Meeting professionals, take note. Even if you’ve held a meeting at Walt Disney World’s Epcot before, your guests will get an entirely new and different experience soon. At Disney’s D23 Expo in Anaheim, California in July, the Walt Disney Park and Resorts Chairman Bob Chapek and Walt Disney Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald announced new attractions coming to the Orlando, Florida theme park to make it more timeless and more Disney.

Here is a roundup of seven of the exciting things to come.

A new restaurant operated by Patina Restaurant Group will give diners an out-of-this-world view from space! It’ll be located adjacent to Mission: SPACE. Further details are not yet available.

Mission: SPACE, located in Future World, is excited to take guests around planet Earth during an all-new Green Mission that began on August 13th. The Orange Mission, which blasts riders off to Mars, will also be getting updated.

An attraction based on the Disney•Pixar film “Ratatouille” is coming to the France Pavilion in World Showcase. It’ll be similar to Ratatouille: The Adventure, a 4-D experience which opened at Disneyland Paris in 2014. Riders will shrink down to Remy’s size and run through the kitchen. It’s slated to open in time for Walt Disney World Resort’s 50th anniversary in 2021.

Future World is getting an e-ticket “Guardians of the Galaxy” attraction that will replace Universe of Energy, which closed on August 13th. It’s scheduled to open ahead of Walt Disney World Resort’s 50th anniversary in 2021.

Walt Disney Imagineer Tom Fitzgerald announced Disney is filming a new movie that will screen at the China Pavilion to better capture the essence of the country. They’ll be using Circle-Vision camera technology to record images of the Asian nation.

The new Disney Skyliner will be a network of gondolas to transport guests from park to park. It’ll connect the International Gateway at Epcot to Disney’s Art of Animation, Pop Century, Caribbean Beach resorts, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and a new Disney Vacation Club property near Epcot called Disney Riviera Resort.

The annual Epcot International Wine & Food Festival is getting extended to run for 75 days from August 31-November 13, 2017. The cuisine from India will be returning for the first time since 2009 and Spain will make its first appearance since 2010. Group dining experiences include a grand tasting event called Party for the Senses.

San Jose’s foodie scene has come a long way since three brothers living there in 1953 invented the Eggo Waffle. On Sept.  13, Team San Jose in California celebrated the first of what it hopes will be many Michelin-starred restaurants, at Adega in the heart of Little Portugal. The team brought in three other Michelin-rated chefs from New York and Portugal to cook with chef-owner Jessica Carreira and chef David Costa for some 50 food writers and dignitaries.

This seven-course journey through the flavors of seafood-infused southern European cuisine made savory stops with locally sourced Monterey abalone, white sturgeon caviar, and pig’s ear salad with garlic and cilantro. Carreira created the memorable dessert course of matcha creme brullee with black sesame cake and soy sauce ice cream—a combination that was both surprising and bright. Her father, Carlos, did the pairings with signature Portuguese wines from what has been described as one of the largest collections of Portuguese wine outside Portugal (the name of the restaurant means “wine cellar”). He also narrated the evening.

The elder Carreira explained that a lot of people were surprised when his daughter decided in 2015 that she wanted to open the high-end restaurant at that location, but he was certain that people would appreciate uniqueness executed well, so he supported her decision. The restaurant’s simple approach to food blends traditional salted cod and meat dishes with fresh seafood and a modern approach to traditional dishes. It worked. Within a year, the accolades—and the star—came knocking on her door.

Karolyn Kirchgesler, CEO of Visit San Jose, was not surprised. She is proud of the diversity of the city and its tastes. More than 40 percent of residents are born outside the United States. She loves sharing the bounty of what at one time was a largely agricultural area with visitors.

This focus on ensuring that groups are well fed is part of Kirchgelser’s job. In addition to marketing the city with its 4,000 guest rooms for groups, Team San Jose also runs the 367,526-square-foot San Jose McEnery Convention Center, and catering and tech services for the venue. “This way we know we can deliver on what we promise,” Kirchgelser says.

