Have Elizabeth Hurley and Mrs Abramovich found the perfect beach?
It is an island where the sand has been pumped onshore from the Indian Ocean but this artifice does not make it less alluring, or even less perfect. It has a tranquil turquoise sea and provides barefoot luxury so seductive that for Ms Hurley and many others, the Maldives is addictively compelling, for some on an almost obsessional scale.
Industry leader, Travel Document Systems, Inc., a 26-year veteran of the expedited visa and passport business, has announced that in response to the rapidly-growing consumer demand in travel and tourism to the People’s Republic of China, it will place a renewed focus on this segment of their customer base.
With a worldwide economy in flux, and global tourism on the rebound after many years of uncertainty, China has emerged as a new leader in the battle for the travel dollars of the well-heeled, as well as the culturally curious. <
Luxury hotelier Ian Schrager has launched a new hotel chain in Chicago, promising a revitalization of the hotel industry.
Ian Schrager, credited by some as the creator of the boutique hotel with the launch of Morgans Hotel New York in 1984, is already working on his new brand Edition with Marriott but launched Public May 23, announcing that the first property will open in Chicago this fall.
As the name suggests, Public is designed to be inclusive, rather than exclusive, with the new company saying that it combines elements of luxury and boutique properties with the best of the limited service model.
That could mean that Schrager is aiming for an affordable chain to contrast with Edition, which is positioned firmly in the luxury boutique category.
While service is set to be a key differentiator, Public claims it will do away with superfluous services guests dont use, focusing instead on the essentials although theres no hint yet on what the essentials might be.
The first property will be launched in the former Ambassador East Hotel in Chicago and will still contain The Pump Room, one of Chicagos most famous restaurants, although celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten is being brought in to run the kitchen.
This signals a similar shift, with the new restaurant style being described as reasonably priced, relaxed and comfortable although what impact that will have on its legendary clientele (Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart and John F.
up in the AIR
The first destination on my itinerary was Spaceport America in southern New Mexico. It was from here that I was to be launched into outer space onboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo. Approaching the spaceport, its design screamed space travel, with the overhead glass roof panels providing me with undisturbed views of exactly where we were heading.
As a pre-flight requirement, each of the six passengers had to undergo a simulation. The noise and vibration of the actual mothership on which our craft piggy-backs cannot be replicated, but even the quiet and smooth simulator provided a gut-wrenching g-force experience before we reached a weightless zero-gravity. <
A trip to New York to catch some of the latest Broadway theatre is a treat.
Right now I can report that The Book of Mormon, the new musical from the creators of South Park, is filthily irreverent and impeccably performed, and that, off-Broadway, Punchdrunk’s eerie Sleep No More is like a David Lynch version of Macbeth.
When one’s immersed in New York theatre, it’s a tonic to be staying not amid the Disneyfied bustle of Times Square but in a neighbourhood with a significantly different vibe.
SoHo is ideal.