World Hotel Travel Blog

Hong Kong Wetland Park is an important living ground for birds. Up to now, the Park has recorded over 235 bird species, which accounts for about half of the bird species of Hong Kong. The Park is an ideal place for bird watching.

This year, the adorable ducks will be the icon of the “Bird Watching Festival” at Hong Kong Wetland Park. Every winter, large flocks of ducks can be seen at the Park. Moreover, the Park has first invited the renowned comic star “Ah Lei” to be the ambassador of “Bird Watching Festival 2011/12″, accompanying visitors to know more about the lovely ducks in a fun-filled way. Read the rest of this entry »

Singapore Airlines is pleased to announce the addition of a seventh daily flight between Singapore and Hong Kong, making the territory its busiest point outside of Singapore, with 56 outbound flights weekly (including flights departing Hong Kong for San Francisco).

The new service will commence on 27 March 2011. SQ890, operated by a Boeing 777-200ER aircraft, will depart Singapore at 0735hrs and arrive in Hong Kong at 1120hrs. The return flight, SQ891, will depart Hong Kong at 1230hrs and arrive in Singapore at 1610hrs.

Customers will have an even wider range of flight timings to choose from, with seven flights within a 12-hour period departing from both Singapore and Hong Kong. For the full schedule, please refer to the table below. Read the rest of this entry »

The Hong Kong Rugby Football Union today announced the 24 international teams taking part in the Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens 2011.

This year the iconic Hong Kong Sevens march past will feature some south of the border flair as the Hong Kong Sevens welcomes Mexico to the fiesta. Mexico is the first new competing team for the Hong Kong Sevens since Madagascar appeared in 2006.

Invited by the International Rugby Board to compete in Hong Kong, Mexico becomes the 49th country to compete at the Hong Kong Sevens in the 35 years since the inception of the event. The Hong Kong leg will be Mexico Sevens’ only participation on the IRB World Sevens Series 2010/2011.

This year’s Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens also sees the return of Spain for the first time since 1998, while Malaysia returns for the first time since 2003.

The Hong Kong Rugby Football Union, organisers of the Cathay Pacific/Credit Suisse Hong Kong Sevens, are excited to again welcome the 12 core teams participating in the IRB Sevens World Series 2010/11: Argentina, Australia, England, Fiji, France, Kenya, New Zealand, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, USA and Wales. Seven other teams from outside the region will join the Core teams: Canada, Mexico, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Tonga and Zimbabwe. Closer to home, the Hong Kong Sevens continues its traditional role supporting the development of Asian rugby hosting five teams from around the region: China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Read the rest of this entry »

Harbour Plaza 8 Degrees has stunned the hotel industry again with its second award “Best Mid-range Hotel in Hong Kong” in the Individual Hotel Awards category awarded by TTG China Travel Awards 2010 while the hotel is still celebrating its opening less than 6 months.

The hotel received the news on Thursday April 8, 2010 at the TTG China Travel Awards 2010 Ceremony & Gala Diner, held at the Shanghai World Financial Centre. The honoured award was presented alongside 54 stellar travel organisations who had earned the approval of its industry peers as being amongst the best in the trade and that have shown strong commitment towards service excellence. Harbour Plaza 8 Degrees‘ distinctive design, including its renowned optical illusion lobby and continued friendly and attentive service has won the hearts of the over 28,000 voting readers of travel trade publications such as TTG China, TTG Asia, TTG-BTmice China and TTGmice. The votes represent the voice of the region’s trade professionals hailing from across 17 countries in the Asia-Pacific and Greater China region. Read the rest of this entry »

Luxury 5-star hotel, Harbour Plaza Hong Kong rises to new heights as the property rebrands to Harbour Grand Kowloon on 28th January, 2010. The rebranding follows the announcement of the opening of Harbour Grand Hong Kong earlier this year. The “Grand” in the name signifies the brand’s five-star image and luxury offerings. There will be two Harbour Grand hotels in the city, with one on Kowloon side and the other on Hong Kong Island.

Located along the Kowloon waterfront, providing breathtaking views of Hong Kong‘s famous skyline, the hotel’s decision to rebrand is a natural progression and reflects the hotel’s already acknowledged 5-star status. Read the rest of this entry »

The stars of the tennis world are lined up for the Hong Kong Tennis Classic 2010. The city’s showpiece event will feature four of the ‘World’s Top Ten’, plus five Grand Slam Champions, and it takes on an exciting new twist with the inclusion of four of the ‘legends’ of men’s tennis.

Top names include world number four, Caroline Wozniacki, and sixth ranked, Victoria Azarenka who will both represent Team Europe. Opposing divas Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams will represent Team Russia and Team Americas respectively. They will be supported by world number nine, Russian Vera Zvonareva and Argentina’s top-ranked player, Gisela Dulko. Sports icon and Chinese player, Zheng Jie, and Japan’s number one, Ayumi Morita, headline a determined Team Asia Pacific.

