Those manning the Kazakhstan booth at
theWorld Travel Market in London seemed well aware
that the movie "Borat," whose eponymous main
character is an infantile, misogynistic, bigoted Kazak, premiered
the same week as WTM. Yes, a number of people had asked about it,
said a woman at the booth. It's no problem, she added with a tight
smile.
She then handed TC
a reprint of a very diplomatic article the Kazak ambassador to the
U.K. had written which said, in part, "the success of this comic
invention is almost entirely dependent on Western ignorance (about
Kazakhstan)." A nice way of saying that it's movie-goers, not
Kazaks, who are ignorant.
The Bahamas
is buzzing about "Casino Royale," the latest James Bond
film, which opens in theaters Nov. 17.
TC hears that the
staff at theOne&Only Ocean Club on Paradise
Island in Nassau, where several of the scenes were shot, is
particularly excited. Several management and resort employees had
walk-on parts as extras in the flick. And its four-bedroom Villa
1405 also played a pivotal role.
The Bahamas has
been a locale for six of the 21 Bond films. In fact, former 007
Sean Connery ended up buying a home in Lyford Cay near Nassau a few
years ago.
So what's
next for Peter de Savary, the Brit who created
over-the-top castle resorts in England, golf resorts in the
Carolinas and a posh residential retreat and resort in Abaco in the
Out Islands of the Bahamas? Look south to Grenada,
TC hears, where not one but two deluxe de Savary developments are
in the works. And Grenadian officials, still in recovery mode from
Hurricane Ivan in 2004, couldn't be happier.
Two years
ago, the World Travel and Tourism Council had no cruise
line members. Last year, TC saw Silversea Chairman Manfredi
Lefebvre at a WTTC function, and shortly thereafter the
council had, in Silversea, its first cruise line member. Last week
TC spied Costa's Daniele Mancini at a WTTC
cocktail party at the World Travel Market in London. Can a second
line be far behind?
After two
years of sitting empty, the 290-room former Grand
Beach Palace Resort on St. Thomas, formerly the
Renaissance and before that a Stouffer property, may finally have
been purchased. There are rumblings that the hotel's new name will
signal the debut of a well-known hotel brand for the
destination.