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Westin Hotels & Resorts expands in Mumbai with the opening of The Westin Mumbai Powai Lake

Westin Hotels & Resorts, part of Marriott Bonvoy’s portfolio of 30 extraordinary hotel brands, continues to propel its footprint in India with the opening of The Westin Mumbai Powai Lake. Embracing the brand’s foundational pillars of Eat Well, Move Well and Sleep Well, the hotel features signature brand programs that empower guests to regain control and maintain their holistic well-being while they are on the road. Set on the scenic shore of Lake Powai in Mumbai, the hotel features 600 guestrooms with spectacular views of the Hiranandani skyline overlooking the tranquil waters of the Lake. Well-being meets style as The Westin Mumbai Powai Lake’s design philosophy takes inspiration from the concept of Biophilia, which posits that people have an innate need to connect with nature and that our link to the natural world affects our well-being. “We are excited to bring the second Westin property to Mumbai. There is an increasing demand for wellness travel and The Westin Mumbai Powai Lake is set to expand the brand’s signature wellbeing offering to locals and global travellers,” said Neeraj Govil, Senior Vice President Operations, the Asia Pacific excluding China. “The Westin Mumbai Powai Lake is set to be a part of Marriott International’s portfolio of 127 hotels in India and further complements our commitment to growth in the region, bringing a diversified portfolio for different types of travellers.” The hotel experience comes to life through the brand’s six pillars of well-being – Sleep Well, Eat Well, Move Well, Feel Well, Work Well, and Play Well – allowing guests to personalise their stay and engage in programming that meets their needs. Guests can enjoy brand signatures such as the iconic Heavenly® Bed, and refreshing amenities including White Tea Aloe Heavenly® Bath products and Sleep Well Lavender Balm to promote a revitalizing rest. The expansive Quan Spa has been designed to prioritize guest’s well-being with six treatment rooms (launching later this year) and a tranquil outdoor pool. The state-of-the-art WestinWORKOUT® Fitness Studio offers world-class equipment, overlooking the breath-taking views of the Powai Lake. As a part of the Move Well program, our Run Concierge anticipates guests’ wellness routines and ensures that individuals maintain their workout regimens while travelling as well. To translate this on ground, the hotel has a 2km scenic track across 15 acres of lush greenery around the Powai Lake helping guests physically unwind. The new hotel offers guests opportunities to indulge in the brand’s Eat Well offerings – as seen in all four dining venues. The Westin Mumbai Powai Lake offers a host of culinary experiences created by renowned chef – Gautam Mehrishi who’s known for his inept knowledge and skills with Indian cuisine. With trendsetting menus and authentic flavours, the Indian specialty restaurant, Nawab Saheb serves signature dishes inspired from the Northern Indian Frontier and royal Mughal era. Mayouchi is the elegant and intimate oriental tapas bar and also the ideal spot to catch stunning sunsets overlooking the city horizon. Lake View Café, is an award-winning all-day dining restaurant featuring global favourites and a sustainably sourced menu of nutritious foods, also includes an alfresco area where one can breathe in the serenity of the lake. Mumbai Express is the deli where guests can enjoy a wide selection of gourmet foods, healthy bowls and beverages perfect to grab and be on the move. The Work Well offerings help guests to stay productive on the road. Smart, thoughtfully designed workspaces make collaboration easy and effortless while they are away from the office. The Westin Mumbai Powai Lake boasts over 102,325 sq. ft. of contemporary meeting and events space. Fully equipped with advanced audio-visual capabilities, the Grand Ballroom can accommodate up to 1,800 persons. Perfect for business meetings, the resort has 15 versatile indoor and outdoor venues that are ideal for large-scale conferences or intimate social events. The hotel’s outdoor event space overlooks Powai Lake, making it a popular choice to host weddings and social functions. From carefully curated Bright Breaks and energizing agendas, to inspiring flexible settings and responsible practices, the hotel ensures attendees and planners feel accomplished, invigorated, and ready to perform at their best. Resonating with the brand’s core philosophy, the business spaces have been crafted to allow flexibility in function through simple and intuitive design details. “We are delighted to launch our Powai hotel in its new avatar of wellness and wellbeing, The Westin Mumbai Powai Lake. The team at the hotel looks forward to welcoming back our guests – the old loyalist as well as new adventurist to this upgraded hotel in Powai Mumbai. My best wishes to our colleagues at the Hotel for the exciting times ahead” said Sanjay Sethi, CEO and MD, Chalet Hotels. “We at Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre are delighted to embark on a new journey as we rebrand ourselves to The Westin Mumbai Powai Lake, becoming part of the globally acclaimed Westin Hotels & Resorts,” said Nagesh Chawla, Cluster General Manager – The Westin Mumbai Powai Lake and Lakeside Chalet, Mumbai – Marriott Executive Apartments. “Located on the scenic shore of the Powai Lake, our hotel offers a sense of relaxation and escape for every type of traveller thanks to Westin’s signature approach to Eating Well, Sleeping Well and Moving Well. We look forward to providing our guests a new way to experience the city.”