More often than ever, those promises involve accommodating special dietary needs or creating an inventive menu for a tech company bringing employees and users from all over the world to Silicon Valley. While traditional offerings of bagels and yogurt are available, groups can also build break stations of ginseng shooters, green tea cookies and soy milk drinks. Receptions could feature beef tenderloin tartar with crispy capers on a baguette, or duck confit quesadilla with cotija cheese and squash blossoms on a tortilla. The choices are limited only by imagination.

Eggo waffles are optional. As chef Carreira said when she introduced her olive oil torte studded with candied olives, olive oil dust and olive oil ice cream paired with a 10-year-old Madeira Malvasia, “When it comes to food, it is always good to keep an open mind.”

Restaurant kitchens across the land are on fire. Wood-fired cooking has chefs competing to see who can come up with the most Pitmaster-ish updates to classics of the smokin’ hot grill.

In the Charlotte Marriott City Center, Stoke is overseen by Executive Chef Chris Coleman, one of North Carolina’s most respected chefs. Local hams hang from the ceiling above an iconic, red Berkel charcuterie slicer. Stacks of wood stand ready for the Beech wood-burning oven.

The open fire allows Coleman to impart smoky notes to dishes such as the quickly seared scallop crudo with pickled jalapenos and herbed buttermilk puree. Other starters include beef marrow bones, lightly smoked, then roasted and plated with crispy ginger and quince jelly.

Wood-fired dishes are the core of the communal dining experience. Heartier meat dishes include the signature sticky pork shank with chili-sorghum glaze, Bertie County peanuts and benne seeds, and duck that is brined, then aged for four to five days before being pan roasted and glazed with a bourbon-barrel-aged sherry vinegar.

Save plenty-o-room for dessert. Here comes Stoke’s signature one-pound donut! It starts with house brioche dough, shaped to a ring, proofed and rested overnight. For service, it’s fried atop the wood oven and filled with diplomat cream and topped with crumbled Heath Bar.

It’s real good, y’all.

top fun cities

Fun is risky business. That’s because what floats your boat may sink someone else’s. Nonetheless, the uber-quants at WalletHub have taken a stab at crunching the “fun” numbers—by comparing the 150 largest U.S. cities based on 58 key metrics.

These range from the hour of last call for alcohol at bars, to the cost of a movie, to dance clubs per capita.

And so, here’s the “fun city” reveal:

#1 Las Vegas

#2 Orlando

#3 New York City

The rest of the top 10 fun cities, in descending order: Miami, Portland, Atlanta, San Francisco, New Orleans, Chicago and San Diego.

Surprised by any of these? Well, then, would it surprise you to know Cincinnati rings in at the No. 13 most-fun city, just after Los Angeles? Or that Anaheim, California, home to Disney Land, a major league baseball team and a bunch of other fun stuff, only manages to rank No. 74, barely beating out Grand Rapids, Michigan? Or that WalletHub claims the nation’s least fun metropolis (No. 150) is the California coastal city of Oxnard?

In the interest of balanced journalism, we feel obliged to give Oxnard Visitors Bureau equal time. To wit, “There are so many fun activities and things to do in Oxnard. You’ll never want to leave.”

Like we said, this fun business is tricky.

Other “fun” findings:

Beer price

Lowest: Albuquerque

Highest: Anaheim (maybe that explains it)

 

Restaurants (per capita)

Most: New York City

Least: Winston-Salem, North Carolina

 

Festivals (per capita)

Most: Honolulu

Least: Corpus Christi, Texas

 

Fitness Centers (per capita)

Most: San Francisco

Least: Newark, New Jersey

Fitness centers? Since when is sweating bullets on a treadmill called fun?

 

Like we said, tricky, tricky, tricky.

Game, set, meet! Feeling inspired by the U.S. Open to unbury your racquet in the garage and hit the court? American tennis is better than ever, with four of the country’s women reaching the semifinals for the first time in 36 years. Here are the top five tennis resorts of 2017, as ranked by Tennis Resorts Online. Ace the meeting space at one of these properties!

