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  • News: Qantas unveils new Singapore lounge

    Qantas has unveiled its new Singapore Lounge, offering Qantas customers the top standards of luxury when travelling in the course of the city.

    Qantas International CEO, Simon Hickey, said the brand new lounge showcased the experiences and cuisine of Singapore.

    “The Singapore Lounge have been designed to enhance the destination: it’s vibrant and chic, spacious and opulent, and it’s the ideal environment for our customers to chill before their flight,” said Mr Hickey.

    “We’ve worked with our renowned Consulting Chef Neil Perry to design menus in line with his Rockpool food philosophy and popular restaurant Spice Temple, with dishes inspired by regional cuisine and flavours.”

    Customers can enjoy quite a number options from the plate of the day on the communal dining area, to food from the live cooking station, help themselves to the extensive buffet or have a snack on the bar. Spice Temple inspired cocktails can be found alongside a global-class wine selection and a barista service.

    The extensive food offering available within the lounge is designed to enhance the brand new Qantas International Sleep Service. Customers wishing to maximize sleep onboard can eat within the lounge and luxuriate in the brand new mattresses and duvets in Business Class accompanied by a T2 wellbeing tea to improve sleep comfort.

    For the primary time Qantas is operating with Sofitel outside Australia to supply customers an experience per its award-winning First Lounges in Sydney and Melbourne.

    The service incorporates a tailored hosted experience for Platinum One Qantas Frequent Flyers, with exclusive services including shirt pressing, shoe shining and priority access to showers. 

    Mr Hickey said the hole of the brand new lounge reflected the Qantas Group’s technique of ‘growing with Asia’. “This multi-million dollar investment is a part of our broader commitment to enhance the experience we provide on services to and from Asia, including our A330 upgrades to start next year,” added Mr Hickey. “It also complements our new Asia schedule, which promotes Singapore as a hub for the region. We now offer more dedicated capacity, better frequencies and improved connections from Singapore to other destinations across Asia.”

    The Singapore Lounge seats 460 guests, has 20 showers, 80-inch television screens throughout and technology pods located around the various zones.

    A Singapore Lounge fact file is accessible providing further details on all elements of the living room.

  • Accor chief ousted over slow turnaround

    Hotel giant Accor has ousted chief executive Denis Hennequin following a disagreement over the pace of change on the largest hotel chain in Europe.

    A transitional team, headed by chief operating officer Yann Caillere, who takes the role of chief executive, was installed charge.

    Board member Sebastien Bazin, head of Colony Europe, was named vice-chairman to exchange Philippe Citerne, who becomes non-executive chairman.

    Hennequin becomes the third chief executive to be ousted from Accor since Usa-based Colony Capital invested within the group in 2005.

    He was hired in 2010 to accelerate an asset light strategy designed to cut back exposure to capital intensive owned hotels in favour of franchises and management contracts.

    However, stakeholders are believed to have lost patience with the rate of change, with Accor shares down five per cent in 2013.

    During his tenure Hennequin sold loss making budget hotel chain Motel 6 for $1.9 billion.

    He also disposed of gourmet caterer Lenotre and a stake in casino group Lucien Barriere, making Accor a pure hotel operator.

    In February, Hennequin launched a 3-year plan to minimize exposure to a weak Europe.

    Instead plans were installed place to step up expansion in emerging markets, while accelerating its move toward franchising or managing hotels for others to lift profit margins.

    “The directors came to the joint conclusion in regards to the group’s situation: that the method adopted is the correct one and that it’ll remain unchanged,” Accor said in a press release.

    “However, given current economic conditions and the rapid transformation of its competitive environment, Accor must accelerate the implementation of this strategy with the intention to reinforce its positions.”

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  • Jekyll Island revitalisation provides a lift to tourism

    Since opening slightly greater than a year ago, the Jekyll Island Convention Center has consistently reported positive growth within the variety of events, trade shows and conventions held on the center every month.

    This positive pattern of progress was repeated last month, with 18 events held in May 2013. These 18 events represented 52 event days, as multiple events were booked on single days.

    Of the events held inside the month of May, three were corporate meetings using the power; additionally, the middle accommodated three graduation ceremonies. All totaled, these events brought greater than 22,700 individuals into the power in May.

    Total revenue generated by events in May was the very best for any previous month, and Jekyll Island’s hotel revenue was up 8 percent over the former year. News of the venue’s busy May comes because the center marks its one-year anniversary. In the course of the first year, 158 events were held on the facility, with greater than 126,000 total attendees.

