Archive for August, 2008

31
Aug

What is Private Residence Clubs all about?

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Categories: Announcements and Private Residence Clubs

Owners of luxury fractional property buy a share of a single residence, that provides them with a couple of weeks to thirteen weeks of usage a year. The ownership period varies by development and can be expressed as a fraction (eg 1/10, 1/8, or ¼) or as a number of weeks (eg 5, 6 or 12 weeks).

Private Residence Clubs are the upper tier of the luxury fractional market, providing all the services of a five star hotel together with the ownership.

There are hundreds of fractional and Private Residence Club developments located in city, beach, mountain and resort destinations. CHeck out our partners link on home directory to search through these locations.

They are sometimes compared to timeshares, although there are several key differences. For instance luxury fractionals are in better locations, are more luxurious and typically larger, providing 2, 3 or 4+ bedrooms.

This article covers the reasons people buy fractionals and PRCs, and if you’re looking to buy read the list of questions to ask before buying your fractional. For easy reference there is a glossary of terms.

30
Aug

Emirates Offers Spa in the Skies on A380

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Categories: Announcements and Spa

Emirates airline has taken delivery of its Airbus A380-800 super jumbo jets, which have become operational on flights between New York JFK airport and Dubai in the UAE.Facilities on the 489-seat aircraft include a Shower Spa room for passengers in the first class suites, while customers can use Emirates signature Timeless Spa products. A separate spa area will offer a number of beauty treatments.

There is also a waterfall feature at the top of the first class stairs, lighting set to mimic sunrise and sunset and a birdsong sound in the morning. Details: emirates.com

29
Aug

Its a Small World in Macau but can be a fun one

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Categories: Announcements and lifestyle club

smallWORLD® SW Experience is a new venture that provides more than 500 unique experiences, suiting all tastes and budgets. Our Experience Pack® is the ultimate answer to the long searches after the perfect gift and will leave lasting memories to those who receive it to enjoy one of our experiences.

SW is a pioneer in experiences gift retail for in the region, SW believe that the possibility of offering unique experiences will challenge the habit of gifting in the region. SW goal is to deliver a ‘pack of emotions’ to our customers, whether it is for a loved one, friend, colleague, and customer or even to spoil oneself.

SW offers suit every taste, occasion and budget. If you have found your perfect present for others or yourself, it is as simple as personalizing the Experience Voucher® and offer it. The person that receives the voucher just has to book the experience on our Experience Hotline® or on SW website. For those who can’t decide, let the receiver choose themselves! The Open Voucher allows recipients to choose from a variety of experiences within value ranges.

SW an ongoing commitment to bring the best experiences with an unrivalled service. SW team, coming from the four “corners of the world”, has a vast experience in tourism, marketing, strategic consulting, entertainment, business development, experience marketing, design, media & journalism and is committed to provide a professional and tailor made end-to-end service, hassle-free to our costumers.

SW invite all to explore life in ways you didn’t even think were possible, and to enjoy them right here.

It is a smallWORLD, experience it!

28
Aug

Adelson makes one year Anniversary on a bad note

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Categories: Announcements and Casinos

MACAU: Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman Sheldon Adelson insisted his company would thrive despite worsening economic conditions as he marked the one-year anniversary Thursday of his US$2.4 billion Venetian resort in this southern China gambling city.

Since opening, the mega-casino resort, the biggest in the world, has had 24 million visitors and helped launch what Adelson envisions as a massive, concentrated resort area, the Cotai Strip, he’s betting will become one of the world’s top tourist destinations.

However, the American billionaire, whose company posted a second-quarter loss amid a weakening Las Vegas market, faces a host of challenges from slowing global growth to fierce competition from Wynn Resorts and others.

Adelson maintained Sands could fare well because of its focus on luring business travelers for conventions, exhibitions and other industry meetings held even during recessions.

“Our entire strategy avoids the possibility of an economic slowdown, a recession,” Adelson told reporters at the Venetian Macao Hotel Resort.

27
Aug

Tiger cashing in on Dubai Design contracts

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Categories: Announcements and Golf Design

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP)—Tiger Woods is already the world’s top-ranked golfer and highest paid athlete. And if all goes according to plan, he’ll soon be sporting his biggest trophy yet: a luxury golf course hewn from the sands of the Arabian desert.

The ambitious project, touted as the first course in the world designed by the 2008 U.S. Open champion, remains a work in progress on the outskirts of this Middle Eastern boomtown—much like the rapidly growing city itself.

But the project’s chief said Monday that the first phase of the development, which among other unlikely features promises 5 million square feet of locally grown grass and more than 30,000 full-grown imported trees, is on target for completion sometime in the last three months of 2009.

