Jetsettersblog

Browns Sotheby’s International Realty has launched an impressive collection of New Zealand’s leading luxury tourism property in the run up to the next IRB Rugby World Cup being hosted here during the southern winter of 2011.

The event is the third largest sporting event in the world and is generating huge interest in both travel to and investment in New Zealand, with tourism now officially the world’s largest industry.

Possibly the best ever portfolio of premium tourism real estate ever assembled from New Zealand was successfully launched earlier this month in the USA at the global get together of the world’s leading luxury real estate brand Sotheby’s International Realty.

The collection includes 15 luxury lodges, boutique hotels and private villas from the sub tropical Bay of Islands in the north down through the Southern Alps to Queenstown in the south. Leading luxury highlights such as Eagles Nest and Claremont Country Estate will without a doubt create substantial interest.

Browns Sotheby’s International Realty’s Tourism Property Specialist, Neil Pollett says these properties represent an unrivalled collection of some of the best international award winning retreats which have played host to world leaders and international celebrities.

All properties are distinctive and occupy a unique location that showcases New Zealand’s natural beauty.

Offshore investment into New Zealand has become an attractive option for many overseas investors who see it as a safe haven in the sub tropical South Pacific.

New Zealand has been less affected than many northern hemisphere countries in the fall out of the recent global financial meltdown.

The New Zealand government has also recently relaxed its rules with regards to business investment and residency in an effort to attract new capital, contacts and expertise to the region and allow investors to both enjoy and benefit from this growth sector.

For a copy of the collection and information on a range of investment options in the New Zealand luxury tourism sector at a range of price points you should visit

www.brownssothebysrealty.com/BestofNZ

In response to the growing demand for information on products and services from New Zealand’s tourism operators, Tourism New Zealand has announced the return of TRENZblog (www.trenzblog.com ).

Now in its second year, the interactive blog was developed to provide travel media, travel agents and tour operators unable to attend TRENZ (Tourism Rendezvous New Zealand) with information on new and exciting developments from New Zealand’s tourism industry.

Starting immediately, blog editor Ruth Atherley is reporting on several key tourism destinations in New Zealand, including Nelson, Rotorua, Wellington and Auckland. From May 24 to 27, she will blog from TRENZ, New Zealand’s largest international tourism business event.

On TRENZblog, Atherley will provide several updates daily from the trade show, as well as interviews with travel professionals and Tourism New Zealand’s new chief executive, Kevin Bowler. Readers are invited to comment, ask questions and request that Atherley interview TRENZ exhibitors of interest.

Blog posts will include photos of Atherley’s experiences in New Zealand and TRENZ events and activities.

You can also follow TRENZblog on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TRENZblog

The blog will remain online for viewing post-TRENZ.

For more information on New Zealand, visit www.NewZealand.com

Outrigger on the Lagoon Fiji is expanding the newly introduced Meimei Nanny Service due to its success as an affordable childcare service unique to the resort.

The Meimei Nanny Service was introduced on April 1 with a staff of six nannies who, by April 10, were fully booked on a daily basis well into the future.

Outrigger on the Lagoon Fiji General Manager, Peter Hopgood, says he had an inkling that the service would be popular, but the results to date have been incredible.

The Meimei Service was introduced to provide holidaying parents with affordable child care, eight hours a day from as little as AUD$4 ($3.44) per hour, and is being expanded immediately, with recruitment taking place to employ another six meimeis by May 20 and another six to begin on June 15, in time for school holidays.

The Meimei Nanny Service, created to bring Fijian culture to kids and chill-out time for parents, provides daily personalized care and entertainment as part of a package which gives kids aged 6 months to 12 years four consecutive days of care for up to eight hours per day for AUD$135 ($116).

The service is provided as one-on-one care for children aged 6 months to 2 years and two children per nanny for children 3 years and over.

The Meimei Service is designed to not only be fun for kids but also educational, and the children participate in traditional Fijian arts and crafts, fishing and basic language lessons.

The Meimei Service is also supported by the Outrigger kids clubs, Little Riggers for 3 to 7 year olds and Beach Riggers for 8 to 12 year olds, which run three sessions a day and provide a range of fun, age appropriate activities and cultural experiences.

For more information, visit www.outriggerfiji.com  or www.bebespafiji.com

Korean Air has launched the Korean Air iPhone application, which will allow the traveling public to verify and search up-to-the minute flight and airline information with just one touch.

Services available through this latest application include flight status, schedules and availability, current reservation information, ticket fares and SkyPass mileage records. More services such as ticket purchases and mobile check-in will be added later.

One touch of the call button within the Korean Air application will show the list of Korean Air’s call centers in the relevant country.

This application is linked with other online social networking channels provided by Korean Air (Twitter, Facebook) and the public can gain easy access to all connected sites.

Customers can simply download the free application through iPhone’s App store.

This application is available in multiple languages including Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese for users all around the world.

To celebrate this new release, Korean Air is holding special events on its global website with prizes for participants.

