Northstar

NEWS www.travelweeklyweb.com Luxperience's photo competition: Orion Expedition Cruises prize AUSTRALIA – Luxperience is looking for adventurous travellers to submit photos of their 'Most Amazing Travel Experience' in a contest to promote its inaugural gathering of the world's "experiential" travel providers in Sydney from September 10-12. The prize, worth AD$25,100, is an Orion Expedition Cruise for two exploring Australia's rugged Kimberley coasts. Luxperience hopes to get online submissions of inspiring images that would amount to the be the world's most amazing travel experiences. Entries can be submitted until May 30 at www.luxperience.com. au/most-amazing-travel-experience- competition/. The contest, which will announce the winner on June 15, will be judged by a panel of "experiential" travel experts. The winner would be required to produce a daily blog of the Kimberley expedition with uploaded video footage on the Luxperience website/ Facebook page to involve online audiences with their journey. The 10-day Orion cruise in a junior suite would cover Australia's north-west between Darwin in the Northern Territory and the historic pearling town of Broome in West Australia, via Com in East Timor. In line with the focus of the contest, the cruise would provide an awe-inspiring experience that would cover rugged gorges, spectacular waterfalls, secluded beaches and remote river inlets that can only be explored from the sea. On shore, the winner would get a taste of the region's Aboriginal culture and galleries of ancient artwork Orion, a luxury cruise operator, also covers destinations including the Russian Far East, Japan's Inland Sea, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, the Antarctic, Borneo, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. Fire-eating at the Singapore Night Safari Luxperience Founder & CEO Rosemarie Sama said: "We are more than a business exchange. We are a community providing meaningful connections, keeping leading players and the world's most exclusive travel providers constantly in touch. It's a network combining the roles of personal introduction agent, business Lights off at Royal Plaza on Scotts Earth Hour 2012 SINGAPORE – The Royal Plaza on Scotts will turn off its lights when it observes Earth Hour 2012 on Saturday, March 31 from 8.30 p.m. Lights at the façade (including RP logo) will be switched off. Lights in the lobby will be dimmed to the minimal, with signature candle installation lit up. Guests and hotel employees will be asked to show support by placing environmentally-friendly candles surrounding the hotel's façade. It is to signify that every individual has the power to change the world they live in and create a more sustainable planet. A minimum donation of S$3 (US$2.39) per soy candle will be asked of those who wished to place candles on the hotel's walkway from 5 to 9.30 p.m. All profi ts will go to the Association for Persons with Special Needs (APSN) Centre for Adults, a charity under the Community Chest. In their "I Will if You Will" challenge, the Royal Plaza would be pledging $5000 to the APSN centre in order to garner support from its 500 guests. Handicrafts from the centre will also be on sale, with it getting all proceeds. Donations will help fund the centre's sheltered employment programme, where employment and training in areas such as commercial handicraft, recycling and thrift shops are provided. 8 | ■ TRAVELWEEKLY ASIA | 20 MARCH 2012 coach and social planner. "By holding the 'Most Amazing Travel Experience' competition we wanted to showcase and share some of the most amazing travel experiences there are to visit throughout the world. We thought this competition would be an ideal match to the Luxperience brand." British Airways employees save millions for company SINGAPORE – British Airways employees chipped in with more than 200 ideas on fuel effi ciency that helped the airline save more than £20 million (S$40 million). That was enough fuel saved to power more than 350 Singapore to London fl ights last year. Pilots, cabin crew members, engineers and ground staff sent in their suggestions following the introduction of an online suggestion box for staff on how to reduce emissions and cut fuel bills. Suggestions included replacing glass with plastic wine bottles, reducing the amount of water carried in aircraft water tanks, and the most unusual perhaps is the descaling of toilet pipes on the Boeing 747 and 777 fl eets. The descaling, not only improved the performance of the toilets but also saved a substantial £600,000 as a result of reduced weight. The airline has also employed more conventional methods such as reducing the use of auxiliary power units, single engine taxiing and performance improvement packages on more than 40 Boeing 777 aircraft. In total the savings were worth over £20 million. . www.travelweeklyweb.com Photo: Daniela Li-Ann Zanardi

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