Incentive Travel & Corporate Meetings magazine has for 19 years been reporting on the developments in the MICE market from all around the world. The ITCM website brings you the latest news every day from hotels, conference centres, unusual venues and destinations.
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Latest news stories

Jo Till launches Ellicit Hotels, a UK-based hotel representation company

Jo Till, whom many in the industry will remember from her time at Forte and then Le Meridien, has set up a sales representation company, along with co-director Kate Norris. Based near London and called Ellicis Hotels, the new company will specialise in representation on the UK MICE market for .......more
New venue in central London
Trafalgar Events is a new conference and events venue due to open in September 2008.As its name suggests, it is in Trafalgar Square, a very convenient location in London's West End. The venue offers a range of rooms, flexible space and fair trade and organic catering options from a simple working lunch .......more
Grand Millennium Beijing
The Grand Millennium Beijing is a 5-star Millennium and Copthorne Hotels property that has opened in the financial district of the Chinese capital. It has 521 spacious bedrooms. A unique feature is separate shower and bath with floor to .......more
Vietnam gets 4-star beach resort
Celadon International, Vietnam's first international hospitality and real estate management company, is launching its first 4-star Exotica branded resort near to Phan Thiet. This is a traditional fishing village becoming an increasingly popular golfing .......more
Norwood Park enters corporate market through Maverick
Norwood Park is a Georgian mansion in 175 acres of parkland with an 18-hole golf course. In time for a launch at Event UK in September, Maverick Venues has been given the contract to market the property for corporate events and to cater for them. Maverick is already handling four other attractive properties in .......more
Madrid Airport gets Hilton conference hotel
Madrid Airport now has a Hilton. 'It is one of 50 new properties that Hilton intends to open in Spain and Portugal over the next 5 years', promises Wolfgang M Neumann, President of Hilton Hotels - Europe. 'We now complete our network of purpose-built meetings hotels' some 1,425 rooms .......more
The SS Rotterdam returns home
The SS Rotterdam has returned home to Rotterdam. The former flagship of the Holland America Line (HAL) is the largest passenger ship ever built in the Netherlands. After numerous wanderings across the oceans she has arrived at her permanent berth at the quay in Kop van Katendrecht, Rotterdam. The ship's interior has been .......more
Phuket's first exhibition & conference centre
Phuket's first exhibition and conference centre has been launched at the Royal Phuket Marina. This facility will be known as the 'Royal Phuket Marina Exhibition & Conference Centre'. The 2,500-sqm 'RPM Convention Centre' is three .......more
New Conference Manager for Regent's College Conference Centre
Ross Macdonald has been appointed as the new Conference Manager at Regent's College Conference Centre. She spent eight years in Dubai where she experienced the high level of standards of Middle Eastern conferences .......more
Steve Brice Appointed Business Operations Director at The O2
AEG Europe has appointed Steve Brice as Business Operations Director of The O2. In addition to the commercial and operational running of the venue, his responsibility will be to increase .......more
Heathrow is location for opening of first Ramada Jarvis new-build hotel
Ramada Jarvis, the largest UK franchisee of the Ramada brand, is opening its first new-build hotel, the Ramada London Heathrow, on September 17 2008. It has invested £27m in the 200-bedroom property on the Bath Road, close to the M4 and M25. Short bus rides will take guests to .......more
Golf addiction in full swing
The new indoor golf facility on the Brighton Marina waterfront has been proving it has the right name. Called Golf Addiction, it comprises 8 simulators, each able to offer 67 golf courses. It claims to be the only place in the UK where .......more
Continental Airlines introducing lie-flat sets next year
Continental Airlines has revealed details of a  new 180-deg lie-flat seat for the BusinessFirst cabin on its Boeing 787, 777 and 757 aircraft. They will be introduced on aircraft that primarily serve trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific routes in the Autumn of 2009.  'Continental continues to .......more
Four more Rotana properties opening in Dubai in 2008
Rotana is a Middle East hospitality company managing 24 properties, but with a plan to increase this to 65 by 2012. In line with this, Rotana is opening four new properties in Dubai before the end of 2008. These are Rose Rotana, claimed to be the tallest all-suite hotel in the .......more
Hogarths Hotel, Solihull, re-furbished
Centrally located Hogarths Hotel, Dorridge, near Solihull in the West Midlands, has had a multi-million-pound refurbishment. There are now six meeting rooms with natural daylight and views over 23 acres of woodland. Each has direct access to a terrace that can serve as a quiet dining .......more
Warwick Castle offers chance to 'entertain like a King'
Within the walls of Warwick Castle guests can be given exclusive access to the Mediaeval Castle Mound until 9pm. This is where William the Conqueror ordered the first fortress of Warwick to be built. Now delicious canapés can be served with unlimited beer, wine and .......more
Lee scales new heights with the help of Holiday Inn Express Burnley
With less than two months to go until the official opening of the new Holiday Inn Express in Burnley, the hotel is celebrating the safe return of climber Lee Farmer who was sponsored by developer Starboard Hotels to .......more
BACD members vote for merger with Eventia
At the Annual General Meeting of the British Association of Conference Destinations (BACD) held on Wednesday 16 July 2008 at Aston Business School, Birmingham, members voted unanimously in favour .......more
InterContinental taking over Port Ghalib Resort
The two groups M A Kharafi and Sun International, who together established the extensive new Port Ghalib Resort on the Red Sea in Egypt, have ended their business relationship. The .......more
Who cares who wins?
