Barack Obama Australian visit

From The Australian:

Obama to stay 24 hours in Canberra at end of Asia-Pacific visit

BARACK Obama will spend barely 24 hours in Australia as part of his rushed Asia-Pacific visit next week.

The White House today released details of the President's itinerary for a one-night stopover in Canberra that will include dinner and bilateral talks with Kevin Rudd and an address to a special joint sitting of Parliament.

A special media briefing today by the White House on the President's proposed visit to Guam, Indonesia and Australia indicates Mr Obama's departure will go ahead as rescheduled on Sunday, Washington time, after difficulties in passing health reform in the US congress forced a three-day delay.

It remains unclear, however, what the President will do if the health legislation that he rates as his number one domestic priority is not passed by the time he is due to depart.

One possibility is a further delay in the trip. A senior Washington insider told The Australian today that if Mr Obama left Washington for his Asia-Pacific trip without passage of a healthcare bill it would mean the reform agenda he values so highly was dead.

Mr Obama will visit Australia at the tail-end of a shortened Asia-Pacific trip that begins with Guam and then Indonesia. He was originally meant to bring his wife Michelle and their daughters Malia and Sasha, but now the President is to travel without his family. A proposed visit to Sydney during what was to be a longer stay has been cancelled.

The President will arrive in Guam on Monday to address the military personnel and local community living at the US base on the Pacific island.

On Tuesday he is to arrive in Jakarta for bilateral talks and a state dinner with Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Mr Obama will formalise a new co-operation agreement between the US and Indonesia on Wednesday. He will also deliver a speech rated by the White House as a follow-up to the President's Cairo address last June that affirmed a US desire to re-engage with the Muslim world in the Middle East. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world.

On Thursday next week Mr Obama will travel to Bali for a Civil Society event - an initiative of Mr Yudhoyono - that reaffirms Indonesia's commitment to democracy and human rights.

He will arrive in Canberra late on Thursday for a private dinner with Mr Rudd. On Friday, Mr Obama will fit a packed schedule into his day in Canberra before leaving for Washington in the evening.

He will meet Governor-General Quentin Bryce, hold bilateral talks with Mr Rudd, hold a joint press conference with the Prime Minister, address a joint session of Parliament, attend a ceremony celebrating the 70th anniversary of official US ties with Australia and then depart from Canberra Airport aboard Air Force One.

The Obama administration's deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, Ben Rhodes, said Australia was a longstanding ally and had a model alliance with the US.

“Australia ... is an increasingly important ally in both the region and the world,” Mr Rhodes said.

“In many ways, it's a model alliance for the United States. We have very robust cooperation with the Australians on security issues, economic issues, environmental issues.”

Sydney - Edinburgh Military Tattoo

Sure, the Australian Open Tennis kicks off the year as far as big events for the Australian hotel market but it was nothing compared to this week in Sydney.

This week sees the Edinburgh Military Tattoo come to Sydney, an annual event that is growing by the year. Its at the SCG this year which is just on the outskirts of the CBD and the hotels are feeling the full effect of its presence.

It started making waves about 2 weeks back but by the time I returned from Melbourne and after the Australia Day public holiday, the main night February 6 was essentially sold out. It seemed to be a weekend event which usually does mean much for us because we work closest with the corporate market. Near the end of last week tho the effect of the Tattoo were spreading in to the midweek dates. Friday was a very day for us and this week has started the same way. The city of Sydney is now close to full on not just Saturday but Wednesday, Thursday as well. There are some rooms available here and there but trying to find a hotel that can do two nights in a row is extremely difficult.

The Edinburgh Military Tattoo is yet another event that people would not imagine could fill a city, especially Sydney, but it certainly has.

Australia Day (non) long weekend

I'm in Melbourne from tomorrow morning (Saturday) and not flying back until Monday evening. The office will be closed on Monday and with the Australia Day public holiday on Tuesday we will return on Wednesday January 27. Sure, its officially a long weekend but we're taking this opportunity to make it one! It would un-Austraaaaalian not to ...

Golf hotels

I found this article in one of the industry newsletters I read and thought it was worth sharing. Its for all the golf fans out there (like myself) but its also about unique hotels.

Click on the title below to read the full story and check out the slideshow to see some great pics. One of the photos is of the Old Course Hotel at St Andrews which I'm lucky enough to have stayed at.

Bunker down in a crazy golf hotel - CNN.com

(CNN) -- Golf is a game which lends itself to luxury stays in swanky resorts, so not unnaturally the accommodation offered in its hotels and clubhouses is often of the highest standard with cutting edge architecture and design to the fore with no expense spared.

But there is also room for the quirky and downright odd so Living Golf has trawled the world to come up with some examples of the best on offer and the most unusual.

We have discovered there is something for everyone from the classic Old Course Hotel at St. Andrews to a planned five-star underground complex as well as a run-of-the-mill motel which can satisfy the needs of both petrol heads and golf lovers.

There are falcons rising out of the desert and lodges that can put golfers truly in tune with the wilds of Africa because everywhere golf is played, architects and entrepreneurs are pushing the boundaries to attract customers to their complexes.

The spectacular entrance to the clubhouse at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club

Movember follow-up

Back in November, I posted about my friend Dirk who had taken up the Movember challenge. I mentioned I would show an "after" pic to let you know how he got on ... so here it is:

The challenge given to Dirk was to grow a Freddie Mercury (on the left) and as you can see he did a pretty good job given he had just one month.

Dirk raised over $400 for The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and Beyond Blue. He's already set loftier goals for himself in 2010 ... but great work Dirk!

Christmas and New Year's break

We are now closed for the Christmas and New Year's break and the office will re-open again from 9am on January 4, 2010. If you need urgent assistance during this time please leave a message on the voice-mail or e-mail me.

As we have done over the last two years, instead of sending out Christmas cards, we have made a donation to the Starlight Foundation.

Thank you so much for your support through a challenging year and we look forward to bigger and better things next year. We hope you have a very merry Christmas and look forward to working with you in 2010.

Dalai Lama fills Sydney

Last month it was Britney Spears and Pearl Jam that filled Sydney hotels, but they weren't as big a drawcard as the Dalai Lama.

I noticed a week or two back that Sydney was filling quickly this week and did some research to find out why. It was then that I found out the Dalai Lama was going to be in Sydney from the 1st to the 4th. Combine this with the end of corporate travel season and I knew it would be a busy week for the hotels.

With this in mind, I loaded up on rooms for this week and thought I had judged the demand fairly well but when I completely ran out of rooms on Monday afternoon I knew it was trouble. Sydney was close to filling on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. From Tuesday onwards, each morning I managed to find only a handful of "affordable" rooms. If you hadn't got in early and needed last minute accommodation, you had to pay over $500 for a hotel.

Its getting busy again on Wednesday and Thursday next week in Sydney but I'm sure it won't be anywhere near as crazy for the hotels as it was this week when the Dalai Lama came to town.