Hotel group Accor has announced that it will implement a range of services designed to cater to the needs of inbound travellers from China and India.

The company, which operates hotel brands such as Sofitel, Pullman, Novotel, ibis and Motel 6, will begin rolling out its new Optimum Service Standards this year in its Australian hotels.

The new scheme will mean that parts of the hotel stay will be specifically tailored to the nationality in question, with particular foods being added to the hotels’ breakfast buffet, for instance.

International Living has just published its annual Quality of Life Index for 2011. Topping the Index this year is the United States of America.

In the influential publication’s 2011 Quality of Life index, last year’s winner France slipped to fourth place out of the 192 countries surveyed.

It is the first time in five years that France, described last year as a place where “life is savored,” hasn’t held top spot.

Bacardi is offering travellers at Sydney Airport the chance to buy one of only four Bombay Sapphire bottles hand-decorated with thousands of Swarovski crystals.

Priced at A$4,000 (US$3,960), each bottle is encrusted with over 10,000 crystals in four different sizes and colours: Aquamarine, Jet, Crystal and Light Colorado Topaz.

Each of the crystallised bottles of Bombay Sapphire comes with its own white leather case and will be on sale in Terminal 1 of Sydney Airport until 6 January 2011.

At the 2010 Australian International Motor Show, Mercedes-Benz is showcasing two unique AMG vehicles, a C 63 AMG called Concept 358 and a special-finish SLS AMG, built exclusively for the show.

The Concept 358 is the only C 63 AMG in the world to be painted in designo Pearl Orange paint from the AMG factory in Affalterbach, Germany.

The vehicle is fitted with the AMG Performance Package Plus , allowing the driver to play with a total of 487 hp.

G.H.Mumm partnered with renowned Chef Mauro Colagreco to create a gastronomic Dinner on a sand bank on July, 14th 2009.

G.H Mumm chose the Great Barrier Reef, and asked Chef Mauro Colagreco to prepare a gastronomic lunch in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, on a pristine sandbank on the Great Barrier Reef.

Magnifying these resources in their natural setting was the challenge that Mauro Colagreco had to rise to.

French luxury goods group Hermes has resorted to breeding its own crocodiles on farms in Australia to try to meet demand for its leather bags, its chief executive told Reuters on Monday.

Customers sometimes have to wait several years for certain exotic-skin bags, which can fetch over 35,000 euros ($48,410).

“It can take three to four crocodiles to make one of our bags so we are now breeding our own crocodiles on our own farms, mainly in Australia,” Patrick Thomas told the Reuters Global Luxury Summit in Paris.