“Our schedule is currently on track,” Abdulla Al Gurg said in an interview with The Associated Press.

However, Gurg did leave the Dubai-based developer Tatweer some wiggle room in case the city’s notorious work delays snag one of its most high-profile projects, adding: “Our key criteria is adherence to excellence.”

Tatweer is a division of Dubai Holding, which is owned by the emirate and its ruler, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The golf course project, known as The Tiger Woods Dubai, will be part of a massive theme-park complex known as Dubailand the company is building on barren desert along the edge of the city.

Gurg said the company is spending 4 billion dirhams—about $1.09 billion— to build the course and the surrounding housing development.

He wouldn’t say how much Woods was being paid.

Gurg spoke following an event to showcase the project at a glitzy beachfront hotel just down the road from a man-made marina surrounded by dozens of skyscrapers, many still under construction.

Full-page ads in Emirates newspapers have been trying to entice local buyers to consider one of the 197 so-called palaces, mansions and villas that will flank the course. The project’s first stage will consist of the 18-hole, par 72 course itself, as well as a golf academy and a driving range. A hotel and most of the gated housing community should be finished by the second or third quarter of 2010, Gurg said.

On Monday, Woods paid his first visit to the construction site since a June knee surgery sidelined him for the rest of the 2008 season. He said he didn’t know when he might return to play next year. “It’s frustrating for me,” he said when asked about the injury. Woods didn’t rule out defending his title as Dubai Desert Classic champion, adding that he plans to “be hitting golf balls at the beginning of the year.”

26
Aug

Edinburgh Festival Expo Fund finances “Made in Scotland”

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Categories: Announcements

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is to receive 200,000 Pounds from the Scottish Governments 6 million pounds Expo Fund, for a new intiative that will provide a platform for Scottish artists- especially dance and theartre preformance - to showcase their work

 The programme, called Made In Scotland, which will launch at the 2009 Fringe festival, will also benefit from 20 per cent of the Expo Fund for the next three years.

Made In Scotland is a partnership between the Fringe festival, the Federation of Scottish Theatre (FST) and the Scottish Arts Council (SAC).

Jon Morgan, director of Edinburgh Festival Fringe, said: “The Fringe can open up a whole host of opportunities and it’s on the doorstep for Scottish artists.

“Made In Scotland will provide financial and developmental support so Scottish dance and theatre artists can present their work in the best possible way at the Fringe and open up touring opportunities.”

The programme offers a year-round programme of training, support and advice to companies that perform at the festival and will continue to support these organisation if they are offered international touring opportunities.

Lizzie Nicoll of the FST, said: “Made In Scotland is an unrivaled opportunity for FST’s members to raise the profile, expand the reach and increase the international touring and co-production possibilities for their boldest and most exciting work.”

The £6m Expo Fund is available to all 12 festivals in Edinburgh between 2008-9 and 2011-12, to support new productions, events or exhibitions that premiere at any of the Edinburgh Festivals.

Culture minister Linda Fabiani, said: “The Expo Fund is designed to help maintain the global competitive edge of the festivals which make a significant contribution to our economy and attract visitors from around the world.”

The SAC will be allocating up to £1,308m of the Expo fund in 2008-09.

25
Aug

Sky City Casino in NZ down by 49% in revenue

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Categories: Announcements and Casinos

WELLINGTON, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Sky City Entertainment Group Ltd (SKC.NZ: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), New Zealand’s largest casino operator, reported a 49 percent fall in full year profit on Monday, but said it had had a satisfactory start to the current year.

The group, which has a near-monopoly in New Zealand, said reported net profit for the year to June 30 was NZ$49.9 million ($35.3 million) compared with NZ$98.4 million last year.

That was in line with a forecast of NZ$49.4 million in a survey of eight analysts by Reuters Estimates.

Net profit adjusted for one-off items rose 19 percent to NZ$111.9 million. The company had previously forecast a profit of NZ$108-110 million before a NZ$60 million writedown of its cinemas business, announced in February.

Shares in Sky City opened down 1.5 percent at NZ$3.38, compared with a broader market .NZ50 up 0.5 percent.

Sky City will pay a dividend of 10.5 cents per share, compared with 12 cents per share last year, and said it would continue to target a 90 percent payout ratio.

It did not give a specific forecast for the year ahead but said it had experienced satisfactory trading in the year to date, and would concentrate on cost controls and debt retirement in the year ahead.

The company owns or has an interest in four casinos and a cinema chain in New Zealand, where a ban on new casinos has given it a virtual monopoly

24
Aug

$90 Million Luxury Spa in Somerset to be developed

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Categories: Announcements, Leisure and Spa

PEAPACK-GLADSTONE —The developer of a proposed $90 million luxury spa at the Natirar estate said construction will begin on the first phase of the project within a week.

