WEDDINGS & HONEYMOONS
Keys. Thinking outside the box,
Dunton Hot Springs in Colorado has just partnered with Jean-Michel Cousteau Resort in Fiji for weddings and honeymoons.. Resorts often go the extra mile
for newlyweds. At Olhuveli Beach & Spa Resort in the Maldives, honeymooners receive a fruit basket, bed turndown with fl ower petals, a fl ower petal bath, a candlelit dinner for two and a surprise gift. At Fundu Lagoon brides pay a 50%
rate on their honeymoon and couples receive champagne on arrival, massages and a private beach dinner. Sandals is offering travel agents the opportunity to experience a Sandals WeddingMoon® for themselves with the ‘Say “I DO” to Sandals’ promotion. Agents receive a complimentary Beautiful Beginnings Wedding and can also use their ‘Sell & Go’ nights or special agent rates for their stay. See
sellingsandals.co.uk.
What’s new Operators: Kuoni’s Honeymoons
and Weddings 2014 brochure includes Kandolhu Island in the Maldives, exclusive to Kuoni from January, with 30 beach and water villas. Other highlights include multi-centre honeymoons such as Santiago, Patagonia and Atacama or San Francisco and Hawaii, and same-sex honeymoons and civil partnership ceremonies in New York and Canada. Hotels:
Maalifushi by COMO in the Maldives will target honeymoon- ers when it opens in November. The 66-room property in the southerly Thaa Atoll has overwater villas with private pools and is perfect for castaway picnics. Point Yamu in Phuket also launches in November with 106 rooms, including 27 private villas and a COMO Shambhala Retreat. Bluebay Beach Resort & Spa recently opened in Zanzibar and offers Maasai wedding packages. The new Nizuc Resort &
Clockwise from top left: Wedding chapel, Aria Hotel, Las Vegas; Sugar Ridge, Antigua; Cabana Bay Beach Resort, Universal Orlando; Sandals Grand Antigua.
Spa combines Mexican spirit with modern luxury in Cancun. Alila expands into Oman in late January 2014 with the Alila Jabal Akhdar and also has plans for special couples’ celebrations. JA Resorts opens Enchanted Island,
10 luxury beach villas with private infi nity pools, in September. It’s reached via a 15-minute boat ride from the main island of Mahe in the Seychelles. The Flamboyant Hotel and Dive Grenada, located on Grand Anse beach, have partnered to launch ‘Romance on the Reef’, the Caribbean island’s fi rst-ever range of Underwater
Wedding packages from £500 per couple.
Tourism Boards: Visit Orlando’s new travel agent training called the Orlando
Travel Academy (orlandotravelacademy.
com) covers weddings and honeymoons. Tourist offices: Las Vegas is a legendary wedding hot spot with an average of more than 100,000 marriage licences granted annually. Unusual locations include The Mob Museum or a Cupid Night Flight wedding in a helicopter over the Strip. Couples can also marry among the sharks at Mandalay Bay hotel. The hotel’s wedding chapel now
offers a shark reef ceremony where couples can tie the knot surrounded by 1.6 million gallons of seawater, 15 species of shark and over 2000 other underwater creatures. More conventionally couples can opt for the new 60-seater contemporary wedding chapel at ARIA hotel. The Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority
in Nevada has made international wedding planning easier with a new micro site (
tahoeweddingsites.com). In celebration of new same-sex marriage laws and acts in California, The Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism has launched a new dedicated website -
WeddingsinPalmSprings.com - as a comprehensive online planning resource for gay and lesbian weddings and honeymoons.
Tourism talk “Weddings and honeymoons are extremely popular in Orlando due to our
consistently warm, sunny weather and unique wedding locations like our theme park resorts, gardens and hotels. We have dedicated wedding planners and couples know their friends and families can also enjoy a holiday away at the same time. “In 2014, Orlando will welcome its
fi rst Four Seasons hotel on Walt Disney World property, which is sure to be a popular wedding venue, as well as Universal’s Cabana Beach Resort, which
www.sellinglonghaul.com September 2013 19
“Many couples just don’t want the standard beach trip but are looking for something different where they can enjoy authentic, once-in-a- lifetime experiences such as whale watching or meeting indigenous people like the Sami people in the Arctic”
NICO KOSTICH, DIRECTOR OF TRADING, TRANSUN
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