News snippets and the latest gossip, live from ITB Berlin 2014 - Today: India's tourist police, Carlson creates new brand, MO expands and more....

India plans tourist police
In consequence of the intense media coverage of violations in India, the government has announced to establish a tourism police. In 13 federal states of India including Mumbai such a task force already has been introduced, next location to follow is Aurangabad. On ITB 2014, Indian tour operators reported disappointing sales figures for Autumn and Spring, but in the mean time emphasized the high security level of India for tourists wether they are male or female.

Carlson Rezidor to create new brands
Former SAS named Swedish Carlson Rezidor premium hotel group has introduced two new brands that will firstly presented in 2015 globally. The label „Radisson Red" are designed in a fashionable „lifestyle" look-and-feel, besides an emphasis will be laid on technical services. In particular this includes remote control of room technique like aircon, heating, tv or light and the ordering of beverages etc. via a smartphone app. Until 2020 the company plans to open more than 60 new properties housing „Radisson Red". The second new brand „Quorvus Collection" does stand for wellness, relaxing and entertainment. The Quorvus locations will be exclusively 5 star properties of both modern and historic type that are transformed from already existing hotels where renovations already have started.

This year the first of them shall open.
Africa is another focus of Carlson Rezidor; the group have decided to invest significantly on the continent so the number of properties there will more than double to 50 altogether. The majority of new properties will be located south of the Sahara and will be operated under the Radisson Blue brand. This year amongst others one hotel in Nairobi (Kenia) and one in Freetown (Sierra Leone) is going to open.

Mandarin expansion
Luxury hotel chain Mandarin Oriental this year is going to open four new properties. Locations are Bodrum (Turkey), Taipeh (Taiwan), Marrakesh (Morocco) and Chinese Capital Bejing. The expansion will continue: Twelve more properties have been projected already, among the next Mandarin's to open in 2016 is one in Bukit (Bali).

Starwood's Extreme Wow
Autom 2015 Starwood Hotels & Resorts is going to present their first W brand property located in Amsterdam (Netherlands) to the public .The W Amsterdam will have 169 rooms, of which ten are suites and the so called „Extreme Wow Suite". The group at whole plans to introduce another 60 properties to the European market until 2020. Key markets are Russia and Turkey, where Starwood only this year will open another four hotels.

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Roland Wildberg is Travel Writer and Correspondent based in Berlin, Germany. He started as an Editor for the National daily 'Die Welt' (tourism section), later on switched to a freelanced career and nowadays mainly publishes on the Web. Observing the hospitality industry has always fascinated him as it looks like the perfect combination of sleeping and writing – work-live-balance at its best.