Restoration and transformation in Bucharest

CORINTHIA Hotels is set to expand its five-star hotel portfolio with the opening of a new luxury property in #Bucharest, #Romania. Located in the heart of the capital, the former Grand Hotel du Boulevard will open its doors again on 1st December 2019, to coincide with Romania’s National Day.

Built in 1867, the listed building was last used as a hotel over a decade ago and will now undergo extensive refurbishment to follow Corinthia’s tradition of restoring 19th century grand hotels across Europe. The award-winning Corinthia Hotel London, Corinthia Hotel Budapest, formerly the Grand Hotel Royal, and Corinthia Hotel St Petersburg, Russia, are all 19th century landmark properties which have been acquired, redeveloped and relaunched by Corinthia Hotels.

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Cape Town's water crisis, tourists asked to act mindfully

EARLIER this year, as news of Cape Town’s water crisis reach the world and ‘Day Zero’ predictions loomed ever larger (on 17 January Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille announced the city had reached “a point of no return” in its water supplies, and that Day Zero was virtually guaranteed in a matter of weeks) so vital questions were raised as to the impact on visitor numbers to the Mother City and the potential dimming tourism, the country’s economic bright spot.

The majority of #CapeTown hotels, however, currently state that they ask guests not to use baths and to limit showers to two minutes or less. Many, such as Tsogo Sun (who are building a desalination plant to help supply its Cape Town hotels with their own water) and the Vineyard Hotel and Table Bay, amongst others, are implementing innovative water saving measures and say that, on the whole, guests are responding positively, are aware of the city’s challenges and act mindfully when visiting.

Economic Opportunities MEC Alan Winde recently stated that the Western Cape has worked hard to develop the Cape Town tourism industry into the award-winning sector it is. He urged visitors to not cancel their trips, but to join Capetonians by using water responsibly while they were visiting. “Saving water in Cape Town means saving jobs in Cape Town,” said Winde.

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Ultimate travel adventure

INSPIRED by five of David Attenborough’s most popular TV series, eShores have created the ultimate wildlife-lover’s holiday. Using locations from both series from Planet Earth and Blue Planet, plus the single series of Frozen Planet, we’ve retraced as many of Attenborough’s steps as possible to to create the #travel adventure of a lifetime.

To emulate the feats of Attenborough and his team from each episode of the five series, you’d have to embark on 175 flights across the world over at least 1034 days, along with several car journeys and a train journey across Siberian Russia.

Totalling £402,220 and lasting at almost 3 years (1034 days), the complete journey also includes several excursions to re-enact the adventures in the series as closely as possible. Included is a trip to Mount Everest from episode one of Planet Earth and an eight-day dogsledding expedition in Greenland, as seen in episode one of Frozen Planet.

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Stockholm: A city for all

STOCKHOLM, the Swedish capital situated on 14 small islands, is famous for its closeness to nature, booming tech-scene, gender-fluid fashion, colorful LGBT community and the Nobel prize. The one thing that really makes the city stand out internationally is its progressive values: #Stockholm is a city for all.

In the spirit of openness, the city’s tourism board, Visit Stockholm, has come together with its national counter-part Visit Sweden, to publish an open letter addressed to “lovers, haters and hesitators”. The open letter is the city’s way of welcoming the global public to a city built on the idea of an inclusive and open society with democracy at its core.

The ‘Open Letter’ is published on www.visitstockholm.com/open-letter and on social media, and is accompanied by a https://youtu.be/AyF3rs9Q5ks shot in Stockholm last August. The video features real tourists live casted on the streets of Stockholm, and marks the start of the city’s effort to both show and communicate the values of the Swedish capital.

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All lit up . . .

WITH less than ten weeks until Queenstown’s award-winning light festival illuminates the night sky, the countdown is officially on. The LUMA Southern Light Project returns to Queenstown, #NewZealand on the Queen’s Birthday Weekend (June 1 – 4) featuring a world light festival ‘first’ with four evenings of illuminated art, light sculptures and entertainment. 

The free public event focuses on the transformation of space, public interaction, art, culture and education, made possible by curated collections of stunning light sculptures and thought-provoking installations. Visitors can expect to be dazzled by an array of interactive and unique light displays, each one designed to encourage them to engage with the art and the surrounding Queenstown landscape. 

Set within the picturesque Queenstown Gardens and waterfront, visitors can explore the illuminated winter wonderland with hot food in hand warming their fingers, as the art captivates their minds. The ‘world festival first’ will see local and international artists collaborating on an instillation using over 90,000 individual light sources to turn trees in the Queenstown Gardens into an enchanted forest.

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Walk over the Pacific Ocean

P&O Cruises is giving Australians the opportunity to experience a thrill-seeking activity of a lifetime with the launch of ‘Walk the Wire’ – the world’s first tightrope walk between two cruise ships as they glide side-by-side on the Pacific Ocean. The safety harness equipped activity involves a 30-metre walk from the top deck of Pacific Aria to sister ship Pacific Eden on a cable stretched 40-metres high above the sea. 

Adrenalin-loving guests can take part in the ultimate balancing act during select cruises in 2019 when the two ships are sailing alongside each other off the coast of New South Wales. The new experience will be available for a select number of guests who pass preliminary tests. Interested participants can visit P&O Cruises’ Australia’s Facebook page and sign up to the Walk the Wire event to receive more information, including how to book. 

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Happy Easter!

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