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Travelog: India shines at World Travel Awards

Nearly 120 Asian and Indian Ocean companies and organisations (out of the 800 nominated to compete) were awarded at the inaugural World Travel Awards Asia and Indian Ocean Ceremony at the swissotel Grand, Shanghai, last week. India took the Leading Asian Destination Award, Cathay Pacific Airways won Asia’s Leading Airline and Singapore Changi Airport was awarded Asia’s Leading Airport.

Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre was presented with Asia’s Leading Conference Centre; Pan Pacific Singapore, Asia’s Leading Business Hotel; The Sarojin Khao Lak, Thailand, Asia’s Leading Boutique Hotel; swissotel Grand, Shanghai, Asia’s Leading City Hotel; the Maia Hotel, Seychelles, Asia’s Leading Luxury Resort; Hilton Sanya Resort & Spa, the Leading Spa Resort.

The award for the Leading Travel Exhibition went to Asia’s Luxury Travel Market. In the India categories, Air India was presented with India’s Leading Airline Award; The Leela Palace Kempinski Bangalore, the Leading Business Hotel; Trident Hilton, Gurgaon, the Leading Hotel; the Grand Hyatt Mumbai, the Leading Conference Hotel; and The Oberoi Wildflower Hall, the Leading Spa Resort.

Carrying off eight awards in the Indian Ocean categories were The Maldives. Mauritius won five awards, including the Indian Ocean’s Leading Airline which was presented to Air Mauritius. A further four awards went to the Seychelles. The Asian and Indian Ocean Ceremony is part of the World Travel Awards Grand Tour with regional awards staged throughout the world, ending with a Grand Final at Turks & Caicos in the Caribbean on 12 December 2008.

Kerala unveils 500 online tour packs

Kerala Tourism has unveiled more than 500 tour packages online as part of its new campaign to attract tourists during the monsoon on its website www.keralatourism.org. These range from backwater cruises to hill station holidays and ayurvedic packages and home-stays.

This ‘Dream Season in God’s Own Country’ campaign of the state’s department of tourism has over 230 tourism industry organisations participating with special packages. It is designed to convert the traditional tourist lean season in Kerala (May to September) into a value for money travel period destination. Interested people can browse through a microsite and make bookings directly.

Spain and Portugal for co-promotion

The tourist offices of Portugal and Spain have announced they will continue with their successful programme to promote both countries as a common destination. The Portugal, Spain, both, launched in 2006, has a unified marketing platform and integrated print and online marketing efforts. In alliance with Todd Travel Promotions, they will introduce an online Info Center to provide travel agents and consumers a one-stop resource to order materials and travel brochures.

Four Seasons in Istanbul & Florence

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts’ two new European properties are both in restored historic buildings, a 19th century Ottoman palace in Istanbul and a Renaissance palazzo in Florence. The Four Seasons Hotel Istanbul at Bosphorus (the group’s second in the city) is on the European side of the strait and has 166 rooms in the palace building, with two new wings.

There’s also a 22,605 sq ft spa with three hammams or Turkish baths! The Four Seasons Hotel Firenze opened after seven years of restoration and comprises two protected Renaissance-era buildings, the 15th century Palazzo della Gherardesca and Conventino, a 16th century palazzo which was once a convent. Between them is the city’s largest private garden, the 11 acre Giardino della Gherardesca, on the right bank of the River Arno.

Rare 15th to 19th century frescoes, bas-reliefs, stuccoes and silk wallpapers adorn the palace’s 117 rooms and suites. The spa has products from Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, one of the world's oldest herbal pharmacies, dating back to 13th century Florentine monks. The Conventino, (opening in September 2008) section has 37 rooms and suites with its own reception, concierge, breakfast room and business centre. This is the group’s second property in Italy after Milan’s hotel in a 15th century convent.

Comedy to attract tourists to Britain!

The incompetent TV hotelier Basil Fawlty will be among the unlikely characters promoting British tourism as part of a six-month campaign announced on Tuesday. The Comedy England campaign hopes to encourage tourists to “explore English destinations linked to our rich and diverse comedic history and heritage”, the VisitBritain national tourism body has announced.

Sites associated with other famous comedians such as Jennifer Saunders, Lenny Henry and Laurel and Hardy will also be included. The £10,000 campaign wants to highlight 150 of the country's “comedic locations” including the resort of Torquay, the location of Fawlty Towers, and Turville, Buckinghamshire, where the Vicar of Dibley starring Dawn French was set.

Live comedy venues also get a plug as well as historic buildings with a comedy connection such as the Laurel and Hardy Museum at Ulverston in Cumbria, northwest England. Initially aimed at local audiences, officials from the tourism body said that if it is successful, the programme will be extended world-wide.

Oz wants blockbuster to lure visitors

Australia, an epic outback movie starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman will spearhead a new tourism campaign to lure more visitors Down Under. Directed by flamboyant fellow-Oz Baz Luhrmann, the A$130 million film follows an English aristocrat (Kidman) who inherits a sprawling property and falls in love with a rugged drover (Jackman).

With grand Outback vistas and set in northern Australia on the eve of World War II, it will show the pair driving 2,000 cattle overland against the backdrop of the Japanese bombing of Darwin. Tourism Australia will time its marketing campaign to coincide with the film’s release in November and hopes it will be the biggest boost to tourism since Crocodile Dundee in 1986.

Australia has dumped the controversial A$180 million ‘Where the bloody hell are you?’ tourism campaign featuring a bikini model, which was banned in Britain and Canada. The international campaign wants to present Australia for the next three years as a “mature, inviting country”. Tourism data in April showed signs of weakness from key markets including Japan, Hong Kong and Britain.

GAP Adventures has bought a new ship, the Expedition and will be relaunching its polar expedition programme from January 4, 2009. Built in Denmark in 1972, the ship has been operating around Scandinavia for 15 years. It can accommodate 120 passengers and will be refurbished to offer a comfortable way to explore the Polar regions.

Guests can choose from five categories of cabins, each with portholes or windows, and a there will be a 360-degree observation deck. The Expedition will be fitted with stabilizers to ensure as smooth a passage as possible with a top speed of 16 knots. Ten staffers, expedition leaders, naturalists, historians, geologists and marine and avian biologists, will provide expert insights as the ship sails on its Antarctica and Arctic cruises.

The Antarctica cruise will cover the Falkland Islands and South Shetland Islands. After the Antarctica season in March, the ship will head north to the Arctic, stopping for cruises around the Azores and Great Britain. The ship will then set course from Scotland to the Norwegian Fjords towards Spitsbergen to finish its 2009 polar programme.