How about punting gondolas through the canals of Venice as a team building exercise? That's the offer from the Hilton Molino Stucky Venice. It's available for groups of up to 40 people. The activity gives an aerobic work-out, is .......more
Scone Palace's new Murray Suite
Scone Palace by Perth has opened the new Murray Suite as a corporate hospitality facility. It comprises the Tullibardine and Balvaird rooms, with views across the Estate, the parklands and the River Tay. The rooms can be .......more
ExCel London to double in size
ADNEC, the Government of Abu Dhabi's National Exhibition Centre, is known for thinking big, witness the extensive facilities nearing completion in its home country. Having bought ExCel in May 2008 for an estimated total investment of £350m, ADNEC has revealed plans to .......more
NatWest puts teamwork on the menu!
A group of 14 NatWest bankers from branches throughout the North West of England, including Area Directors and Relationship Managers, enjoyed a competition at LucyCooks cookery school. It had nothing to do with cooking the books, but everything to do with .......more
A Highland mix of moose and MICE
A new wilderness reserve in Scotland is keen to host incentive groups or secluded business meetings of up to 16 people. Alladale Wilderness Lodge and Reserve is set 23,000 acres in the wildest area of the Northern Highlands. 'This is the place', says Paul Lister, the owner, 'to .......more
Second Four Seasons opens in Istanbul
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts has opened its second hotel in Istanbul. It has a prime position on the European side of the Bosphorus, looking across to Asia. It was a 19th century Ottoman palace and has been restored with a contemporary style. The original .......more
New spaces for successful Barbican
Barbican, the City of London's conference and cultural centre and the biggest facility of its kind in Europe, has been able to celebrate its best-ever year, with a 16% increase in revenue. Its statistics also show that the Barbican Hall, capable of seating 2,000 delegates, had .......more
Whisky Masterclasses for team-building
The Albannach Bar and Restaurant is very Scottish, but is located in Trafalgar Square, London. It is now putting its expertise in Scotch Whisky at the disposal of client companies for staff social events, for entertaining business guests or .......more
Café Royal is closing
London is losing a major functions centre. The Café Royal on Regent Street close to Piccadilly Circus, will close down on December 21 2008. It was opened as a restaurant and hospitality facility in 1865 by Daniel Nicholas Thévenon, a Frenchman. Among its claims to fame .......more
New Park Inn for Edinburgh
The Rezidor Hotel Group will open a new Park Inn In Edinburgh in 2010. It will be a city-centre property, along with four others by Rezidor. It will have 171 rooms, a restaurant, lobby bar and lounge, fitness room and.......more
Derbyshire hotel increases room numbers
The Ringwood Hall Hotel in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, has opened six new bedrooms at a cost of £450k, bringing its total capacity to 70 rooms. The new rooms were previously used as servants' quarters. They include three feature rooms named after former owners of Ringwood Hall. They.......more
Silversea introduces a luxury expedition cruise ship
With the Prince of Monaco himself present, the expedition ship called Prince Albert II has officially joined the Silversea fleet at a naming ceremony in Monte Carlo's Harbour. .......more
Staffordshire/Stoke-on-Trent Conference Bureau's new guide to venues
The Staffordshire Stoke-on-Trent Conference Bureau has issued the 6th edition of the guide to its member venues .......more
Meeting packages at Luna Baglioni in Venice
Luna Hotel Baglioni has introduced a range of Meeting Packages for Half Days and Full Days. A member of The Leading Hotels of the World, the hotel is a few steps from St Mark's Square in Venice and claims to be the city s longest-established hotel. It has three .......more
Grand Castle re-opened in Xi'an
The Grand Castle Hotel Xi'an has been re-opened after 6 months of renovations. A member of Summit Hotels & Resorts, it positions itself as 'the most luxurious independent 5-star hotel in .......more
Merlin buys London Aquarium
The visitor attraction operator, Merlin Entertainments, is the new owner of the London Aquarium, located in County Hall on the South Bank, next to the London Eye. Merlin Entertainments now intends to invest £5m in further developing both the displays and the infrastructure .......more
New Air Mauritius business class on all UK routes
Air Mauritius will launch its new business and economy class features on July 1 2008 across all its UK routes. A new business class seat includes lie-flat cocoon seats with a 60-inch seat pitch and a recline capacity of 172 degrees. Each aircraft leaving from the UK will have .......more
SWISS to introduce 'beds above the clouds'
SWISS is adopting a new seating concept for its intercontinental Business Class cabins. These seats have never been used before and will be gradually installed throughout the SWISS long-haul fleet from spring 2009 onwards. The seats include an integrated massage function, USB and .......more
Feline medicine event for Edinburgh
The European Society of Feline Medicine (ESFM) has selected Edinburgh as the venue to host its 2008 Congress. The society was founded in 1996 to promote and assist vets' growing .......more
Hotel will be 'out of this world', says Premier Inn
Premier Inn has unveiled plans for a hotel on the moon. The company claims that a 43,500 sqft site has been purchased and that designers and engineers have been working on the blueprints and .......more
Incentive brochure from Windstar
Windstar Cruises has introduced a dedicated brochure on its charter and incentive services. It operates three motor sailing yachts (msy): Wind Star and .......more