Articles

Just off Saigon’s heaving, teeming Ben Thanh market, up a discreet flights of steps in a pencil-thin precinct reminiscent of apartments in Paris or New York, is a hidden gem: the 21-room Anpha Boutique Hotel.

It was late, after 11pm, when I arrived at the La Rose Boutique Hotel and Spa in Phnom Penh, tired after two long flights. I soon discovered to my dismay that the people at reception weren’t expecting me – I’d given them the wrong dates.

A Chinese banquet for over 2,000 people, an incentive event for 8,000 already done and dusted, and 500 future bookings secured. You could say things are going pretty well for the new International Convention Centre Sydney.

The events-on-cruise-ships idea attests to the adage that there’s nothing new under the sun, and more shipboard meeting options are available than ever before. Yet it represents a market in Australasia with more potential than is currently being realised.