Four legends of the men’s game line up alongside their illustrious female compatriots. Team Americas showcases former superstar Michael Chang, who makes a welcome return to Hong Kong for Team Americas. Thai heartthrob Paradorn Srichaphan, who recently returned to the world circuit, adds power and spice to Team Asia Pacific. Former Wimbledon Champion, Sweden’s Stefan Edberg brings his serve and volley-style and quiet charisma to an accomplished Team Europe. And Team Russia packs big gun Marat Safin. Read the rest of this entry »

To celebrate a significant step in the expansion of Hong Kong Disneyland, a groundbreaking ceremony was held today at the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. John Tsang, Financial Secretary of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, and Jay Rasulo, Chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts officiated the ceremony with representatives from the Government, The Walt Disney Company and the Hong Kong community in attendance.

The ceremony represents a major milestone in the Resort’s expansion plan. The expansion will bring the total number of attractions, entertainment and interactive experiences at the Park to more than 100, create 3,700 jobs during the construction phase and 600 new full-time jobs after expansion. Read the rest of this entry »

Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA)’s emergency response capability was put through its paces when a rescue exercise involving sea, land and air operations was carried out early this morning. In the annual drill, a Government Flying Services (GFS) helicopter was mobilised to help search for survivors after an airplane crashed upon landing on the North Runway.

Today’s exercise, codenamed Crash Exercise 2009, simulated an incoming flight from “Miza” to HKIA that crashed while landing on the North Runway at around 0500 hours. As part of the scenario, the aircraft, carrying around 280 passengers and crew members on board, broke into two sections, with its main fuselage coming to rest in a taxiway. A number of passengers were found in the nearby water west of the North Runway.

Large-scale rescue work immediately commenced when the Air Traffic Control Tower activated the crash alarm. The first rescue team responded to the alarm and arrived at the scene within two minutes of the accident. The Airport Emergency Centre was also activated to act as the off-site coordination centre for close communications among all concerned parties and to ensure that prompt rescue actions were taken.

As the sky was still dark when the accident occurred, Government Flying Services mobilised a helicopter to provide an aerial search for survivors. With the help of the helicopter’s searchlight and Forward Looking Infra Red detection system, the Airport Fire Contingent of the Fire Services Department (FSD) then deployed a rescue vessel to carry out sea rescue operation.

Simultaneously, the land rescue team attended to the fuselage, extinguishing the fire and evacuating from the area surviving passengers and crew, who were then conveyed to six hospitals. The uninjured were escorted to the Passenger Reception Centre in Terminal 1 for immigration and customs clearances.

The multi-modal sea, land and air rescue action finished at 0704 hours. 107 simulated passengers and crew member were injured and carried to hospital by ambulances. While 153 people were saved uninjured, 17 lost their lives in the accident, including all of the five passengers recovered by sea.

The Airport Authority (AA), together with the Civil Aviation Department, Hong Kong Police, FSD and Cathay Pacific, held a simulated press conference where around 30 university students acted as journalists to report the accident. Participating airline Cathay Pacific provided an A330-300 aircraft for the operation. Read the rest of this entry »

On 12 November 2009 night the winners of the fifth AsiaSpa Awards, presented by AsiaSpa magazine, the region’s most recognised spa and wellness publication, were announced and honoured at a glittering evening in Hong Kong. Celebrating the best in innovation and quality in spas around the region, the 27 categories voted on by 28 independent judges were won by spas, spa personalities, associations and resorts that have set the benchmarks for quality and service in the region.

It was a night of glitz and glamour as Asia’s spa community came together to celebrate its finest. Themed “La Belle Epoque”, the event saw guests dressed to the nines in their most elegant 1920s fashion. Women dressed in their finest feathers, jewels and silky dresses, while the men came in fedoras, vests and suits.

The big winners of the night included Thailand which won for “Destination Spa of the Year” for Six Senses Destination Spa Phuket as well as “Asian Spa Capital of the Year”. Green T. House in Beijing also won for “Day Spa of the Year” as well as “Spa Design of the Year”. “Spa Event of the Year” went to the Global Spa Summit held at Interlaken, Switzerland. In the first year for the category “Best Children’s Spa Menu of the Year”, the Ice Cream Spa at Conrad Maldives Rangali Island emerged as the category’s debut winner. Read the rest of this entry »

The DestinAsian-Asia’s Travel Magazine, The parent company of several subsidiaries operating in the media and publishing sectors, based in Jakarta – Indonesia. They checked and selected 39 hotels to join their annual roundup of Asia-Pacific’s most notable debuts. Read the rest of this entry »