Southwest to add Puerto Rico flights
Southwest on April 14 will take over AirTran's service to San Juan from Orlando and Tampa, marking its first routes to extend beyond the continental U.S. AirTran will continue to offer service between San Juan and Baltimore, Fort Lauderdale and Atlanta. Southwest flight attendants in September approved a contract change allowing overwater flying.
U.K. dept. stores get Kuoni shops
Swiss travel giant Kuoni is opening retail travel concessions in John Lewis stores, a major British department store chain. The companies said the stores are the flagship John Lewis store on Oxford Street in London, plus Reading and Southampton. A fourth location, in Cardiff, Wales, was slated to open Nov. 5. Kuoni said it will also introduce John Lewis Travel Insurance to its customers.
Hilton developing Istanbul site
Hilton launched a venture to develop a Hilton hotel and conference center in Istanbul's Sisli district. Adjacent to the Bomonti Beer building, the hotel will offer 118,000 square feet of event space.
Orbitz inks deal to boost Brand USA
Brand USA, the U.S. public-private tourism promotion company, unveiled a partnership deal with Orbitz and its European eBookers site that will feature Brand USA advertising on the eBookers Explorer iPad app. Brand USA said the deal provides "significant in-kind media support," meaning the Orbitz contribution helps Brand USA to qualify for federal matching funds.
Carnival Corp. eyes ships for two lines
Carnival Corp. ordered two new ships for its Carnival and Holland America brands, in each case creating a new class that will be the line's largest. The Carnival ship, at 135,000 gross tons, will carry 4,000 passengers and is expected to enter service in the winter of 2016. In size it will eclipse the Carnival Dream and Breeze, the line's largest at 130,000 gross tons. Holland America, which has not yet broken the 100,000-gross-ton barrier, will come close with a 99,000-gross-ton ship in fall 2015. It will carry 2,660 passengers. Both ships will be built by Italy's Fincantieri yard. Carnival Corp. did not provide an overall cost figure but said the tab will be approximately $195,000 per lower berth, or roughly $1.3 billion.
Hyatt brands grow in U.S., Europe
Hyatt opened its first hotel in the Netherlands, the 122-room Andaz Amsterdam. Situated on the Prinsengracht, one of the city's main canals, the hotel occupies a former public library and features a video-art collection and 4,300 square feet of meetings space. Separately, Hyatt broke ground on a 126-unit Hyatt House extended-stay property in San Juan, slated to open in 2014. It also acquired a Comfort Suites hotel in Minneapolis with the intent to rebrand it as the Hyatt Place Minneapolis Downtown next summer, after $20 million in renovations.
Fee-free weekend for National Parks
The National Park Service put out a reminder that Veterans Day weekend (Nov. 10 to 12) is the last of the designated "fee-free" days for 2012, when entrance fees are waived for all U.S. National Parks.
Friends & Colleagues
Rosewood Hotels & Resorts named Adrian Norbury director of sales and marketing for the Carlyle, a Rosewood Hotel in New York. Norbury had held the same post at the Rosewood Crescent Hotel in Dallas for six years prior to the move. The 25-year industry veteran joined Rosewood Hotels & Resorts in 2002 as regional director of sales based in London and was responsible for sales efforts in the U.K. market. • • • John Thompson has been promoted to vice president of shared services, a newly created position, at Choice Hotels International. Thompson has been with Choice Hotels since 1998. • • • Jennifer Sampson was named vice president of product management for Pegasus Financial Services. A 13-year veteran of Pegasus Solutions, Sampson assumes responsibility for the division, which facilitates roughly $38 million in commissions paid each month by more than 35,000 hotels in nearly 200 countries. Before joining Pegasus, Sampson worked as the assistant director of marketing at the ANA Hotel in Washington. • • • Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has appointed two new general managers: Cliff Atkinson at its Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas property and Adriaan Radder at the Mandarin Oriental, Washington, D.C. Atkinson joins Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas from the group's property in San Francisco. A veteran hotelier with 20 years of experience, he joined Mandarin Oriental in 1998 and has also held roles as general manager at Ian Schrager's Gramercy Park Hotel in New York and Ralph Burnet's Chambers Hotel in Minneapolis. Radder joins Mandarin Oriental, Washington, D.C. from the Ballantyne Hotel in Charlotte, where he also served as the property's general manager. His 25 years of hospitality experience includes a tenure at Ritz-Carlton, overseeing hotels in Tysons Corner and Pentagon City, Va., as well as in Georgetown and Washington.