PHUKET, Thailand — Seven days, one 42-metre yacht and 205 miles of the Andaman Sea’s most inviting waters and pristine islands are the primary elements at play in a new family-oriented cruise launched this month by the M.Y. Calisto in Phuket. Setting sail from the Laem Prao Marina and skirting the spectacular coastlines of Phi...
HA LONG BAY, Vietnam — Passengers who wish they could sit down, write and dispatch a postcard from an inspiring moment on Ha Long Bay are now in luck. Last month, Life Ha Long introduced a selection of postcards, picturing the UNESCO World Heritage site and the iconic, red sailboat fleet, for sale onboard or...
We all want our press releases to go viral. For the wire services to pick them up. For Yahoo to run the news on their home page. For Google to elevate our news prominently on their News homepage. But this rarely happens. What does happen? Well, according to one recent study by RealWire, four media...
HANOI, Vietnam — Hanoi's oldest destination for French dining last week proved it's only getting better with age. Judges from TheDailyMeal.com singled out Le Beaulieu at the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi as one of the '101 Best Hotel Restaurants Around the World' in 2012. The 80-seat contemporary haute brassiere led by Chef Denis Groison was...
SINGAPORE — GHM is strengthening its foothold in Indonesia with an agreement to manage The Chedi Nusa Penida, a 100-villa resort scheduled to open in 2015 on a secluded island ten kilometres southeast of Bali. Developed by Singapore’s Sinni Villas, the exclusive enclave on Nusa Penida will occupy 5.3 hectares of a sloped hillside overlooking...
In the New York Times today, there’s this about hoteliers and TripAdvisor Reviews. The gist of the article is this: That some hoteliers are mad to the point of boiling mad, lawsuit mad, about hotel reviews that are so negative and so uniformed they border on libel. The temptation to go overboard on the negativity is always...
In the Atlantic this month, there’s an insightful article about a realm of tourism with a weird name — thanatourism. The thana part comes from the Ancient Greek, thanatos, which means ‘personification of death.’ This word isn’t in the dictionary yet, but Wikipedia’s got it. The Atlantic article explored Cambodia’s embrace of thanatourism, from Tuol...
For ten years, I worked as an editor in the medical equipment industry. The big service providers often talked about what it was that distinguished them from other providers. What was this, pray tell? Service. They provided more meaningful service. That was humbug. More than humbug, it was lazy. There was a failure of imagination...