For more information, visit www.koreanair.com

The Mantis Group has added another hotel to its collection of five-star resorts and game reserves across Europe and Africa — the Hotel Keppler near the Champs Elysées in Paris.

The Hotel Keppler is in the entertainment and high-fashion district of Avenue George V and Avenue Montaigne.

The most popular sights of the city are less than a mile from the hotel including the Eiffel Tower, Louvre Museum, Arc de Triumph and the Place de la Concorde.

Housed within a 19th Century Haussmannian building, the Keppler comprises 39 guest rooms and suites including Classic, Standard and Executive rooms, as well as Traditional, Superior, Deluxe and Penthouse suites.

All accommodations have custom-designed furniture and lighting by Rochon, as well as handmade Turkish rugs and molded ceilings. Rates range from $402 to $468 for a Classic room; $435 to $522 for a Standard room; $562 to $656 for an Executive room; $736 to $870 for a Traditional suite; $830 to $1,004 for a Superior suite; $937 to $1,138 for a Deluxe suite; and $1,071 to $1,339 for the Penthouse suite.

For more information, call 011-33 1 47 20 65 05 or visit

www.keppler.fr

2cvExperience is offering tours of the countryside of Paris in a classic French Citroën 2cv.

Americans who know such films as Godard’s Breathless will recognize these automobiles as classic French icons. Starting this year, 2cvExperience’s unique tour around Paris will start and end in the city then will drive through the typical French countryside near the city of Paris. 2cvExperience offers a “touristic driving lesson” when a tour is booked with 2cv around Paris.

The guides show the most beautiful places and will give tips and instructions about driving the 2cv in the city.

Equipped with a GPS and a road book clients will leave the city to discover the attractions which are not reachable by metro. Clients will drive on small scenic roads to the cities of Chantilly and Provins.

During the six-day trip clients will stay overnight in guesthouses. 2cvExperience selected the accommodations to match the typical French 2cv.

Besides their establishment in Paris, 2cvexperience also has establishments in the South of France (Provence) and in the Netherlands.

They have a fleet of over 30 2cvs for their tours, weekend getaways or day tours on small scenic roads.

For more information, visit www.2cvexperience.com/tourroundparis

Sol Meliá introduced one of its top brands in the Greek market. The first Gran Meliá resort of the country, Gran Meliá Resort and Luxury Villas Daios Cove Crete, began its operation on April 22, 2010, delivering a brand new statement of hospitality in Greece.

The luxury resort, nested on a hillside overlooking Daios Cove, is located right on the waterfront.

The access to the resort is very easy, as it is 15 minutes away from the fishing town of Elounda, five minutes from the town of Aghios Nikolaos and less than an hour from Heraklion Airport.

At Gran Meliá Resort and Luxury Villas Daios Cove, guests can choose from 300 accommodations, including 243 rooms, 18 suites and 39 villas all of them with private sea-water-heated swimming pools, including the “Daios Mansion” Presidential Suite that offers in its 550-square-meter interior premises three bedrooms, one interior swimming pool, sauna, hammam, gym, dining room, sitting room and lift for easy access.

The verandas and gardens lead to the two outside swimming pools. All rooms, suites and villas of the resort have views of the Mediterranean Sea and offer all contemporary facilities, from the deluxe sea view rooms, with or without pool, up to the villas with pool.

They all stand out for their contemporary minimal style, which is highlighted by the discerning Italian-design furniture.

The resort has been carefully designed by the architectural bureau 3SK, led by Antonis Stylianidis.

Another trademark of the Gran Meliá Daios Cove Crete and all Gran Meliá resorts around the world is RedLevel, an upgraded service and accommodation program, exclusively offered to the customers of suites and villas. RedLevel features a variety of exclusive services, such as discreet and dedicated assistance of personal butlers throughout the guests’ stay, exclusive access to the Red Level Lounge, where guests can enjoy daily continental breakfast, coffee and beverages all day, and evening cocktails with hors d’oeuvres, preferential reservations for dining, spa treatments and activities, access to computer terminals with complimentary high-speed Internet, access to the RedLevel parking area and many more privileges.

The resort also offers a 2,500-square-meter spa, a fully equipped fitness center, two tennis courts, as well as a congress and conference center founded to exceed the expectations of the most demanding events.

Furthermore, daily activities are organized within the hotel with daytime and evening entertainment program, special activities for children, and many different internationally inspired theme nights.

The resort’s selection of restaurants and bars includes a beachfront Greek tavern, Ocean Club Restaurant and Pangea Restaurant, an international food bazaar. Three bars along the hotel from the beach through the pool to the Cristal Box Bar at the lobby area.

For more information, visit www.solmelia.com

Rezidor Hotel Group announced the opening of Radisson Blu Milan. The first Radisson Blu in Milan and second in Italy, the 250-key property was formerly the Chedi Milan.

Hotel interiors by Jaya Ibrahim offer an “Indonesia-meets-Italy” aesthetic.

The 10th floor, 1,600-square-foot Penthouse Suite features a separate living room, bedroom and kitchenette with private dining space, as well as floor-to-ceiling glass doors that open to a private terrace with sweeping city views.

