Asia Pacific Newsletter September 2007 Edition                        

Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces opened its first property in Australia, the BLUE Sydney Hotel. The property, formerly a W Hotel, is located on the Wharf at Woolloomooloo in the center of a marina. The hotel is in a heritage listed wharf building that was originally a wool and cargo handling facility. Today, the hotel retains much of the charm of the original building. It has iron beams, exposed timber and floor to ceiling windows.
Its 100 guest rooms include 36 Loft Rooms that have a large lounge on the main level and a bed and bath loft on the upper level. All guestrooms are outfitted with king size beds with Pillow-top mattresses and feather beds, clock radios with CD players, video players with CD/video libraries, broadband high-speed Internet access and cordless phones with data ports, voice mail, and speaker and conference capabilities.
Event space consists of the Strategy Room with 100 sqm/1,076 sqft of space and 3 meter/10 feet high windows that overlook the Garden Island Naval Base and the Industry Room with 50 sqm/538 sqft also with 3m/10 ft high windows. In addition to the meeting rooms, the dining venues BLUE Café and the Living Room can also be transformed into a unique event rooms.
For wining and dining, BLUE Café serves all day starting with the Big Breakfast and follows with classic Sydney café fare. The Water Bar,
recipient of numerous accolades including One of the top 10 bars in the world by Condé Nast Traveler, has a casual sophisticated atmosphere. For R&R, the hotel is convenient to all the groovy Sydney sights like Bondi Beach, Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb, Zoo, Opera House, Royal Botanical Gardens, The Rocks and lots and lots of wonderful dining venues.  BLUE Sydney's fitness facility includes an indoor pool and Spa Chakra.
Email: blue.sydney@tajhotels.com
Web site: http://www.tajhotels.com

Time is drawing near for the opening of the Darwin Convention Centre and the time is ripe for marketing. Recently, the center hosted some of Australia's leading conference organizers to raise the awareness about the Centre to Australia's event community. Several event professionals came to Darwin and met with the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory Government, the Northern Territory Convention Bureau and local convention industry suppliers.
The planners also took a hardhat site inspection of the Darwin Convention Centre and attended the Qantas Darwin Cup Gala Ball, one of the Southern Hemisphere's largest gala events (nearly 3,000 guests). The planners had good reports to share about their Darwin experience. Chris Boundy, Managing Director of SAPMEA said the new venue occupied a superb waterfront setting and was designed to take full advantage of its surrounds so that delegates could appreciate the uniqueness of the location. He said, I was impressed with the apparent level of support for the Darwin Convention Centre's team from both the industry sectors and the Territory Government… Bryan Holliday, Managing Director of ICMS Australasia said, I can certainly see Darwin becoming an integral part of the national and international conference circuits. With increasing air capacity, good accommodation infrastructure and a world class convention centre operated by seasoned professionals, they're doing all the right things.
When the center opens in mid-2008, it will have a total of 12 meeting rooms, 4,000 sqm/43,056 sqft of exhibition and will seat 1,500 delegates in a tiered plenary hall.
Website: http://www.darwinconvention.com.au