Tauranga gets its first international hotel brand

Tauranga, the fifth-biggest city in New Zealand and heartbeat of the Bay of Plenty, has never had an international hotel. Until this week. 

New Zealand's largest hotel operator, Accor, has just opened Mercure Tauranga, marking the global giant's arrival in the region. 

Formerly Hotel Armitage and Conference Centre - located in the heart of Tauranga's CBD - the 80-room hotel has been refurbed and rebranded as a Mercure after a multi-million-dollar project. 

Accor's New Zealand portfolio now comprises 49 hotels. 

Adrian Williams, Accor's Chief Operating Officer in the Pacific region,  said the opening reflects strong confidence in Tauranga and its evolution as a key regional hub.

“Tauranga has been a focus for us for some time," he said. "Tourism earnings rose by 5% last summer, underscoring the Bay of Plenty's strong fundamentals and increasingly important role in New Zealand's tourism and business landscape..

“As the first internationally branded hotel in the city, Mercure Tauranga represents a significant milestone for the local industry. It allows us to bring global standards, distribution and loyalty to the market, while supporting the continued evolution of Tauranga as a compelling destination for both domestic and international travellers.”

The latest Accor addition comes as the Bay of Plenty rebuilds momentum following recent weather events, including Cyclone Vainu. 

The refurb has including upgrades to guest rooms, public areas, and food and beverage spaces," accor says in its media release.  Further enhancements, including conference facilities and recreational amenities, are planned for later. 

Accor's New Zealand portfolio spans key gateway cities and leisure destinations including Auckland, Queenstown, Christchurch, Wellington, Rotorua and Lake Tekapo, with 17 brands currently in operation across the country. 

See https://all.accor.com/hotel/C636/index.en.shtml

Walking in sunshine: Nantes offers an artistic voyage

 

Often overlooked, Nantes is one of my favourite cities in France.

I have very fond memories of plates piled high with local seafood and bottles of chilled Muscadet at the delightful and historic La Cigale.

From July 4 to September 6, the Brittany city will host the 15th edition of  Le Voyage à Nantes, its summer arts expo. 

The voyage comprises a 20km open-air gallery with over 100 artworks, exhibitions and experiences
to be discovered on a route traversing streets, gardens and historic landmarks.

For this year’s event, organisers promise, visitors will see new artworks integrated into both iconic sites and hidden locations.

The event showcases Nantes as offering one of Europe’s most walkable cultural experiences.

"This year, Le Voyage à Nantes begins a new cycle of events devoted to the elements," says event director general Sophie Lévy.

"If urban space can be said to be a deeply reconstructed form of nature - one moulded to our scale and offering a backdrop to our modern cacophony - in Nantes, it is founded on the sensorial, fluid character of the elements: earth, water, air, and fire that surround our fair city and shape us in ways both intangible and imperious."

The city is located on the Loire River in Upper Brittany in western France.

It is home to the restored, medieval Château des Ducs de Bretagne, where the Dukes of Brittany once
lived, and is now a history museum.

The city also offers a food scene shaped by its maritime heritage, and the remarkable Galerie des Machines (check it out).

See https://www.levoyageanantes.fr/en/events/the-summer-journey/ 

Major budget airline goes out of business

US ultra low-cost airline Spirit Airlines is no more.

The airline cancelled all flights effective immediately on Saturday morning US time, and told passengers not to go to airports for their flights.

The airline's website homepage, where customers could previously make reservations, has a bright yellow banner declaring that Spirit was “winding down all operations,” The New York Times reported.

The budget airline had lost billions of dollars in recent years, filing for bankruptcy in 2024 and 2025.

The Trump administration offered a $US500 million federal lifeline, but the airline’s investors and government officials could not reach an agreement on how to structure a deal to save the company.

“Unfortunately, despite the company’s efforts, the recent material increase in oil prices and other pressures on the business have significantly impacted Spirit’s financial outlook,” the airline said. 

“With no additional funding available to the company, Spirit had no choice but to begin this wind-down.”

In 2023 n 2023, Miami-based Spirit was the seventh-largest passenger carrier in North America with a business model based on keeping costs very low and offering customers cheap tickets.

It had over 130 aircraft in its fleet and served 70 destinations.

Scraps to shiraz: Meet Australia's innovative "circular wine"

The Australian wine industry has another innovation under its belt, with Canberra district winemaker Four Winds Vineyard this week releasing Australia’s first "circular wine"’, using insect‑derived fertiliser created from food waste through a partnership with ag‑tech company Goterra and one of Australia’s largest hotels, Hyatt Regency Sydney.

The system converts food waste from the hotel into fertiliser used in the vineyard rather than sending the waste to landfill. Grapes from the vines nourished by the fertiliser are then turned into a new Circular Vintage series being served by the hotel.

Pretty neat.

The innovation offers a practical alternative model for vineyard nutrient management at a time when fertiliser supply and input costs are under increasing pressure thanks to an orange ballroom-building clown.

The initiative applies circular‑economy principles with a shiraz the first release, to be followed by a riesling.

