News in Brief: Wednesday, January 9
The number of Australians travelling to Taiwan in the 11 months to November jumped more than 5% to 55,466, latest figures from the Taiwan Tourism Bureau have shown.
Celebrity Cruises and Grand Pacific Tours have released a new tour of New Zealand combining cruise and luxury coach components. The 23-day Best of New Zealand itinerary is priced from $6049 per person.
Tourism Ireland is inviting Australians to participate in the largest St Patrick's Day parade in the world, to take place in Dublin on March 17.
Up to 8,000 people can apply to take part in the event which is part of the Gathering Ireland 2013. Applications can be made at www.stpatricksfestival.ie.
Etihad Airways has appointed Frederic Huynh Quan Dat, formerly of Air France KLM, as its general manager for Vietnam. The carrier will commence daily Airbus A330-200 services to Ho Chi Minh City, where Huynh is based, in October.
Port of Cairns is preparing to welcome its first cruise ship of 2013, with the arrival of the 1,400-guest Costa neoRomantica at the Cairns Cruise Liner Terminal on Sunday. A further nine cruise ships are scheduled to visit during January and February.
Sydneysiders attempted to escape soaring temperatures in the NSW capital yesterday by checking into a hotel, according to lastminute.com.au. The travel site recorded a 44% increase in hotel bookings for one-night stays for January 8 compared with the same day last year.
Royal Caribbean has released a range of earlybird offers including discounts of up to $1000 per person on 2013/14 Australian voyages. Onboard credit of up to US$200 per cabin is being offered on Caribbean cruises and up to $400 on European voyages.
Tauck has extended a hotel promotion which gives travellers two free hotel nights at the beginning or end of their tour in Europe, US and Canada. The offer is valid on all bookings made between January 10 and February 15.
Cunard has confirmed the speakers which will take part in its Insights program of talks, to take place during its four-month Round the World voyages which set sail this month. Author Bill Bryson, businessman Lord Digby Jones and academic Lord Winston all feature in the line-up.
The Australian Tourism Export Council has joined Tourism Tasmania and The Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania in spreading the message that unaffected areas of the island are functioning as normal.
Managing director Felicia Mariani stressed the support and expenditure of visitors to Tasmania would be "imperative" to the recovery of areas ravaged by bush fires.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
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