World’s Most Expensive Hotel Just OpenedLooking for a new World Class resort destination to “tick-off” your bucket list? Consider visiting this brand new resort hotel that just opened up, the rich and famous are starting to flock there. An expansive 1.3 billion resort proudly promoting $20,000-a-night suites. The property is situated on 113-acre resort on an artificial island off the Persian Gulf Coast. The new hotel Atlantis, situated in Dubai is a recreation of it sister property in the Bahamas, an ocean themed family resort. The resort contains a giant open-air tank with 65,000 fish, stingrays and other sea going creatures, a dolphin aquarium with more than two dozen dolphins flown in from the Solomon Islands. The hotels top floor is aimed at the wealthy businessman or family. The three-bathroom suite complete with gold-leaf 18-seat dining table is available for around $20,000 per night.
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For the rest of us, the standard nightly rate is running around $450 per night
plus taxes. The resort is the featured landmark on Palm Jumeirah, the artificial man-made island. The resort features a unique marine habitat, pristine white beaches, world class cuisine, up-scale spa, boutique shopping and complimentary access to the water park. Each of the 1,373 spacious guest rooms and 166 suites is designed with subtle oceanic and Arabic influences and spectacular views available of the Arabian Gulf or Palm Jumeirah island. Palm Jumeirah Island is Dubai’s major tourist attraction, hoping to attract 10 million hotel visitors annually.
The Atlantis alone will increase the city’s hotel capacity by 3 percent and demand seems to be strong. The Middle East had the highest hotel occupancy rates in the world during the first half of 2009, with Dubai leading the region at 85% along with the highest room rates in the region. Projections are the 1,539 room Atlantis will continue to be full regardless of the uncertainty of the economies. The hotels prime clients are the world’s richest travelers from Europe, Russia, Asia and elsewhere in the Middle East. Great Weather Web Site A friend of mine recently sent me this link of a weather web site that is pretty good. For travelers, this weather website can be a valuable tool. If you roll your mouse over any airport, you will get the current weather conditions.
Click on the locations and get even more weather info. www.wrh.noaa.gov/zoa/mwmap3.php?map=usa
Continental Airlines will charge extra fees for exit row seats Continental
Airlines announced that it will charge more for passengers seeking extra leg
room in exit row seats beginning March 17. The fees will vary depending on the route and day of the week. Passengers can purchase the additional leg room exit row seats upon check in or on line. Continentals frequent flyers with miles over 25,000, can assign themselves exit row seats in economy class without charge. Spring Break Top Destinations For 2010, Are You Paying More Than Last Year? If you are wondering if you paid more for your Spring Break get-away than last year, you might be surprised. Airfares into popular beach resorts are up over 9% compared to last year with the average domestic roundtrip airfare around $351, while hotel prices are down approximately 3% or an average of $156 per night. The top 10 Spring Break destinations based on 2010 bookings from traveling Americans across the U.S. are, No. 1 Orlando, followed by other South Florida destinations, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Cancun, New York, Los Angeles, Tampa and Washington.
According to the survey, March 22 is the most expensive time to travel between the end of winter and early April, but Tuesday-to-Tuesday are cheaper than traveling on Fridays or weekends. For travelers heading to Cancun, the survey reported that the average airfare from the U.S. to Cancun is up 23% over last year, and if you are still considering Cancun, you might wait until mid-April and beyond to find some better priced deals. The trick is to find a way to get to these sunny destinations without breaking the bank. For travelers traveling out of the Denver market, we are still finding reasonable rates for travel into Mexico, give us a call. The average Cancun trip including airfare, accommodations for 7 nights for 2 people is up slightly to $2,600, this is an average. For other warm sunny tropical relaxing destination, travelers considering Hawaii will find that the average total trip cost for 7 nights including airfare and lodging for 2 is averaging around $3,500. Travel Industry Overview and Trends Travel & Leisure Magazine reported that travel trends are still tentative based on last year’s downslide, the industry is slowly showing signs of gains.
Total air traffic worldwide was up 5.3% in December and demand for international air travel rose 4.5%. Luxury cruise line companies such as Seabourn and Crystal Cruises are reporting record sales for both companies with the promotion of 2-for-1 sailings and other amenities. Rachel Gelfer Hornaday James TravelPOINTS Agent Profile Rachel began her travel career with James TravelPOINTS in 2003, working in our wholesale Belize & Costa Rica department. Prior to 2003, Rachel spent one month backpacking in Belize and Central America learning about the culture and area. Rachel has had the pleasure of visiting Costa Rica and Belize several times over the years visiting many of the luxury boutique properties and eco-lodges the countries have to offer. She specializes in customized vacations for groups and individuals and handles many requests for travel into Panama and Guatemala. She was selected in 2006, by Travel and Leisure Magazine as one of “Five to Watch” (A List of Agents).
She has also been selected and listed on American Express web site as “Feature Travel Specialist” to contact for travel into Costa Rica, Belize and Central America. If you are considering a trip to Central America, talk to us first. Our wholesale department contracts directly with the airlines, hotels, resorts, dive shops and tour providers in the Central America countries, allowing us to give you a fantastic experience at a fantastic price. Travel Agents from all over the U.S. call and book their clients with our team. So call our experts at 1-800-626-3483, Rachel at x248 or Turner at x 222. Visit our web sites at: www.belizetravelpoints.com or www.costaricatravelpoints.com Travel Deals Check-out our this weeks travel deals. BA Strike Up-date As you are probable aware, the flight attendant union “Unite” decided to go on strike earlier this past week during some of the busiest travel days in March. The airline says it plans to operate at around 55 per cent of short haul flights out of Heathrow and 70 percent of its long haul flights.
If a deal is not reach in the coming days, another 4-day strike will begin this Saturday. So what does that mean to you, if you are traveling on BA this coming week (March 27 – 30, 2010), monitor your options until the day prior to your departure. BA has been operating their non-stop flights from Denver to London without disruption. Other flights may be affected, if you have booked your flights with us, call us and we can give you an update.
Andy James James TRavelPOINTS American Express Rep Office 1750 14th Street Boulder, Co. 80302 PH: 303-442-2340
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