    For the arriving year, the heart has already issued 85 contracts for events, with 61 fully committed.

    Jekyll Island Meetings and Convention Sales saw a spike in interest from event planners because the May 20, 2013, groundbreaking of the hot 200-room, full-service Westin Jekyll Island. In precisely three weeks, 19 meeting planners requested contract proposals, for a possible economic impact of greater than $3 million.
    Signs of continued progress are visible in the course of the island. One key project was revealed June 17, with the ribbon cutting at the island’s new 1.4 miles of motorbike path, giving the island a continuing loop of 21.4 miles of motorcycle paths.

    In coming months, other bike path projects gets underway, including making a bike path resulting in the island along the Downing Musgrove Causeway; beginning work at the Jekyll Island Beach Village retail project; converting the Oceanside Inn to a brand new Holiday Inn Resort; and the redevelopment of the hot Jekyll Island Youth Conference Center.

    “As progress and revitalization continue, the balance between conservation and revitalization remains on the forefront of all of our efforts,” said Jones Hooks, Executive Director of the Jekyll Island Authority. “It is our goal to respire new life into Jekyll Island, while also maintaining the original spirit which has made Jekyll Island a treasure for the state of Georgia.”

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  • News: TAM Airlines extends mobile technology

    TAM Airlines has extended its mobile check-in service to passengers travelling from São Paulo’s Guarulhos Airport to European destinations, including London Heathrow. The service, previously only available from Europe to Brazil, guarantees a fast and safe boarding experience and in addition it avoids the use of paper boarding passes, which helps contribute to the airline’s commitment to sustainable practices. The service is available for both internet-enabled phones and tablets.

    TAM’s mobile check-in is very simple to use: the passenger just needs to an internet-enabled mobile phone or tablet to access the TAM website (www.tamairlines.com) where they input the flight date and the reservation number, or the e-ticket number. An electronic boarding pass with a bidimensional (2D) bar code is then sent by e-mail or text message (SMS), or it can be saved directly on to the mobile phone or tablet through Passbook (an application that has been developed to store and view boarding passes of different airlines, and is available for iPhone, iPad and Android platforms).

    TAM customers that want to take advantage of checking-in by mobile phone or tablet for international flights departing from São Paulo to London Heathrow and other European destinations, such as Frankfurt, Madrid, Milan and Paris, must carry out the necessary steps from 72 hours and up to three hours before the scheduled flight departure time. Only passengers with luggage should sign in on the TAM service counter. This helps to hurry up the boarding and check-in procedure.

    As well as being a fast and straightforward technique to check-in, the service also allows the passenger to choose or change their seats and to enter their TAM Frequent Flyer card number. It is also possible to check-in more than one person at the same time, as long as all the passengers within the group have an identical reservation code.

  • Grand Hyatt Hotel announced for Changsha China

    Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced that a Hyatt affiliate has entered right into a management agreement with an affiliate of Huayuan Property Co., Ltd for a Grand Hyatt hotel in Changsha, Hunan Province in central China.

    “Changsha has established itself as a huge hub for global business and entertainment, and we’re honored to have the option to bring the Grand Hyatt brand to this kind of great city,” said Mark Hoplamazian, president and chief executive officer of Hyatt Hotels Corporation on the agreement signing in Changsha earlier today. “Throughout our 40 years in China, we have got showed thousands of guests how our associates can meet and exceed their needs, and we glance forward to bringing Hyatt’s signature authentic hospitality to any such dynamic and historic city.”

    Grand Hyatt Changsha may be centrally located within the most prestigious commercial and business areas along the Xiangjiang River in downtown Changsha. The hotel might be portion of “The Central,” a mega mixed use complex with a purpose to incorporate high-end residential buildings, office spaces, and comfort shopping facilities. Situated at the upper floors of an iconic 268-meter-high skyscraper, Grand Hyatt Changsha will enjoy unobstructed views over the town and the river, and is anticipated to become the brand new landmark of Changsha. The 324-room hotel will feature an array of restaurants and bars, multi-purpose meeting and banquet facilities, a health club, a pool and a spa, and is anticipated to create over 500 new jobs.

    “We are very happy to work with Hyatt on such an exhilarating and demanding project. We glance forward to our collaboration with Hyatt in further developing the high-end hotel market in Changsha,” said Ren Zhiqiang, Chairman of Huayuan Property Co., Ltd.

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