The newest phone from apple, the 4th Generation Iphone (which has been nicknamed the 4G, but probably will not as it most likely does not support 4G networks yet) will be unveiled on June 7th. There has already been a lot to do about this new phone when one escaped from an apple employee as he was partying in a bar and made it into the hands of a couple of tech bloggers. Because of this, people are expecting less of a surprise in what the new Iphone features will be.

Some students dream of interning at a small startup company, being there when it takes off, and hopefully being kept on as it fly into stardom. There has not really been a way for students to find these companies unless they happen to already know someone who is starting a company right now. StartupRoots is working to change this.

Once in a while there is a great article, and for every person that article will be different. For some this is going to be one of them, and for others you will want to just set it aside and pretend you never saw it. Don’t just read the content though. If you don’t like Obama at least listen to the message. While it ends on a note of uncertainty, who can be certain with the political climate surrounding the Middle East. The point of the article though is that whether you agree with the plans or now, reaching this point in Obama’s health care plan shows that maybe, just maybe he does know what he’s doing and can follow and shape the long game. That is what it took to get him here. If you do like Obama, this is one more thing that gives you hope for his ability to handle the Middle East.

Indian Hotels, (IHCL), through its wholly-owned subsidiary Samsara Properties, has acquired a strategic stake of approximately 10% in Orient-Express Hotels for $211.28 million.

Read More at Business Standard India…

Useful link: Maps of India

A booming tourism industry in the country has prompted over a dozen global chains — including the Hilton, Accor, Marriott International, Berggruen Hotels, Cabana Hotels, Premier Travel Inn (PTI) and InterContinental Hotels group — to announce plans to set up over 350 five-star, four-star and budget hotels and 50 villas.

The plans would roughly translate into 65,000 additional hotel rooms — a quantum leap, considering that over the past decade the total number of hotel rooms in all categories has only grown 10 per cent to about 92,000 rooms.

India’s popularity has been surging on the global tourism circuit. Foreign tourist arrivals rose to 4.43 million last year from 3.92 million in 2005.  Read more

Kingdom Hotel Investments (KHI) said it bought Four Seasons Hotel Jakarta for 48 mln usd to diversify in high-growth emerging markets.

The hotel and resort investment company said it will own an 81.9 pct stake in the hotel and that this transaction expands KHI’s portfolio in Asia to nine properties in seven countries.

Three resort hotels in Thailand including the Banyan Tree Phuket are among the top 10 eco-friendly hotels in Asia in a listing by Agoda.com, an independent online travel company that specialises in discount hotel bookings. The other two Thai resorts on the list are the Evason Hua Hin Resort & Six Senses Spa and the Anantara Resort & Spa Golden Triangle in Chiang Rai.

As travellers the world over realise that the responsibility to protect the environment is a shared one, they are adopting greener lifestyles and scrutinising the hotels and destinations they choose, Agoda said.

According to the International Ecotourism Society, about 70% of travellers prefer to pay a premium rate for a hotel that is eco-friendly than one that is better-priced but has no corporate social responsibility policies.  Read more

China has ordered hotels in the capital to keep rooms no cooler than 26 degrees Celsius (79 Fahrenheit) in summer and no warmer than 20 degress in the winter in a bid to save energy, state media said on Friday.

Beijing Vice-Mayor Ding Xiangyang said the orders had to be obeyed, unlike previous schemes in which hotels were gently urged to save fuel.

“Enforcement officials will be sent around to make sure these measures have been implemented,” he told a news conference on Thursday.

Hotels that have service contracts with the Beijing Organising Committee for the 2008 Olympics were told to clean their air-conditioning and ventilation systems before the end of the year.  Read more

An industry known for its privacy is flirting with the public, as Japanese love hotel funds look to entice retail investors with attractive returns.

For decades, young Japanese couples and secret lovers have rented love hotel rooms by the hour, the experience enhanced by novelties such as rotating beds, ceiling mirrors and karaoke machines.

Today many of the hotels look somewhat shabby compared with their heyday in the bubble economy of the 1980s, but hold out the promise of sweet returns for investment funds that renovate and securitize them for the debt market.  Read more

Hilton Hotels, one of the world’s largest hospitality chains, plans to add 1,000 new properties outside North America over the next 10 years.  Of these, 300 hotels will be in the Asia Pacific, mainly in China and India.

Hilton wants to tap into the burgeoning growth in the travel industry in this region.  Hilton presently runs two hotels in Singapore – the Conrad and the Hilton.   Read more

Accor has signed agreements to manage two hotels, the Dalian Taida Guoming Grand Mercure Hotel and Dalian Taida Guorong Mercure Hotel, in China’s northeast Liaoning Province.

Dalian Taida Guorong Mercure Hotel has 194 rooms, two restaurants, two bars and a pillar-less multifunctional meeting room with 1000 sqm. Dalian Taida Guorong Grand Mercure owns 311 rooms, a 24-hour restaurant offering BBQ and other dishes. Both hotels are located in Zhongshan District of Dalian and are scheduled to open in September this year.  Read more

European hotel operator Accor group plans to open 17 Novotel-chain hotels in the Asia-Pacific over the next two years.

The group yesterday officially opened its latest hotel in the city, the Novotel Hydro Majestic Kuala Lumpur.

The hotel, which is located in Jalan Kia Peng, offers 291 rooms. With its opening, Accor now manages 72 hotels in 14 countries around Asia-Pacific.  Read more

Hilton Hotels Corporation (NYSE: HLT) has announced that its joint venture company with DLF plans to develop 10 hotel projects in India, under the full service Hilton brand, business hotel brand, Hilton Garden Inn and long stay brand, Homewood Suites by Hilton. The announcement marks the first stage of development for the Hilton-DLF joint venture company which will culminate in the opening of the first Hilton Garden Inn hotel in Saket in 2008.

Ian Carter, executive vice president and CEO Hilton International Operations was in Delhi this week and commented, “We are delighted with the substantial progress of our joint venture company with DLF in India. Having identified 20 key sites in India, we are moving quickly toward to realizing our goal of becoming a household name in India in the next 5 years, with the first 10 hotel projects underway. We are very confident in our partnership with DLF”.  Read more

2007 will be a record year for Accor’s development in China with the company’s emphasis equally divided between new luxury/upmarket product and economy hotels.

Accor Asia Pacific Managing Director, Michael Issenberg, announced at the annual World of Accor trade expo in Hong Kong on Tuesday that the company was on schedule to launch a record 20 hotels in 2007, while a further 40 hotels were either under construction or in final phases of planning.

The 60 new hotels are spread across the country and include deluxe Sofitel and Grand Mercure hotels, mid-market Novotel and Mercure hotels and economy Ibis hotels.  Read more

Mareka Hotel Management Limited Company, one of the budget hotel management giants in the Chengdu market, will cooperate with local budget hotel Top Star Hotel to expand in western China.� Read more