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GUY STANAWAY FROM THE GEORGE in Christchurch was named South Island Chef of The Year 2006 at the Salon Culinaire competition. He follows a winning tradition for The George, with executive chef Nathan Bates awarded the same title in 2005, and Hamish Watson in 2003. Mr Stanaway, 22, recently returned to The George after a year-long pilgrimage of eating and cooking throughout Europe. During his previous four years at The George he achieved several major competition golds while working with executive chefs Hamish Brown and Nathan Bates. In 2004 he won Salon Culinaire Commis Chef of the Year, as well as Canterbury Best Young Chef of The Year 2004, and was a member of the New Zealand Culinary Team at competitions in Singapore. In 2003, as a CPIT representative, he won team and individual gold medals as best young chef at the national Toque d’Or competitions. Mr Stanaway believes his training backed by The George’s tradition of excellence stood him in good stead for winning at Salon Culinaire. “The competition demands dedication, passion and discipline – all the skills we use every day in The George kitchens. We work to that exacting level for every dish we create,” Mr Stanaway said. “The George’s food is always extremely creative and we use top quality produce, focusing on the customer and creating a wonderful dining experience for them.”

LEFT: NZ South Island Chef of the Year, Guy Stanaway.

Air New Zealand and Freedom Air have created a single internal operational team for the airlines’ combined Airbus A320 fleets operating on the Tasman and Pacific Islands routes. In June the airline began the progressive transfer of Air New Zealand’s A320 fleet from the Air New Zealand Air Operator Certificate (AOC) to a new operating company - Zeal320 Limited. Air New Zealand Group A320s (including Freedom Air) has now been transferred to and operated under this AOC. The airline says the change does not impact the Air New Zealand and Freedom Air customer brands. These two airline brands will continue to be marketed independently delivering their unique service offering, a spokesperson said. There will be a notational change in the GDS at the time of booking to show – “Operated by Zeal320 Ltd/Full Air NZ service”. This notation will be progressively displayed for all Air New Zealand A320 series flights booked for travel from July 31, 2006. Customers purchasing an Air New Zealand ticket travelling on an A320 aircraft will continue to travel on an Air New Zealand branded aircraft and receive Air New Zealand’s great in-flight service. For more information agents can contact their Air New Zealand account manager or the airline’s Agency Help Desk at 1300 137 747.

Through an invitation from the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, Reed Travel Exhibitions is to launch the first international meetings industry event for the Gulf region. GIBTM will join RTE’s growing portfolio of global meetings and incentive events run by a specialist team of meetings industry professionals and led by group exhibition director, Paul Kennedy. GIBTM will take place from March 27-29, 2007 at the new purpose-built Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Company Centre. Based on an appointment driven hosted buyer program, the event will feature business-to-business opportunities, essential networking and professional education. Reed Travel Exhibitions chairman Tom Nutley said RTE is delighted to have been invited to launch the new exhibition in association with the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority. “The specialist team working on this new event will ensure that the highest levels of business opportunities and customer service are put in place,” Mr Nutley said. The inaugural event is set to showcase international meetings and incentive suppliers from national tourist organisations, destinations including national convention bureaus, hotels and hotel groups, destination management companies and specialist service providers representing the Gulf region, South and South East Asia, Europe, North Africa and beyond. Joining them will be a global visitor audience including hundreds of fully hosted high quality buyers from regions such as Europe, Africa, Asia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The Melbourne Convention + Visitors Bureau opened two new representative offices in Asia in July. MCVB CEO Sandra Chipchase said representative offices in SIngapore and Hong Kong will market Melbourne to the Asian corporate incentive markets. “There has been growing demand and interest from Asian operators looking for new Australian experiences,” she said. “Melbourne is seen as a fresh and exciting destination. The Singapore office will service south east and south Asia and the Hong Kong office will service north Asia. We have located the offices in key regional hubs so our representatives will have good access to all other Asian countries.” The decision to open two offices follows in-depth market research commissioned by the MCVB. The research’s qualitative data substantiated a strong business case for entering the region. “The new offices will provide greater in-market presence and the capacity to engage with trade and corporate end-users to develop the business events market with a particular focus on incentive travel. Each office will be able to focus on specific countries and the emerging market potential from China and India,” Ms Chipchase said. Jennifer Tung has been appointed MCVB regional sales manager - north asia, and the south east Asia office will be managed by Jasmine Lim.

Wellington’s first internationally branded, purpose-built four-star hotel in more than 15 years – Holiday Inn – is set to get even bigger. Originally intended to offer 238 rooms, Holiday Inn Wellington will open with 280 rooms as well as expanded conference and dining facilities and other public areas. Currently under construction the hotel is on schedule for a summer opening. Melview Developments founder and managing director Nigel McKenna said the reconfiguration of the purpose-built NZ$75 million hotel would make it Wellington’s largest and was in response to the strength of the Wellington accommodation market. Mr McKenna said the original plan was for levels 13, 14 and 15 to be dedicated to owner-occupied penthouse suites. “However, with the buoyant hotel market in Wellington, it now makes more sense to dedicate the entire building to the hotel operation. Wellington has one of the highest hotel occupancy rates in New Zealand, at 65 per cent as opposed to the national average of approximately 55 per cent. The Wellington hotel sector also provides higher returns than other residential options.” Located in the heart of the Wellington CBD, the 17-storey hotel will have more than 600 sqm of conference facilities including pre-function areas. “Wellington has so much going for it as a business and leisure destination and our Holiday Inn hotel, being located in the CBD and within walking distance of Parliament, is ideally placed to capitalise on all the positives that Wellington offers.” The hotel will be operated by the world’s largest hotel company, InterContinental Hotels Group, under the Holiday Inn brand. It will be the third Holiday Inn in New Zealand and the first in the North Island, bringing the number of Holiday Inn hotels in Australia and New Zealand to 21.

