The winners of the 2009 AsiaSpa Awards were announced at a glamorous gala awards ceremony held at Armani Bar Hong Kong last Thursday.

The majority of Asia’s spa destinations won an award, including properties in, Thailand, The Philippines, The Maldives, China, Cambodia and Hong Kong.

Reuters reports that Salvatore Ferragamo has designed a limited collection to raise funds for breast cancer groups called the Pink Collection.

The collection will go on sale in October, which is celebrated as breast cancer awareness month.

10 per cent of Ferragamo’s sales in Asia (Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, India and Australia) will go to breast cancer foundations.

Last month, Louis Vuitton opened the largest boutique in Southeast Asia at Singapore’s luxurious ION Orchard in Orchard Road.

The 905 square meter concept store was designed by Front Inc. of New York while the interiors were developed by the Louis Vuitton Malletier’s architecture team.

The duplex store showcases the luxury brand’s first curved glass facade, inspired by the “folds of a scarf”.

Established in 2005, the AsiaSpa Awards continues to be one of the industry’s most esteemed recognitions in the Asia Pacific region.

It aims to set the standards, highlighting innovation and quality.

Resorts, companies, organizations and personalities that take home the much-coveted trophy are deemed benchmarks for this fast-growing enterprise.

Grebstad Hicks Communications (GHC), a specialist in the promotion of luxury lifestyle, hospitality and travel, has been appointed PR partner in Asia for ultra-luxurious travel organisation, The Leading Hotels of the World (LHW).

Internationally recognized as the definitive mark of excellence in hospitality, LHW began as a network of 38 hotels and 9,000 rooms and suites in Europe and Egypt in 1928 and now has some 450 Member Hotels and 80,000 rooms in 80 countries across the globe.

Asia-Pacific Boating celebrates 33 years of being on the water in Asia with a special edition for September-October.

In the coming issue, the editors and staff will offer a retrospective of some of their favourite destination photos in Asia.

Regular columnists will also be writing in with their views on how luxury yachting and yacht racing have evolved over the last three-and-a-third decades.