Daily News & Opinion

Australian Asia tour specialists Wendy Wu Tours has today announced the appointment of Troy Ackerman as general manager of its Australian office. Moving back to Australia from New Zealand, Ackerman joins the Wendy Wu Tours team with more than 22 years of experience in the industry, most recently as general manager of Globus family of brands where he first joined the company in Sydney as national sales manager.

Byron at Byron has today officially joined Crystalbrook Collection’s expanding portfolio of five-star hotels. The resort’s new owners will meet with 200 local businesses early next month as a sign of their intent to continue using local suppliers and sourcing 80 per cent of products within three hours of Byron Bay. Over the coming months Crystalbrook Collection will focus on the resort’s sustainability efforts. This includes removing all plastic water bottles.

A business events industry working group led by Conventions and Incentives New Zealand (CINZ) has released a Request for Quote (RFQ) for the Business Events Research Programme (BERP) contract opportunity. The Business Events Research Programme measures business events activity in New Zealand, and the group is looking for a provider who can deliver a trusted business events data set. The new data collection will be set up for the 2020 calendar year.

In great news for groups after a bona fide Australian outback experience, Flinders Ranges Odysseys has launched the Flinders Ranges Outback Tour. Over three days, guests can explore the 540 million-year-old Flinders Ranges in luxury air-conditioned Mercedes Benz and stay at the award-winning Rawnsley Park Station in luxurious Eco Villas or one-bedroom Holiday Units. The tour departs from Adelaide and includes a canapes by the sunset experience, a visit to a former cattle farm and dinner in a converted woolshed.

In its biggest hotel management deal in Australasia this year, Radisson Hotel Group has signed four new properties for New Zealand. The properties include the 171-room Radisson Blu Hotel Queenstown, which will open 2022; Radisson RED Queenstown, Remarkables Park, which will open at the same date and feature cutting-edge meeting spaces; the 112-room Park Inn by Radisson Lake Tekapo, which will open in 2021; and the 237-room Radisson Blu Resort Lake Tekapo, which will follow in 2022.

A 168-room Hilton Garden Inn will open in the Melbourne suburb of Bundoora in 2021. This marks the second Hilton Garden Inn signing for Australasia this year. Hilton Garden Inn Bundoora will be located 19 kilometres north of the Melbourne CBD and offer an all-day dining restaurant and bar, a fitness centre and 127 sqm of event space.

Marriott International this week hosted its third annual Destination Pacific Islands events, which saw travel industry professionals gather with regional representatives at Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park and Four Points by Sheraton Melbourne Docklands to learn about the latest offerings at the company’s hotels and resorts in Fiji, Samoa and New Caledonia. The events were attended by more than 140 buyers, travel agents and travel trade media, with Sydney guests enjoying a traditional Fijian dance and Melbourne guests enjoying a Samoan one.

Ongoing demand for Bruce Munro’s immersive installation, Field of Light Uluru, has led to the exhibition being extended indefinitely from its previous close date of December 31, 2020. The award-winning exhibition, located at Ayers Rock Resort in the spiritual heart of Australia, opened in April 2016 to critical acclaim and has proven to be a stand-out drawcard to the destination, attracting more than 450,000 visitors to date.