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  • News: Seabourn introduces new elegant penthouse spa suites

    Seabourn is enhancing its spacious, all-suite accommodations with the introduction of Penthouse Spa Suites on its award-winning new trio of intimate ships. Seabourn Quest will emerge from a scheduled drydock in May, 2013 boasting four new elegant Penthouse Spa Suites located directly above the industry leading Spa at Seabourn facility. Guests will access the suites by the use of a spiral staircase within the lobby of the spa, and revel in unlimited access to the spa’s Serene Area, in addition to spa amenities within the suite itself and the services of a spa concierge through the voyage. The brand new suites may also be added to Seabourn Odyssey and Seabourn Sojourn during their next scheduled drydocks.

    “A growing collection of our guests choose Seabourn’s new ships specifically due to our beautiful onboard Spa at Seabourn facilities,” said Seabourn President Richard Meadows . “Some of those guests have expressed a want to incorporate a more complete spa vacation experience into their cruises, and our Penthouse Spa Suites are designed to satisfy that wish.”

    Seabourn commissioned the Norwegian architecture and design firm of Yran & Storbraaten—who designed Seabourn Odyssey, Seabourn Sojourn and Seabourn Quest—to provide you with a plan to make use of the element of Deck 10 directly above the spa for the brand new accommodations.  The result’s four spacious suites with 516 to 538 sq. ft. (48 – 50 sq. m.) of inside space, with expansive private verandas of 172 sq. ft. (16 sq. m.) with views over the ship’s stern and the ocean.  The suites’ decor is coordinated with that of the Spa at Seabourn, and all feature a living and a dining area with seating for four, a separate bedroom, walk-in closet, glass door and floor-to-ceiling windows onto the veranda, a toilet with a bathtub and special spa shower, and two flat-screen TVs. 

    The new suites will offer guests a number of healthy amenities and spa specialties. Together with the guests’ personal beverage preferences, a second in-suite bar may also be fully stocked with flavored water and fruit juices, and a variety of mixed nuts, dried fruits and healthy snacks. Guests can choose a chilled fragrance from a ramification of 4 by L’Occitane, to be diffused inside the suite in the course of the evening turndown. Relaxing, soothing spa music can also be available as a background soundtrack within the suite. The bathrooms will feature a brand new menu of Molton Brown specialty spa products, including exfoliating body wash and varnish and thermal salts body soak, as well as the company’s high end line of tub products which are currently available in every suite.  Upon arrival, guests shall be invited to choose between a menu of luxurious bath sponges, in addition to designer soaps by Hermes, L’Occitane, Baudelaire and Salvatore Ferragamo .

    A Spa Concierge will assist guests booked within the Penthouse Spa Suites with reservations for his or her personalized treatment regimes throughout their stay on board. Guests may have daily access to the spa’s Serene Area, which features heated lounges, an aroma steam bath with salt inhalation, and a herbal bath. Within the Serene Area aboard Seabourn Odyssey is a big hydro-pool, while Seabourn Quest and Seabourn Sojourn contains a Kneipp Walk Pool , which gives holistic, water therapy treatment and healing remedies designed to improve circulation.

    The Spa at Seabourn offers various unique, healthy spa experiences and splendid pampering services and coverings, including Chinese reflexology, aromatherapy, and Thai massages. The gym includes a range of high-tech exercise, cardio and strength equipment; a motion studio with the Kinesis System; and a lot of fitness classes, including yoga, Pilates and tai chi. Personal trainers also are available to develop customized exercises for guests.

  • Frontel for Hospitality to bring Saudi Arabia to Arabian Travel Market

    Saudi Arabia’s Frontel for Hospitality will mark its Arabian Travel Market debut next week because the group looks to take its growing portfolio of properties beyond the Kingdom’s borders, with a strategic development plan for the center East.

    Owner-operator of the recently renovated five-star Western Alharithia Hotel in Madina, the corporate is raring to become the “operator of choice” for hotel owners and developers around the region, in line with Rushdi Sherwani, director brand development, Frontel for Hospitality.

