1. A brand-new Holiday Inn in Queenstown Remarkables Park is slated to open in early 2021. The 182-room hotel will be located close to Queenstown Airport and The Remarkables Ski Field, and feature meeting facilities, a gym and an all-day dining and bar venue.

2. Forward planning – 2023- Brisbane Hyatt will make its debut with a 170-room hotel in the suburb of Woolloongabba. The hotel will be situated in the $700 million South City Square precinct, which is also slated to house 850 apartments. Its facilities will include a rooftop pool and bar, a grab-and-go food market, a café, a lobby lounge and a fitness centre.

3. Food for thought - at a recent leading industry event, more than 30 people suffered from food poisoning/feeling unwell and some guests actually passing out…. To add insult to injury, the tickets were a hefty $725 per-person. We’re never complaining about drink limits again.

4. Emirates Airlines has unveiled a remarkable feature for future aviation auditorium ahead of the Expo 2020 Dubai. The design will reflect an aircraft’s wings.

5. Tourism Australia on Monday 6 May confirmed the promotion of Susan Coghill to Chief Marketing Officer, replacing Lisa Ronson who left the organisation in March.

6. Renowned Hospitality group, Trippas White Group, officially opened its new late dining venue in May 2019 - Esquire Drink & Dine, located on level 2 of the QVB, Sydney.

7. Tourism Australia has launched a new content partnership in the US with TripAdvisor. The Interest created by the Dundee campaign, the partnership targets high-value travellers who have shown interest in Australia with the aim of converting their interest into bookings. Over the next few months Australia will be heavily promoted on TripAdvisor with a homepage takeover, editorial blog stories and advertising banners.

8. Last month, Event Planet turned up the notch! Opulence was the theme of the event - with over 300 guests, a menu designed by Matt Moran and the team at Chiswick restaurant, plus a Moet piccolo vending machine and a four-storey, gold champagne bottle tower.

9. Leveraging the recent ‘Parrtjima – A Festival in Light’ staged in Alice Springs, the Northern Territory Convention Bureau last month hosted 11 business event planners from the health sector to provide an insight into Aboriginal culture and the NT’s health specialisations. During the famil, participants visited a range of facilities, including the Purple House - an Indigenous-owned and run remote dialysis clinic - and the Royal Flying Doctor Service.