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Weekly UpdatesMay 24, 2009
Goway Travel
Goway Travel is offering a 22-day fully escorted tour to Australia and New Zealand called The Waltzing Matilda, which it is positioning as the ultimate tour Downunder. It is one of only six fully escorted tours in Goway's Holidays of a Lifetime series. Clients can also opt to take only the Australia or New Zealand portions (called The Best of Oz and The Best of New Zealand), or can extend their itinerary to include other parts of Australia or New Zealand. The regular departures of the Waltzing Matilda feature air travel with Qantas Airways. New Zealand includes Auckland, Rotorua, Queenstown, Milford Sound and Christchurch. Australia features Cairns, the Great Barrier Reef, Ayers Rock, Alice Springs, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. An optional overnight train journey between Alice Springs and Adelaide on The Ghan train is also available. www.goway.com. May 21, 2009
InterContinental
The InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort & Spa on Natadola Beach will open on June 1, 2009. Spread across 35 acres of tropical gardens, InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort & Spa is the sole destination resort on Natadola Beach -- the only stretch of natural, white sand beach on the main island of Fiji, Viti Levu. The smallest of InterContinental Fiji's 216 rooms and suites is 65m2, much larger than other standard resort rooms in Fiji. Every room has a private terrace or balcony featuring a Cleopatra-style tub and day beds for two, and a Bose surround sound system, with contemporary interiors creating the understated elegance of an InterContinental resort. www.intercontinental.com/fiji. May 22, 2009
Taiwan
Taiwan will begin regular flights to China in mid-July, the island's transport minister said on the weekend, a move that will benefit airlines on both sides and another sign of closer ties between the political rivals. In April, negotiators from Taiwan and China agreed to 270 scheduled flights a week, expanding air links from the current system of limited chartered flights, though they did not commit to a timetable then. Since China-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou took office in May last year, Taiwan and China have signed a flurry of trade deals opening up its transport, tourism and transport sectors, which has boosted the island's stock and currency markets. Taiwan stocks have been one of the world's best performing markets so far this year, partly due to expectations that Chinese money could flow into the island once restrictions limiting investments from the mainland are loosened. Taiwan also hopes closer ties with China will help boost domestic consumption and private investment will help its economy out of what may turn into its longest recession as the worst global downturn in decades hits its key exports sector. There has been a spike in tourism from China, which considers the self-ruled island to be part of its territory and has historically blocked the free flow of tourists, with visitor figures hovering around the upper end of a 3,000 cap. However, Mao said he expected that cap to be lifted gradually as ties between the two sides grow, with the number of Chinese tourists rising to 3 to 4 million a year in the next few years. The Four Seasons hotel chain will also open its first Taiwan hotel in two or three years, addressing complaints about a lack of international hotel chains on the island. Mao said decisions on whether Taiwan or China's airlines could invest in each other was best left for the firms themselves, and said it had not yet decided if the sector would be included in a list of industries open to China. Airlines on both sides, including Taiwan's China Airlines and Eva Airways, and the mainland's Air China and China Eastern have been suffering losses as demand for air travel slows due to the global financial crisis. May 18, 2009
Yachts of Seabourn
The Yachts of Seabourn in 2010 and 2011 will mount a first-ever year-round presence in Asia and a return to Indonesia after a lengthy hiatus with Seabourn Pride and Seabourn Spirit. Seabourn is offering new and expanded destination services with land safaris, journeys to Bhutan and more. New Asian ports of call include Dalian, China; Busan and Inchon, Korea; Nagasaki and Kagoshima, Japan; and numerous Indonesian destinations, including Bali, Borneo, Komodo Island and the Karimunjawa archipelago. Returning guests of Seabourn and those of WorldOs Leading Cruise Lines can take advantage of Club Signature Value sailings on select Asian itineraries with savings of up to 50 percent off brochure rates. www.seabourn.com. May 19, 2009
ZZ AirGuide 090525
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