    “With three new group hotels set to open inside the Kingdom within the next two years, we’re also accelerating our development agenda for the region, and also are seeing growing interest from established markets akin to the UAE, in addition to from Iran and Yemen – either one of which can be in search of professional operators to return in and help grow their hospitality base.

    Frontel for Hospitality can be near to signing for 3 properties in Pakistan because the branded operator or on a franchise basis, having spread out negotiations for 2 of most vital hospitality landmarks.

    The first is Karachi’s tallest tower, which currently combines a hotel with a shopping center.

    The second is Karachi’s largest hotel with regards to room inventory and the third property is within the industrial city Sialkot Pakistan.

    “Showcasing our portfolio of properties at Arabian Travel Market presents us with a possibility to fulfill existing partners in addition new potential partners.

    “ATM can even provide a platform for us to create awareness of the Frontel brand and our concentrate on quality.

    “Moving forward, our strategy is to become a primary hospitality player not just inside the Kingdom but within the region,” said Sherwani.

    Frontel for Hospitality Inc. is already actively growing brand presence on its home turf, where it is going to launch its first Frontel property, the 1,350-key Frontel Village Hotel, Madina, in 2014.

    Located only one kilometre from the city’s key religious sites, and offering a decision of 5-star accommodation and facilities housed in five individual seven-storey towers, this may be followed in 2015 by the debut of a second Madina property.

    The luxurious 650-room Frontel Hotel Al Baiya may be situated within the heart of town, and comprises two 10-storey towers, with a footprint of 6,500 square metres, but affording 65,000 square metres of hotel space.

    Expansion into the burgeoning mid-market hotel sector may be section of the company’s development vision, and it’ll launch its first three-star property in Jeddah in 2016, with the hole of the Frontel Business Hotel under the branding of ‘Frontel Eco’.

    “Infrastructure growth in the Kingdom has created a wave of interest and investment into new tourism and business travel facilities, and through the ATM week we’ll be meeting with Hajj and Umrah travel companies and other tour operators from the UAE, Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, to sow the seeds for future partnerships to support forecasted demand,” added Sherwani.

    Sherwani noted that some 381,000 new hotels rooms are expected to be added to Saudi Arabia’s existing inventory by 2015, representing a 63 per cent increase on 2010 figures.

    Inbound visitor arrivals also are forecast to grow from 13 million in 2010 to fifteen.8 million by 2014, with the dominion focusing its efforts on providing the required travel infrastructure to spice up domestic, Hajj and Umrah, and the fledgling inbound tourism sector, because it allocates US$500 million to airport expansion and US$7 billion investment into the hot Jeddah airport.

  • Thomas Cook offers free insurance on travel money

    With summer well and really here, many thousands of holidaymakers are preparing themselves for his or her annual holiday abroad. However, with many leaving it until only a week before departure to switch their pounds for foreign currencies in step with Thomas Cook research, customers may be searching for a quick and simple way of not just getting great rates on their foreign currencies – but in addition keeping it safe.

    With that during mind, Thomas Cook is offering customers free insurance on travel money in recognition that existing policies won’t cover forex within the event of loss or theft. The only real high street forex provider to do that, Thomas Cook’s free insurance cover is exclusively available in stores, and is sweet for brand spanking new purchases of foreign currencies notes from £500 as much as a maximum value of £2,000. It’s going to apply from the date of purchase to the date of return to the united kingdom, or for 31 days – whichever is less**.

    For holidaymakers unsure how much foreign currencies they may need, Thomas Cook recently launched a vacation Budget Calculator hosted on thomascook.com. The Calculator aims to assist holidaymakers gauge how much forex they could need ahead through calculating the important cost of holiday essentials abroad. The service, that is powered by data collected and compiled overseas and in resort by the Thomas Cook Travel Money team, calculates totals by means of the typical cost of selected holiday essentials in loads of popular tourist destinations, along with a bottle of beer, glass of wine or a 3 course meal.