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Irish hotel group Dalata seeing rebound in leisure travel, not corporate

Ireland's largest hotel operator, Dalata Hotel Group, is beginning to see a strong rebound in international leisure travel but its chief executive doubts that corporate demand will ever return to pre-pandemic levels. Dalata reported on Tuesday that full-year revenue rose 40 per cent to EUR 192 million (USD 214.56 million). While that was still 45 per cent below 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, the Dublin-based group said room occupancy improved each time lockdown restrictions were eased. It expects like-for-like group revenue per available room (RevPAR) - a key measure of a hotel's top-line performance - to be 91 per cent of 2019 levels in February, a mark chief executive Dermot Crowley said he would not have believed was possible four or five weeks ago. "I flew back from Manchester myself on Friday afternoon on business, it was on a Ryanair flight full of people who were clearly coming over to enjoy their weekend in Dublin. I haven't seen that in two years," Crowley told Reuters in an interview. While Crowley sees significant pent-up demand for holiday travel, boosted by the return of airline capacity and events, international corporate travel is "absolutely nowhere near where it normally would be" in Dalata's main Irish market. He sees it as "inevitable" that business travel will remain below pre pandemic levels, with the growth in remote meetings and companies looking to travel less for environmental reasons leaving Dalata to fight for a bigger share of a potentially smaller market. Dalata, which runs 45 hotels under the Maldron and Clayton brands in Ireland and the UK, expanded into continental Europe for the first time last month after announcing it had agreed to operate a leasehold in Dusseldorf. While regional UK and London remains its primary focus for growth, Crowley said it was looking at any large European city that has a strong mix of corporate and leisure, namechecking Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne, Munich, Amsterdam, Vienna, Brussels, Rome, Madrid and Barcelona as possible new locations.

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Skyview By Empyrean Patnitop certified as country's first sustainable tourism destination by RSTOI

Based in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir, Skyview By Empyrean has been certified as India's first sustainable tourism destination by the Responsible Tourism Society of India (RTSOI), the national body of responsible tourism that promotes sustainable responsible tourism practices within the tourism industry. It was also conferred as 'Champion' -a status which is accorded for a score of 90 plus for following sustainable eco-friendly tourism practices. According to a statement shared by the company, the sustainable tourism destination certification is given exclusively to those who have successfully met the sustainable tourism criteria of India set for travel destinations. This means that Skyview by Empyrean is compliant with the parameters of sustainable and responsible tourism as practiced by RTSOI and set as a standard by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, these include sustainability management, socio-economic sustainability, cultural sustainability, and environmental sustainability. Skyview by Empyrean Patnitop is the first of its kind holistic lifestyle and leisure destination in the Himalayas, where visitors can experience a gondola ride, an array of F&B offerings, luxury stays, shopping as well as a host of soft adventure activities, many introduced for the first time in India, such as magic carpet, an all-season dry tubing sledge, and Asia's longest zigzag zipline at 580 metre: and curated biking excursions, hiking and supervised treks. Located at a 90-minute drive from the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine in Katra and spread over 22 acre, Skyview commenced operations three years ago with the successful launch of the Skyview Gondola as the Gateway to Patnitop and India's highest (in terms of ground clearance) international class sustainable ropeway, which brought the quaint hill-resort of Patnitop back into the reckoning. Commenting on the certification, Syed Junaid Altaf, Managing Director, Empyrean Skyview Projects, said, "With mankind being faced with numerous environmental challenges, promoting sustainable development and tourism is the right way forward. Over the next three years, we are looking at close to 700,000 passengers on the gondola itself which will help in reducing carbon footprint as more people will use this as a mode of transportation instead of driving up by the road. Community development is an integral part of our future plans; it dovetails with sustainable mobility that effectively supports regional economic growth, as well as the development of safe, liveable, and attractive places for all. We are also working on building a sustainable and holistic hospitality brand with differentiated offerings, global partnerships, and a unique experience for every guest." Speaking on awarding the RTSOI certification, Rakesh Mathur, Founding Member & Hon President, RTSOI, said, "It is a matter of great pride that the first-ever Ecotourism destination to be certified by RTSOI has emerged a 'Champion' practitioner of sustainability. Skyview by Empyrean, nestled in the picturesque Sanget Valley near Jammu, is also the first-ever ecotourism destination to provide a cable car experience to Patnitop, apart from games and entertainment for all ages, global cuisine, and excellent luxury accommodation. My heartiest congratulations to team Empyrean and to Syed Junaid Altaf and his vision and dedication towards responsible & sustainable tourism practices."