Food waste from the Hyatt Regency is consumed by flies and recycled on-site into a rich frass, or fertiliser, which then nourishes the vines that produce the grapes that return to the hotel in the form of Four Winds Vineyard’s 2025 Circular Vintage Shiraz.

The waste from the Hyatt’s kitchens goes directly into Goterra’s specially built modular infrastructure for Biological Services (MIB) unit in the hotel’s basement.



Four Winds Vineyard CEO Sarah Collingwood says the circular wine project made perfect sense for the family-run vineyard, 30 minutes’ drive from Canberra, which won the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy for its 2023 Shiraz at the 2024 Melbourne Royal Wine Awards.

“We loved the idea of being able to return nutrients to the soil rather than having them end up in landfill,” Collingwood. 

“For us, this was about finding a practical way to close the loop between food, farming and wine and we’re incredibly proud to put our name to The Circular Vintage series, which shows that innovation and quality can go hand in hand.

“The Circular Vintage Shiraz is a typical cool-climate shiraz with distinctive white pepper and spice characters. We are equally excited about the riesling, which has been hand-picked recently and has the delicate citrus and floral flavours you come to expect from a Canberra District riesling.”

Hyatt Regency Sydney executive assistant manager Nitin Kumar, who established strong connections with local winemakers during his previous tenure at Park Hyatt Canberra, said Four Winds Vineyard stood out as a producer that shared the hotel’s commitment to quality and innovation.

“Partnering with Four Winds Vineyard on an Australia-first initiative like this allows us to showcase wines with a story that resonates well beyond the glass,” Kumar says.

"We're literally serving our guests wine grown from their breakfast," said Sven Ullrich, the hotel's executive chef.

"It sounds wild, but it's actually the most natural thing in the world, returning nutrients to the soil instead of sending waste to landfill."

See www.fourwindsvineyard.com.au

Cruise tourism provides huge economic benefits in south-east Asia

 

Love them or loathe them, cruise ships provide major economic benefits for host ports.

In south-east Asia, for instance, the cruise industry generated US$10 billion in total output in 2024, travel news hub Travel Mole reports.

The findings come from from the inaugural Economic Impact Assessment of Cruise Tourism for Southeast Asian countries, produced by Tourism Economics for the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), in partnership with the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).

The study highlighted the region’s cruise industry economic contributions in 2024, reinforcing the strategic importance of south-east Asia in the global cruise landscape. It also underscored how the cruise industry brings substantial economic returns to destinations across the region.

“This study reinforces south-east Asia’s strong cruise tourism value proposition, driven by a growing middle class, rising demand for diverse travel experiences, and rich destination variety," said Jean Ng, assistant chief executive, Experience Development Group, Singapore Tourism Board. 

"As ASEAN’s lead co-ordinator for cruise developments, Singapore is committed to working with regional neighbours and global industry partners to unlock south-east Asia’s full potential for cruising and build a compelling destination network that attracts cruise lines while delivering sustainable economic benefits across the region.”

Bud Darr, president and CEO of CLIA, added: “We greatly value the collaboration with the Singapore Tourism Board on this project. 

"Their partnership enabled us to broaden the annual CLIA Economic Impact Studies and, for the first time, measure the economic contribution of cruise tourism across south-east Asia within our global analysis. 

"The results underscore the region’s growing role as a driver of jobs, economic activity, and a global cruise sector that brings unforgettable travel experiences to millions of guests worldwide.”
south-east Asia generates strong economic returns from cruise tourism

"South-east Asia’s cruise tourism recorded a strong performance in 2024, contributing US$4.5 billion to regional GDP and 5% of global cruise-related GDP. 

"This strong showing is reinforced by positive passenger sentiment, with 85% of cruise travellers rating their south-east Asian experience positively and nearly half (47%) expressing intent to return for land-based travel. This attests to the sector’s potential to drive broader tourism growth."

Market concentration data reveals Singapore and Malaysia collectively accounted for 70% of south-east Asian cruise passenger visits in 2024.

Potential pommelier? Here's what you need to know

Australians who want to learn more about cider are in luck. 

 
For the first time, Australia is getting an internationally recognised Cider Certification with Lee Reeve landing in October with the American Cider Association’s education program, Cider Australia announced. 

Reeve is the owner-operator of inCider Japan and the Japan Cider Guide and is also the organiser of the Japan Cider Cup tasting competition and international cider event. 

He is described as the principal expert on cider in Asia and is a licensed educator for the American Cider Association, regarded as the leading international authority for cider education.

Reeve will be hosting a Certified Pommelier™ exam while in Australia - the first time this is being offered on Australian soil. 

The Certified Cider Professional Program is the ACA’s foremost cider education program designed to provide food and beverage professionals and enthusiasts worldwide with the knowledge and skills to understand and share the joy and nuances of cider.

This program currently boasts two distinct levels of certification. Certified Cider Guide (CCG) is the first level of certification designed as a fundamental course and is a prerequisite for the second level of certification.

Certified Pommelier (CP) is the second level and is a more advanced certification that covers more in depth cider knowledge, and includes a blind sensory evaluation.

The Certified Pommelier exam will take place in Sydney in mid October - date and venue will be released soon.

See https://www.cideraustralia.org.au/