A 14-city series of cross-Canada Travel Agent Appreciation Dinners made a Toronto stop last night (Nov. 22) as Sandals thanked its top travel agent partners and reaffirmed its commitment to the agent community.
Sandals hosted 90 Toronto-area agents and several tourism board partners at York Mills Gallery. Agents were treated to a reception, dinner and an update on all that the luxury all-inclusive chain has to offer.
One official noted that Sandals' focus clearly remains on the travel agent and events like last night help differentiate what Sandals has to offer from Brand X....
Groupe Germain Hotels has opened its second property in Calgary with the official opening of the Alt Hotel Calgary East Village.
Located at the corner of Confluence Way and 6th Avenue SE, the 152-room Alt Hotel Calgary East Village offers a view of the Bow River and downtown.
Services offered in the hotel include free WiFi, Chromecast streaming media players, a fitness room, as well as nearly 3,400 sq. ft. of meeting space divided into four multi-purpose rooms. Altcetera, an on-the-go food counter, located in the hotel lobby, offers a variety of snacks and refreshments, and in 2019,...
Our names are written on a chalkboard to determine the order of the trapeze lesson. I feel my heart beat a little bit quicker as the one before mine gets scratched off, meaning the dreaded moment has come: I’m next.
Slowly, I clamber up the ladder as the world below gets smaller with every step.
“Four more steps,” I hear, as I continue to climb. “Now, face me and step onto the platform.”
As I stretch my leg across the gap from the ladder to the takeoff level, I make the mistake of looking down. A slight moment of trepidation occurs as I realize I’m now standing well...
Sandals Resorts International (SRI) continues to position itself as the largest operating resort company in Barbados with the recent addition of 50 luxury suites at Sandals Royal Barbados, their newest property on the island which opened in December 2017.
With the addition of these new suites, Sandals now offers a total of 552 luxury rooms and suites across two resorts in Barbados.
This is the third major project that has taken place in Barbados and demonstrates Sandals Resorts International’s commitment to the development and growth of excellence in the all-inclusive space. The...
RIU Hotels & Resorts reports its Riu Palace Tropical Bay in Negril, Jamaica is fully refurbished following an extensive renovation.
The chain’s first hotel in Jamaica when it opened in 2001 now offers completely updated facilities, but maintains the Riu Palace range’s “characteristic elegance and sophistication and the RIU chain’s exclusive 24-hour all-inclusive service.”
The bond between RIU Hotels and Jamaica was forged in the late 1990s, when the chain became interested in the destination after its representatives’ visited the island. Jamaica is now one of its...
Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts reaffirmed its commitment to the Canadian market by hosting an entertaining evening in Toronto last week (Nov. 15) to thank the travel agent community and update them on the latest brand news.
The private event was hosted by Bahia Principe’s sales and marketing team.
The evening included a thematic show where each of Bahia Principe’s three brand experiences were presented through skits: Treasure, hotels in unique and off-the-beaten path locations; Escape, signifying adults-only properties; and Family & Friends, hotels that provide a...
Bahia Principe is inviting disco enthusiasts to enjoy the sounds of silence.
Sal Buccellato of Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts' Toronto office told a Thursday Toronto gathering that the company's adults-only properties in the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Jamaica now offer “silent discos,” with those who want to demonstrate their dance moves to music, but don't want to hear “thumping” music able to don headphones, select their music and dance to music no one else nearby will hear.
Others can “stand there and watch everybody” dancing silently, he said.
Buccellato...
Coconut Bay Beach Resort & Spa continuous improvements with new dining options following September upgrades to the resort's à la carte restaurants.
New packages for Canadians bring more added value to a winter getaway ideal for the whole family at Splash as well as couples in the resort's adults-only Harmony wing. New menus are fiybd at the resort's four à la carte specialty restaurants where guests enjoy unlimited dining.
A new tandoori clay oven at Silk brings bubbled naan and skewers of meat or seafood to the table. A Latin twist comes to the contemporary Caribbean menu at...
As part of its ongoing webinar series, Sandals Resorts is inviting Canadian agents to learn more about the benefits and lucrative nature of group travel.
Topics include sales and marketing tips and strategies for agents to grow their groups business with Sandals and Beaches Resorts, as well as details Canadian-specific group incentives.
The “Let's Talk: Groups” webinar is being held Nov. 22 from 12:30 p.m. to 1 p.m. EST with Grant Lawlor, national groups manager, Canada.
The succinct webinars are just 30 minutes long and by registering, agents also receive a recorded version...
Sometimes a negative can turn into a positive. After sustaining damages from Hurricane Irma, Club Med pushed up and increased the scope of its enhancement plans for Club Med Turkoise. Located on Grace Bay Beach in Turks and Caicos, the resort has been upgraded to 4-Trident property (the equivalent of a four-star resort.)
“Turkoise is located on the best beach in the world. This is not us who says that, it’s TripAdvisor. It was rated No. 1 so we had the beach, but we needed to tweak the rooms a little bit,” Carolyne Doyon, Club Med’s Senior VP, Canada & Mexico, told...