The first building to be started will be a restaurant and cooking school, said Bob Wojtowicz, a partner with British billionaire Sir Richard Branson in the plan to construct a new spa and transform an abandoned 1912 mansion into a resort.

Wojtowicz said he had received final word on Monday, Aug. 25, that the necessary borough permits had been approved to begin work on the restaurant and related school.

That building will be open to the public immediately following completion, anticipated for next April, Wojtowicz said. The construction of a new 26,000-square-foot spa building will probably be the next phase of work to begin on the property, he said.

The spa owners have a 99-year agreement to lease 90 acres for the resort from Somerset County, which owns Natirar. The county purchased the former private estate with almost 500 acres of land for $22 million in 2003, and has already opened a public trail on part of the remaining open space.

Preliminary groundwork had already started at the restaurant site, now an old carriage house, soon after a ceremonial groundbreaking at Natirar on July 22, Wojtowicz said.

Jim Fania, borough construction official, said the permits granted will allow work to begin on the restaurant’s footings and foundation only.

Wojtowicz said additional permits are needed for each phase of work to take place, including the renovation of the mansion and other existing cottages to create hotel rooms.

Mayor William Horton said at the July 22 ceremony he expects the spa will be a major draw for people from throughout the Northeast.

But Wojtowicz also emphasized during that tour of the property that many of the facilities will be open to the general public as well as hotel visitors when the spa is finished. In July, he said the projected completion for the entire spa was fall 2009.

However, on Monday, Wojtowicz said he would not guess at a timetable. “We will open each phase as it is done,” he said.

23
Aug

The Top 100 Golf Courses outside the US

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Categories: Announcements

The ranking is part of Golf Digest’s magazine, a biennial feature in the magazine that looks at the best places to play in the corners of the globe. The Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland was named No. 1, followed by Australia’s Royal Melbourne G.C. (Composite, No.2); Royal Portrush (Northern Ireland, No. 3); Royal County Down G.C. (Northern Ireland, No. 4) and Scotland’s Royal Dornoch G.C. rounding out the top five.

In order to determine the rankings, Golf Digest contacted every golf association, federation and union in the world for the number of courses and golfers in their country, plus nominations for their best layouts. Then, after extensive research, the magazine created a comprehensive master ballot with 1,005 of the best courses on Earth. The ballots were sent to Golf Digest’s 800-plus international course-rating panelists and to the editors of the magazine’s 28 foreign editions.

The 100 best courses outside the US:

