FEATURE AUSTRALIA
Darwin, Kakadu, Litchfi eld and Katherine Gorge are wooing clients
Centre (
www.voyages.com.au) Gippsland High Country Tours (
www.gippslandhighcountrytours.
com.au )has a new eco-tour to Cape Conran Coastal Park, 90 minutes from Melbourne. The four-day tour explores the wilderness and wildlife of this coastal park with a local eco-guide. Highlights include nocturnal wildlife, bandicoots and potoroos. South Australia has a new Kangaroo
Island Food Safari which is proving popular and the Barossa Visitor Centre has added an interpretive display explaining the winemaking and grape- growing heritage (
www.barossa.com). March 2012 will see the 20th
anniversary of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival which will bring 80 culinary-based events to the city and 100 more in the wider Victoria region. The Noosa International Food & Wine Festival in May will this year be accompanied by a Gala Concert.
For clients passionate about nature,
Tasmania's spectacular wilderness is the one to push for trekking, cycling, bushwalking and kayaking. World Exhibitions (www.worldexpeditions. com) has small group adventures for three to seven days, escorted by professional guides. Accommodation is in tents or mountain huts. Alternatively, nature is the hook for Queensland too, with diverse ecological areas to explore from rainforest to grasslands. Whale watching from August to March and the turtle-breeding season from November to March are proving particularly popular times to visit. The state will host the southern hemisphere’s most prestigious offshore yachting event, the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week, August 17-25 2012. This year’s regatta was hailed as the most successful in the event’s history.
Room Report The first new hotel in Sydney since the 2000 Olympic Games opened in October. The five-star Darling Hotel and Spa has 171 rooms and suites, a 16-room spa, an infinity pool and a Japanese restaurant and bar, Sokyo. It has been designed around the ‘lobby socialising’ concept with integrated bars,
lounge areas and a custom-made billiard table at its heart. (www.
thedarlinghotel.com.au). Similarly top-end, the Park Hyatt Sydney (
www.sydney.parkhyatt. com) will reopen for the New Year following an eight-month closure for a top-to-bottom rebuild. The work has added top-floor suites and makes more use of the hotel’s unique Circular Quay location and stunning views. The 155- room hotel now also has an expanded spa, sauna and gym, new swimming pool and terrace. Around 60 per cent of the hotel’s business is from leisure sales and the UK is among its key markets. Hayman Island (
www.hayman.com)
reopened in August following a A$66 million rejuvenation programme forced on it by cyclones Anthony and Yasi earlier in the year. The Great Barrier Reef destination has re-landscaped its 16 hectares of gardens, added new restaurant concepts and upgraded its activities ‘hub’ to include tennis and basketball courts and golf facilities. The reef and natural attractions are the focus of other activities offered including yachting and snorkelling, scuba- diving and whale watching. Peppers Broadbeach (
www.peppers.
com.au/broadbeach) on the Gold
Coast is offering packages which include massages, spa treatments and child- minding services for families. Complimentary bike, beach and board game hire, in-room movies and internet plus upgrade options are also available. Ayers Rock Resort has appointed Accor to manage the day-to-day development of the resort. Extensive refurbishment of the resort is planned, starting with the Sails in the Desert Hotel. New is an ‘under the stars’ five- star dining experience available from April. It includes dining in the desert and aboriginal story-telling. From £185pp. For those with a sense of adventure,
new wilderness camps in the Kimberley region of WA include the Berkeley River Luxury Outback Lodge (www.
berkeleyriver.com.au), with 20 ocean-view suites opening in April, and the Windayi River Camp (www.
windayiriver.com) on the Ord River, with eight cabins an hour’s drive from Kununurra, which opens in June.
From The Front Line AMY SHINE
Cosmos Tours & Cruises product manager “Sales for our Best of
Australia really picked up over the
There’s nothing like knowing Australia as well as the locals.
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European Trade Helpline: +44 207 438 4682 or
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© ANSON SMART
© GETTY IMAGES 2006
© TOURISM AUSTRALIA
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