Mantra signs five: Australian hotel and resort operator Mantra Group has signed five new hotels with a total of more than 900 rooms in Australia and New Zealand. Australian properties include Peppers Southbank, Melbourne, due in 2018; Mantra 900 Hay Street, Perth, opening in 2018; Mantra Club Crocodile, Airlie Beach; Mantra Observatory, Port Macquarie; and in New Zealand, the Peppers Queenstown Resort, Queenstown, opening in 2018.
Marriott in Mexico: Marriott International is adding four hotels to its portfolio of 70 in Mexico. The 142-room Westin Puebla, owned by Ideurban and managed by Marriott, will open in the second half of 2018. The first Renaissance hotel in the country will be in Cancun; no opening date for the 180-room hotel is set. The Aloft Puebla will open in 2018, and the AC Monterrey will be the second AC in the country; no opening date is given.
Vera Bradley hotel in Indiana: Provenance Hotels is joining with Barbara Bradley Baekgaard, founder of women’s accessories designer Vera Bradley, on a 120-room boutique hotel in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where Baekgaard founded the brand. Sites are being considered.
Thanksgiving travel: AAA projects that 48.7 million Americans will journey 50 miles or more from home this Thanksgiving, an increase of 1 million travelers compared with last year. This represents a 1.9% increase over 2015, and the most Thanksgiving travelers since 2007.
Read the story on AAA’s website
Appreciation at Art Basel Miami: Website Miami Today tracks the double- and triple-digit growth of RevPAR and occupancy over the 15 years that the international contemporary art festival has visited Miami. This year’s starts on Dec. 1.
Fattal’s fourth brand: Leonardo Hotels, the European division of Fattal Hotels Group, Tel Aviv, is launching a lifestyle brand called NYX Hotels. The first three properties are in Tel Aviv, Milan and Prague. Tel Aviv launched in August and Milan and Prague are scheduled for spring 2017. Additional hotels are planned in Munich and Madrid.
San Antonio river walk hotel: Dallas hotelier Mark Wyant plans to demolish a vacant building on the Texas city’s River Walk to build a Saint Hotel. Wyant owns two other hotels of that brand, in New Orleans and Key West, Florida.
Read the story on Express News