Author: News Team

The Ritz-Carlton, Powerscourt Hotel in Enniskerry, Ireland, is offering a range of new activities for its junior guests in the summer of 2012. The hotel is offering a number of activities for families with children, including bike trips, picnics on the River Walk, football on the lawn, Mega Chess and the Ritz Kids Games Room, to help keep its young gusts entertained. The hotel is currently offering a Happy Camper programme where children can opt to spend the night in a tent pitched inside their hotel suite. The offer includes a tent and a sleeping bag, a torch and a…

UK-based InterContinental Hotels Group has reported strong results for the first quarter of 2012 and is upbeat for the rest of the year, as it expects a boost in growth from its sponsorship of the 2012 London Olympics. Richard Solomons, the chief executive officer of IHG, said in a statement, ‘Originally, two-thirds of rooms in 35 of our London hotels went to LOCOG (London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games) as part of our support for the Games. LOCOG has just given us 20 per cent of those rooms back and they are back on general sale.…

Finnair, a Finland-based airline, is offering direct connectivity between Europe and inland Chinese destinations. The airline is to connect Helsinki, the Finnish capital, to Chongqing, one of the fastest-growing cities in China. The new route, the first from any European carrier, is claiming to be the fastest connection between Europe and China. Chongqing is located in the Tibetan plateau, and has a total population of 32 million, although its population is expected to double in size over the next five years. The airline chief executive officer, Mika Vehvilainen, said, ‘China is a key part of our Asia-Europe strategy. Western China…

The new, luxurious Okura Prestige Bangkok hotel opens in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 14, 2012. A hotel from the Japan-based Okura Hotels & Resorts brand, the property is located in Bangkok’s new Ventures Ecoplex, around 40-minute away from Thailand’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport. The Okura Prestige Bangkok features contemporary design with a large helping of Asian flavour. The hotel includes 240 guestrooms, as well as a spa, a fitness centre, four restaurants and bars, and a business centre with latest technology. The hotel also has four meeting rooms for hosting events and seminars. Toshihiro Ogita, the president of Hotel Okura Co…

Hotel conglomerate Hilton Worldwide is partnering with Room to Read, a charitable organisation working to develop literacy and gender equality in education. The company has offered its support to Room to Read’s literacy programme, which aims to reach around 2,000 young people in its first phase. Erin Ganju, the chief executive officer and co-founder of Room to Read, said, ‘Room to Read is thrilled to partner with Hilton Worldwide to ensure that young people in South and Southeast Asia have equal access to education. It is a pleasure to work with a global company that is committed to investing in…

Voyages of Discovery, a US-based cruise company, has announced its summer 2013 offerings with the release of a new brochure. The new brochure is offering a range of itinerary choices and special interest cruises for two ships, the 550-guest Voyager, and the 650-guest Discovery. Discovery and Voyager amenities include a health and fitness centre, swimming pools, public jacuzzis, lounges, bars, restaurants, a cinema, a library, a communications centre, and an Internet centre. The new summer 2013 Cruise Collection includes around 22 new ports-of-call, and a special offer on advance bookings. Guests will receive 15 percent off the early booking fares…

Club Med, an all-inclusive resort brand that has 80 resorts across the globe, is offering discounted stays through its semi-annual sale event. For bookings made during the half-yearly sale period, prices for a seven-night stay at Trip Advisor’s number one rated hotel for families in Mexico, the Ixtapa Pacific, commence at £357 per person. This is an eco-friendly resort located beside the Sierra Madre Mountains and on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. The sale prices are available from May 8 to June 26, 2012, for stays to be completed by December 21, 2012. All-inclusive couples’ getaways are available for…

Dark Rome, an Ireland-based tour operator that organises walks and tours in Italy, is offering new VIP Vatican and Private Sistine Chapel tours for visitors to Rome. The company is offering its clients access to a number of the Vatican’s special sites, escorted by a Vatican official, during a three-hour trip. In addition, Dark Rome is offering a special opportunity to visit the Sistine Chapel in a private, half-hour visit with a small group of people, prior to the chapel opening to the public. The tour will also include access to certain locked rooms in the Vatican Museums, including the…

Most travellers would assume that flying with a low-cost airline is cheaper than an equivalent trip with a full-fare airline, but a new study raises doubts about that preconception. Skyscanner, a UK-based flight search engine, has reported that low-cost airlines may charge travellers more than scheduled airlines, depending on the travellers’ additional requirements. The company has reported that complex fare structures utilised by low-cost airlines, along with supplementary charges for check-in baggage, meals onboard, seat choice and other fees, add to the cost of the fare and narrows the difference between these and full fare airlines for travellers. Ryanair, an…

Monarch Airlines, a UK-based airline company, will be launching twelve new routes for winter 2012 from Leeds Bradford International Airport, in the UK. The company is planning to offer new routes to ski destinations including Grenoble airport in France, the Friedrichshafen and Munich airports in Germany, and to tourist resort destinations including Funchal on the Portuguese island of Madeira. The new services include flights from London Gatwick Airport to Friedrichshafen, Funchal (Madeira), and Munich; from Manchester Airport to Friedrichshafen, Grenoble, and Munich; from Birmingham Airport to Funchal (Madeira), Grenoble, and Munich; and more routes planned to Sharm el Sheikh Airport…