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Atout France to organise B2B multi-market showcase at the Dubai Expo on March 10-11

French tourism development agency, Atout France will take a tourism industry delegation to Dubai for a B2B multi-market showcase at the Dubai Expo this month for March 10 and11. The delegation with 17 key members of the travel trade fraternity pan-India will represent the country at Marhaba 2022 - a B2B showcase organised by Atout France at the Dubai Expo. The two day event taking place at the Expo 2020's Pavillon France and the Raffles Hotel Dubai, is the first of a joint collaboration between the Atout France offices of Dubai, Israel, India, and Russia. By bringing together travel professionals from these markets, the event aims to encourage business across the source markets. The attendees will have the opportunity to interact with regional French tourism boards, iconic French tourist attractions, high-end shopping options, hotels, palaces, DMCs, transportation companies, and amusement parks. Commenting on the development, Sheetal Munshaw, Director Atout France India, said, "Marhaba 2022 is indeed special for us as it is the first time after two years that members of the Indian trade will network and interact with the French partners in person. In the last two years, we have been interacting only virtually with our partners and this event will be a semblance of what we knew in pre-pandemic times. It is also special as it's a first regional collaboration with our counterparts. Like most organisations, the pandemic divided us geographically but united us virtually and broke many barriers. This is one such foray into bringing our network closer and proving versatile platforms and opportunities for our key stakeholders to engage and enrich their business opportunities. As borders open up and travel resumes, Marhaba is the perfect occasion to revive exchanges between our key stakeholders". In addition to the 2,500 scheduled business meetings on the Marhaba platform, Atout France will host two special evenings on March 10 and 11 with industry professionals, with Ambassador of France to the UAE, Xavier Chatel, and the CEO of Atout France, Caroline Leboucher slated to be in attendance.

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Thai hotels urge government to further relax entry rules as arrivals lag

Thailand's top hoteliers on Tuesday urged the government to simplify entry rules to help along an otherwise slow recovery of one of the country's highest earning sectors. Thailand has been ahead of its Southeast Asian neighbours in easing entry rules, after imposing strict quarantine and entry requirements for more than a year. It started a calibrated reopening to vaccinated tourists from July last year with two island "sandbox" programmes as pilot projects, before fully reopening in November, when visitors were required to take tests on arrival. This helped boost January arrivals to nearly 134,000 from about 7,700 in 2021, a year when total arrivals were less than 0.5% of the pre-pandemic figures. But industry members said more must be done if Thailand wants to attract the kind of numbers that made it one of the world's most visited countries. "The rules are too complicated," said Bill Heinecke, chairman of Minor International Pcl, which operates hotels in Thailand, Australia, the Maldives and in Europe. "We're not going to regain the number one spot back by making up our own rules on how to treat tourists," he told a Bangkok tourism forum. Thailand in 2019 had a record 40 million arrivals, when tourism accounted for about 12% of its economy. But the pandemic-battered sector continues to flounder even as the country reopens. The state-planning agency expects just 5.5 million arrivals this year. In a programme called "Test and Go", Thailand allows vaccinated travellers who have sought prior entry approval to minimise quarantine to just one night. They must present a negative pre-departure test, proof of vaccination, hotel bookings and COVID-19 insurance coverage of $20,000, and take two more tests after arrival. Businesses are concerned travellers will opt for countries with easier entry rules. "We're behind other Asian countries who are able to take on slightly more risk," said Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Senior Vice President, Clarence Tan. A government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. More than 70% of people in Thailand have been vaccinated against COVID-19.

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Hawaii to lift Covid-19 travel quarantine rules from March 26

Hawaii plans to lift its Covid-19 quarantine requirement for travelers this month, meaning that starting on March 26 those arriving from other places in the US won't have to show proof of vaccination or a negative test to avoid sequestering themselves for five days. Hawaii is the only US state to implement a coronavirus quarantine programme of this kind. Gov. David Ige said at a news conference that the requirement saved lives and was a major factor in limiting the spread of Covid-19 in the islands. Hawaii has one of the lowest coronavirus infection rates in the nation. The quarantine period for travelers lasted 14 days when Hawaii first imposed it in March 2020. The state later created testing and vaccination exemptions. The state screened 11.3 million passengers since the testing exemption was launched in October 2020, Ige said. Those arriving in Hawaii from outside the country still must adhere to US federal guidelines, which vary depending on American citizenship. International tourists do not need to quarantine but still need proof of vaccination and a negative test. The governor said he would maintain Hawaii's indoor mask mandate at least through March 25, and would be evaluating whether to lift it after that. Hawaii is last state in the nation with a statewide mandate in effect. The governor said the state Department of Health will review the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ige said he wants to make sure that public schools will be able to continue with in-person learning. He said more people will be traveling as spring break comes, which could increase the presence of the coronavirus at schools. "The pandemic is not over. Tragically, we continue to see those that we know and love continue to suffer from Covid-19," he said. The governor said he was proud of how the community responded the pandemic. "It is about the people, place and culture of all of us here, coming from diverse backgrounds but always understanding that there is a bigger reason to be willing to sacrifice individual needs to benefit the community," Ige said. "And over and over again, we were willing to do that."

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