Meeting News - December 17, 2007 - (Page 40)

Destination Insider: Asia-Paciﬁc rants and meeting facilities, are next on the list. But the centerpiece already was unveiled at the end of November: a pillarless 21,500-sf ballroom on the penthouse level of the hotel, with views of Kowloon City and Hong Kong Island. Under the direction of lifestyle guru and event designer Colin Cowie, the $10-million ballroom renovation added 18 handcrafted Czechoslovakian crystal chandeliers and a sophisticated built-in lighting system, among other updates. Planners have a choice of 20 color event themes with special table accessories and setups by Not just white nights: The new ballroom at Hotel Miramar Cowie that match up everything Hong Kong has 20 color-themed event programs. from linens to candles. The effect is dramatic and fully in line with the upscale plan for the space. “I always weave a consistent thread of style The upscale Hotel Miramar Hong Kong is midway through everything, and in this case I wanted to through an extensive $50-million renovation. At showcase the versatility of a fully integrated banpress time, the lobby, ground-level restaurant, deli, quet program,” said Cowie. The room can accomlounge, and bar were slated for completion this modate up to 1,000 guests for meetings, banquets, month; guest rooms and suites, as well as restau- and receptions. Thailand’s Year-Old Airport Already Nearing Capacity Opened just over a year ago, Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport is projected to reach its full capacity of 45 million annual passengers by 2009 if the airport isn’t expanded or if some international ﬂights aren’t moved to Bangkok’s previously closed Don Muang airport. Suvarnabhumi was originally intended to handle all Bangkok ﬂights, but by March, Don Muang had to be reopened to serve domestic flights in the hopes of alleviating congestion at Suvarnabhumi. Airports of Thailand now wants to move international ﬂights by low-cost airlines to Don Muang as well, but the idea has been opposed by other government agencies. According to published reports in domestic newspapers, Suvarnabhumi could postpone expansion for ﬁve years if the ﬂights are moved to Don Muang; if not, construction on the expansion needs to begin immediately. Others believe that more efﬁcient management at Suvarnabhumi would boost capacity and at least temporarily postpone expansion. Ballroom Goes High Style Suntec Singapore Gets A Classic New Esthetic As the second of ﬁve phases of renovation, Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre has renovated the nearly 36,000-sf Gallery exhibition and convention hall. The Suntec Centre’s renovated facility accommodates up to 1,000 attendees for a banquet or 3,000 theater-style. Its new look includes a sky-lit ceiling with timber and panel details, along with classic dark carpeting and new woodwork for a contemporary look. The space now features state-of-the-art audiovisual facilities, new soundproof partitions that offer greater ﬂexibility to divide the space into two areas (Gallery East and Gallery West), and atmospheric thematic light settings. H —Section written by Irene Korn MeetingNews Q & A: Macau’s New Aces With the late-summer opening of the $2.4-billion Venetian Macao and this month’s debut of the $1.2-billion MGM Grand Macau augmenting already-existing casinos, Macau is well on its way to fulfilling its destiny as the “Las Vegas of the East.” MeetingNews spoke with Al Merschen, U.S. GM of the Macau Government Tourist Ofﬁce, about all the development in the Portuguese-ﬂavored China destination. Q A Q A Why is Macau attractive for international meetings? Macau is within a ﬁve-hour ﬂight of half of the world’s associations, so the draw is enormous. And corporations doing business in China now have the perfect meeting place because both the Chinese and the Americans can enter without a visa. How has the opening of the Venetian changed the Las Vegas-style Cotai Strip development? largest hotel in Asia and the second largest building in the world, the Venetian offers the largest meeting space in all of Asia, with more than 1 million square feet of exhibition space. The Cotai Strip is about 10 minutes from downtown Macau. Q A What is the projected development on the mainland for hotels and gaming? Suntec Singapore’s renovated Gallery It’s the keystone of the area, although there already are other properties and more than a dozen on the way, with well-known names like Four Seasons, Shangri-La, and Starwood. As the December 17, 2007 Sands’ original casino, the Sands Macau, opened in 2004, the Wynn opened last year, and MGM opens this month, within walking distance of downtown Macau, with all its history and World Heritage sites. The Macau Tower, with its own state-of-the-art meetings facilities, is also downtown. www.meetingnews.com 40 MeetingNews http://www.meetingnews.com

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Meeting News - December 17, 2007

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