1. St. Andrews (Old) St. Andrews, Scotland
2. Royal Melbourne G.C. (Composite) Black Rock, Australia
3. Royal Portrush G.C. (Dunluce) Portrush, N. Ireland
4. Royal County Down G.C. Newcastle, N. Ireland
5. Royal Dornoch G.C. (Championship) Dornoch, Scotland
6. Muirfield Gullane, Scotland
7. Ballybunion G.C. (Old) Ballybunion, Ireland
8. New South Wales G.C. Sydney, Australia
9. National G.C. Woodbridge, Canada
10. St. George’s G. & C.C. Islington, Canada
11. Turnberry (Ailsa) Turnberry, Scotland
12. Carnoustie G.C. (Championship) Carnoustie, Scotland
13. Kingston Heath G.C. Melbourne, Australia
14. Hamilton G. & C.C. Ancaster, Canada
15. Royal Porthcawl G.C. Porthcawl, Wales
16. Royal St. George’s G.C.Sandwich, England
17. Casa de Campo (Teeth of the Dog) La Romana, Dominican Republic
18. Sunningdale G.C. (Old) Sunningdale, England
19. Beacon Hall G.C. Aurora, Canada
20. Kingsbarns G. Links St. Andrews, Scotland
21. Loch Lomond G.C. Luss, Scotland
22. Highlands Links Cape Breton, Canada
23. Swinley Forest G.C. Ascot, England
24. Hirono G.C. Hyogo, Japan
25. Leopard Creek G. Estate & C.C. Malelane, South Africa
26. Royal Birkdale G.C. Southport, England
27. Lahinch G.C. (Old) Lahinch, Ireland
28. Golf de Morfontaine Morfontaine, France
29. Gary Player C.C. Sun City, S. Africa
30. Portmarnock G.C. (Old) Portmarnock, Ireland
31. Royal Westmoreland G. & C.C. St. James, Barbados
32. Royal Adelaide G.C. Adelaide, Australia
33. Le Golf National (L’Albatros) Guyancourt, France
34. Royal Troon G.C. (Old) Troon, Scotland
35. The National G.C. (Moonah) Cape Schanck, Australia
36. Royal Lytham and St. Annes G.C. Lytham St. Annes, England
37. Cruden Bay G.C. Cruden Bay, Scotland
38. San Lorenzo G.C. Almancil, Algarve, Portugal
39. Macrihanish G.C. Campbeltown, Scotland
40. Tokyo G.C. Saitama, Japan
41. Woodhall Spa G.C. (Hotchkin) Woodhall Spa, England
42. Ganton G.C. Ganton, England
43. Les Bordes Beaugency, France
44. Kasumigaseki C.C. (East) Saitama, Japan
45. Mid Ocean Club Tucker’s Town, Bermuda
46. Redtail G. Cse. Port Stanley, Canada
47. Cape Kidnappers G.C. Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand
48. Domaine Imperial G.C. Gland, Switzerland
49. Barnbougle Dunes G. Links Bridport, Tasmania, Australia
50. Taman Dayu G.C. Pasuruan, Indonesia
51. Spring City G. & Lake Resort (Lake) Kunming, China
52. Spring City G. & Lake Resort (Mountain) Kunming, China
53. Playa Dorada G. Cse. Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic
54. Wairakei International G. Cse. Taupo, New Zealand
55. Santa Elena G.C. (RTJ2) Cabuyao, Laguna, Philippines
56. Capilano G.C. West Vancouver, Canada
57. Russley G.C. Christchurch, New Zealand
58. Puerto Azul G.C. Ternate, Cavite, Philippines
59. The Links at Fancourt George, South Africa
60. Paraparaumu Beach G.C. Paraparaumu Beach, New Zealand
61. The European Club Brittas Bay, Ireland
62. Durban C.C. Durban, South Africa
63. Cabo del Sol G.C. (Ocean) Los Cabos, Mexico
64. G.C. de Barbaroux Brignoles, France
65. Western Gailes G.C. Irvine, Scotland
66. Metropolitan G.C. Melbourne, Australia
67. Royal St. David’s G.C. Harlech, Wales
68. The Lakes G.C. Sydney, Australia
69. Saujana G. & C.C. (Bunga Raya) Selangor, Malaysia
70. The Mines Resort & G.C. Selangor, Malaysia
71. Royal Montreal G.C. (Blue) Ile Bizard, Canada
72. Pinx G.C. Jeju Island, South Korea
73. Royal Liverpool G.C. Hoylake, England
74. Greywolf G.C. Panorama, Canada
75. Valderrama G.C. Sotogrande, Spain
76. The Gulf Harbour C.C. Whangaparaoa, New Zealand
77. Banff Springs G.C. (Stanley Thompson) Banff, Canada
78. Angus Glen G.C. (South) Markham, Canada
79. Lynx at Kingswood Park Fredericton, Canada
80. Aberdovey G.C. Aberdovey, Wales
81. Fox Harb’r G. Resort & Spa, Wallace, Canada
82. Buenos Aires G.C. Bella Vista, Buenos Aires, Argentina
83. Shenzhen G.C. Shenzhen, China
84. Vilamoura G.C. (Old) Vilamoura, Portugal
85. Luisita G.C. Tarlac, Philippines
86. North Berwick G.C

22
Aug

Casino giant Genting/Stanley cant pay staff in UK

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Categories: Announcements and Casinos

Members working for casino giant Genting Stanley are being asked to take a pay deferral following talks between the GMB NNC (National Negotiating Committee) and Stanley-Genting senior management.

The company whose pay award is from May 1st each year are currently investing over £600 million in their Asian operations and potentially £90 million on the Birmingham NEC project. The company claims the impact of the higher taxation levels, the smoking ban and the removal of section 21 machines have impacted substantially on their operations and as such a pay award before 2009 is unlikely.

Adrian Baker, GMB said “The reasons for a deferral given by the company will not change between now and January. This equates to a short-term gain for the company at the direct expense of GMB members at a time when they can least afford it. For a company who wish to be regarded as the “employer of choice” within the UK Casino industry to ask for an eight-month pay deferral without any long term guarantees is in effect asking staff to take a pay cut. Stanley-Genting employees will be horrified given the current rises in the cost of living and inflationary pressures being placed upon them and we ask Stanley-Genting UK senior management to re-consider their position and put a stronger case in support of their staff to their Malaysian parent company. The NNC believe that the annual pay rise is not only important to individual staff but to the workforce collectively as a commitment to investing in and retaining the company’s most valuable asset in these ‘difficult times’ ”

GMB / Stanley- Genting talks are set to resume at Crockfords Casino Mayfair on October 14th 2008 at which point casinos workers will be balloted on any offer.

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