Expectations are high among hoteliers about the future prospects of Pattaya. With strong levels of demand from both leisure and corporate segments, the opening of the Suvanabhumi airport is expected to add further domestic and international impetus to this trend. The ease of access to Pattaya is also expected to result in a growth in MICE business. In order to capitalise on this trend, Amari Hotels and Resorts embarked, in 2005, on an extensive re-development of the popular Amari Orchid Resort. The new development will include the construction of the 5-star 300-room Ocean Tower (opening early 2007) and a free-standing conference centre (opening late 2006). The first phase of the project, Mantra Restaurant and Bar, was recently completed. The newly opened Mantra has already established itself as the market leader in dining options in Pattaya.

DMS – Destination Marketing Services, Pacific World Hong Kong, Virgin Atlantic and Shangri-la Hotels recently hosted a group of meeting and incentive planners to Hong Kong to learn and experience what this amazing city has to offer. The generous and knowledgeable hosts from Pacific World Hong Kong, one of Hong Kong’s leading DMCs, put together an electrifying program that excited and inspired the first time visitors and those experiencing Hong Kong again after 10 years. The itinerary showcased all the highlights that make Hong Kong the perfect meeting and incentive destination.

Palm Jumeirah is expected to welcome its first residents into their new properties by the end of the year. Palm Jumeirah is one of three palm shaped island developments stretching grandly out into the Gulf from Dubai’s coastline. Developers, Nakheel, report that the first stage of the project is right on schedule. This stage includes 1350 villas on the 11 fronds of the island, and 2650 apartments in 20 buildings on the east side of the trunk. An integrated handover period will begin from November 30 this year. This means that residents will be able to move in less than five years after its initial stage of reclamation in 2001. Only in Dubai! Nakheel officials are expecting a further 203 years for the 32 hotels and west side of the trunk to be entirely complete. Palm Jumeirah is the world’s largest man-man island, taking more than 94 million cubic metres of sand and several million tons of rock.

A WHOPPING $31,000 WAS RAISED for research into child illnesses at a new fundraising event in Queenstown sponsored by the Sofitel Queenstown. The hotel sponsored the first Sofitel Art in the Mountains event in conjunction with the American Express Big Brunch, held as part of the Lindauer Queenstown Winter Festival. The event featured renowned sculptors and artists all creating works which were snapped up by eager bidders. The money will go to Cure Kids which raises millions of dollars throughout New Zealand for research into life-threatening illnesses that devastate the lives of young children.

LEFT: Cure Kids Sophie Newbold (11), Isabella Davies (10), artist Caroline Robinson, Cure Kid Dan McKay (14) and Sofitel general manager Mark Wilkinson during the Art in the Mountains event.

New Zealand’s original premier lifestyle has announced details of a half billion dollar, 200-plus home housing development. Five-star luxury resort Millbrook is well advanced with the urban design process and hopes to lodge for resource consent with the Queenstown Lakes District Council for Stage One of the development in the next few months. The first stage will consist of 58 sites, a new nine-hole golf course designed by New Zealand golf legend Greg Turner, and a new driving range. Sixty hectares of land to the west of the existing resort will be developed for Stage One, which will consist of 29 land sites, and 29 house and land packages. This is land Millbrook has owned for many years and is currently used for the driving range, grazing and in the past has been used for Millbrook’s famous open air concerts.

The seminars are a way of helping encourage both international and domestic association business to the centre, according to KLCC director of marketing and sales Jennifer Salsbury. Ms Salsbury said the centre has developed the series of seminars to aid the bidding process as well as teach non-Malaysians how to interact successfully with locals.
“Malaysian culture, protocol and etiquette is a one-day seminar to help people understand Malaysian people in terms of doing business with them,” she said.

“The objective is to give people an idea of cultural sensitivities, the core values of Malaysians.”
Ms Salsbury said, for example, that food is extremely important to the local people and essential to communicating in Malaysia. Other subjects covered include how to address a Malaysian and what name should be used; greetings and handshakes – when to touch and when to respect a distance; how to handle the card exchange; Malaysian traits and attitudes; protocol – the different tiers; and religions, festivals and public holidays, among others.

“Malaysians are very humble and laid back – they would never embarrass you but isn’t it nice to get it right?” Ms Salsbury asked. The cultural awareness seminars will run for groups of eight organisers. So far Ms Salsbury said KLCC has had very positive feedback about the seminars and interest from local DMCs. Meanwhile the centre had run 291 events by early June with more than 910,000 people visiting in the first year of business. Ms Salsbury told an AIME media conference the centre had won a number of high profile conferences including The World Gas Conference in 2012, expected to bring more than 5000 delegates to Malaysia.
“It runs every three years and it’s quite an accolade to win this conference.”