  • News: Norwegian Cruise Line selects NICE Workforce Optimization Solutions

    NICE Systems announced today that Norwegian Cruise Line is adopting NICE’s Interaction Management, analytics-based Quality Optimisation, and customer feedback survey solutions to deliver an enhanced customer experience. The cruise operator selected the great offering as portion of its Cisco contact center method to also improve sales effectiveness and operational efficiency.

    Norwegian Cruise Line will use the good solutions to use quality measurement metrics and solicit customer feedback via IVR (Interactive Voice Response) survey for its three U.S. contact centers. This may occasionally enable the corporate to achieve valuable insights into its customer interactions, including direct input on service levels. This knowledge can assist the cruise operator decide where improvement is required a good way to further enhance customer experience. For example, it can decide that additional agent coaching is wanted with a purpose to close agent knowledge gaps and improve first contact resolution rates.

    By improving the standard of its service, Norwegian Cruise Line shall be ready to achieve greater customer satisfaction and loyalty. It should also help the corporate reduce operational costs and increase revenues by enjoying greater opportunities for cross-selling and up-selling.

    “The NICE solutions provide added value to our contact center operations as they are going to enable us to strengthen our position throughout the competitive cruise industry,” said Crane Gladding, senior vice chairman of passenger services for Norwegian Cruise Line. “Taken along with our existing Workforce Management solution from NICE, we’ve a more comprehensive set of capabilities for optimising our workforce and improving our contact center performance. We’re confident that this may help boost our customer support and deliver measurable return on investment.”

    “This care for Norwegian Cruise Line is a fantastic example of the way our Cisco partnership helps companies leverage best-of-breed technology within a unified communications strategy,” said Barak Eilam , President of NICE Americas. “We are excited to determine companies like Norwegian Cruise Line embrace the great/Cisco offerings to optimise their contact center operations and enhance the buyer experience.”

    Select NICE Workforce Optimization solutions are portion of the Cisco SolutionsPlus program, which delivers a one-stop ordering experience for Cisco’s customers, channel partners, and sales teams for certain third-party products and applications. The solutions integrate with the Cisco MediaSense recording platform.

  • St. Ermin’s Hotel joins Autograph Collection

    The Autograph Collection, Marriott International’s exclusive portfolio of upscale, independent hotels, announced today the debut of the St. Ermin’s Hotel within the Westminster area of London, representing the third Autograph Collection hotel within the Uk.

    Earlier this month, Autograph Collection announced its entree into the united kingdom with the inauguration of Threadneedles inside the heart of London’s financial district and The Glasshouse in central Edinburgh, Scotland.

    The 331-room iconic St. Ermin’s Hotel will expand the gathering of independent lifestyle hotels to incorporate greater than 40 exceptional travel experiences within the Usa, Europe, Caribbean, and South America.

    The vision behind the Autograph Collection is to give an evolving group of passionately independent hotels that fall under distinct categories of travel experience including Culinary Delight, Artistic Getaway, Historic Exploration, or Sporting Adventure.

    Each hotel is thoughtfully chosen for its quality, originality, bold character and capacity to present guests a number of unique and unexpected experiences fitted to their individual sense of favor and adventure.

    This unique global portfolio has proven to be a highly successful venture simply by its discerning process to choose only probably the most exceptional hotels and enriching travel experiences.

    “This is an exceedingly exciting time for the Autograph Collection, and a major event for us in a main, central London location,” said Amy McPherson, president and managing director for Marriott International in Europe.

    “Our three Autograph Collection hotels within the Uk offer travellers an enviable range of artistic, culinary and cultural adventures and this historic hotel is a hugely powerful addition. “

    St. Ermin’s, converted from a Victorian apartment block to a hotel in 1899, is found within a brief walk of Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the homes of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St. James’s Park and diverse other central London landmarks and attractions. 

    The hotel, that’s Grade II listed and boasts numerous original Victorian characteristics, enjoys an illustrious history. 

    It served because the headquarters of the British Secret Service during World War II, and given its proximity to the homes of Parliament, was a preferred political meeting venue for decades.