensive information about Tourism New Zealand’s work and gives valuable insights into how offshore markets are performing.

“The new website will help make sure the industry is coordinated in its marketing efforts by providing a hub of information about what we are doing offshore,” he said.

For more information, visit www.tourismnewzealand.com