Radisson Blu Milan offers the contemporary Italian restaurant Filini, which serves a modern Italian menu and opens onto a garden courtyard for daily al fresco dining.

The hotel’s Lounge Bar, situated between the lobby and restaurant, is highlighted by a marble spiral staircase

Additional hotel facilities include an indoor swimming pool located under a glass atrium and overlooking the Milan skyline, as well as health and wellness facilities including a steam room, private sauna, and fully-equipped fitness center.

Radisson Blu Milan also offers eight meeting rooms, a conference room with capacity for 240 guests, a 10-seat boardroom and a private delegate entrance. All meeting and events space features natural light as well as complimentary high-speed Internet access.

Located in the northern Bovisa district, near Milan’s major international trade fairs, the hotel is within 20 minutes of city-center attractions such as La Scala Opera House, the Duomo Cathedral and Brera, Milan’s old city.

Radisson Blu Milan joins the existing Radisson Blu es Hotel Rome in Italy’s capital, as well as a number of new properties in major European cities.

Recent openings include two boutique hotels in Paris, a resort in Dubrovnik, a boutique hotel in Madrid, and a major renovation to a city-center hotel in Hamburg.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. has extended its development pipeline in the Arabian Gulf with the announcement of a planned second St. Regis hotel in the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

Owned by International Capital Trading (ICT), The St. Regis Abu Dhabi will be located on the celebrated Abu Dhabi waterfront offering extensive views of the gulf’s spectacular azure waters in a location that is both central to the business district and directly on the Corniche.

Located just a short drive from the recently opened F1 circuit, Ferrari museum, Gary Player-designed golf course and the Louvre, Guggenheim and Maritime museums,

The St. Regis Abu Dhabi will provide guests an entrance into a captivating world of opulence offering a unique expression of its location.

The St. Regis Abu Dhabi will be located on the Corniche in downtown Abu Dhabi as part of Nation Towers, the iconic two-tower mixed-use development.

Located at the top of one tower beginning at the 33rd floor, the hotel will feature 281 luxuriously appointed guest rooms, including 56 suites, signature restaurants, a destination bar, sky bridge restaurant, more than 4,800 square meters of ultra modern meeting and event space and over 3,000 square meters of dedicated health club facilities, including an outdoor swimming pool.

Guests will also enjoy a beach club adjacent to the hotel, which will be operated by Starwood.

Following in the tradition of the St. Regis brand’s legendary New York hotel, The St. Regis Abu Dhabi features the hallmarks of St. Regis hotels including the St. Regis Butler Service.

Starwood currently operates close to 50 hotels throughout the region with more than 20 projects currently in development.

Disneyland Paris remains France’s most popular theme park, but if you want something other than huge queues and fairytale castles, there are other attractions that offer a typically French slice of family fun.

Science park Futuroscope and history-themed park Puy du Fou are both located on France’s west coast, where the big beaches, friendly seaside towns and activity-packed holiday parcs (www.siblu.com)  make for an ideal family holiday destination.

Puy du Fou

If you want a noisy, smoky, live spectacular that will bring your children’s history lessons to life, then step back in time at Puy du Fou in the Vendée where, in one afternoon, you can experience a Roman circus, Viking longboats and an 18th century village.

Puy du Fou is essentially a series of live historical shows dedicated to 2,000 years of French history. You can watch gladiators battle, Vikings loot and, in a new show for 2010, armies lay siege.

There are performances of falconry, jousting, magic and music, and the park explodes into life during the evenings when a thousand local volunteers perform a historical sound and music extravaganza on what they claim is the world’s largest stage.

Siblu’s four-star Le Bois Masson holiday parc, in the coastal resort of St-Jean-de-Monts, is within a short drive of Grand Parc Puy du Fou.

A two-bedroom holiday home starts from as little as £725 for two adults and up to three children staying for 7-nights, based on a 17 July departure (www.siblu.com  or call 0871 911 7777). Puy du Fou tickets start from €27 for adults and €17 for children.

Futuroscope

Futuroscope in Poitiers, in the Poitou Charente region of west France, is the country’s second most popular theme park.

There are a series of giant Imax cinemas that broadcast awe-inspiring films which include an interactive safari to see the animals of the future, the legendary Apollo 11 moon flight as viewed by a fly on the wall, and, in a new show for 2010, take viewers on an incredible 4D-adventure created by renowned film director Luc Besson.

There are many other attractions, including giant robot arms that dance with their occupants, and a light show blasted onto water.

Siblu’s Les Charmettes holiday parc is located at La Palmyre in Charente Maritime, within easy reach of Futuroscope.

A 7-night stay at the four-star parc starts from £921 for two adults and three children staying in holiday home accommodation, based on a 17 July start date (www.siblu.com , or call 0871 911 7777).

Tickets for Futuroscope start from €35 for adults and €26 for children.

For more information on siblu holiday parcs in France, go to www.siblu.com , or call 0871 911 7777.