Click or swipe through this list of the best tennis resorts.

1. Kiawah Island Golf Resort, South Carolina

Hoisting the trophy as the best tennis resort in the world is Kiawah Island Golf Resort. It opened in 1976 with nine courts and has since expanded to an impressive 24. Two tennis complexes—Roy Barth Tennis Center and West Beach Tennis Club—are located on-site. There are nine Har-Tru clay courts and three hard courts at Roy Barth and 10 Har-Tru courts and two lighted hard courts at West Beach. Director of Tennis Roy Barth has been leading the resort’s tennis staff for over 35 years and he’s a founding member of the ATP Tour. Players can sign up for private lessons, clinics, round robins and mini-camps. The 255-room The Sanctuary Hotel is conveniently located nearby for guests.

2. Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa in Rancho Santa Fe, California

Rally in the serene setting of bougainvillea and citrus groves on one of 18 courts at Rancho Valencia Resort & Spa. Tennis Magazine has rated the property the number one tennis resort every year since 2008. The expert teaching staff is led by two-time U.S. Open champion Robin White, who won the title in doubles and mixed doubles in 1988 and 1989, respectively. Private and semi-private lessons, clinics and cardio tennis are available and there are about 50 guest suites.

3. Four Seasons Resort Nevis in Nevis, West Indies

The only international property cracking the top five is the Four Seasons Resort Nevis, which was also named the number one tennis resort in the Caribbean. It has four red clay and six hard courts. A total of five courts have lights for when the sun sets. Private lessons and special packages are available. The resort offers 196 guest rooms and suites and more than 50 villas. Fun fact: Alexander Hamilton was born in Nevis in 1757!

4. Wild Dunes Resort in Isle of Palms, South Carolina

Located right next to Charleston, which was named America’s Best Tennis Town by the U.S. Tennis Association, Wild Dunes Resort piggy backs off that title. They have 17 Har-Tru surfaces, including a stadium court. Five of them are lit at night. Private and group professional instruction, clinics, matching, round robins and cardio tennis are available. Groups who book the Courts & Cuisine program enjoy a morning of play, followed by an afternoon culinary tour of Charleston or an evening mixology tour. There’s also a special spa combo package to relax your sore muscles after playing.

5. JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa in Palm Desert, California

Grass courts are a rarity in the U.S. You’ll feel like you’re playing at Wimbledon in the middle of the desert. In addition to two grass courts, JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa also has 15 hard courts and three clay courts. The 884-room resort offers professional tennis instruction, player matching and wheelchair tennis. It’s conveniently located close to Indian Wells for tennis enthusiasts attending the BNP Paribas Open each March. Every Saturday morning from late December until April, hotel guests can enjoy an entertaining complimentary tennis show with players performing funny skits and tricks.

Trump Travel Slump Is Here, Numbers Say

More potential disaster has been spotted on the horizon for poor Florida—and the rest of the country, for that matter. The Sunshine State, and other states in the South and West, depend on meetings attendees and other tourism from abroad in winter months, and now U.S. Travel Association has warned of “major storm clouds for the inbound international travel market.”

Revising earlier, more upbeat numbers, the association this week said international visits actually shrank year to year in four of the first seven months of 2017. February (down 6.8 percent) and March (down 8.2 percent) were the weakest months.

The U.S. Department of Commerce affirmed this disappointing conclusion. Through March 2017, the agency said, total overseas travel to the U.S. declined by 7.8 percent compared to 2016.

The Global Business Travel Association in May projected a $1.3 billion loss in overall travel-related spending this year in the United States from Europe and the Middle East alone.

Blame for fewer foreign tourists was placed on a strong U.S. dollar and perception that the Trump administration is fostering a hostile environment for overseas visitors.

In a statement, U.S. Travel Association president and CEO Roger Dow urged the administration to protect policies that promote international travel to the United States and to keep the Brand USA marketing program alive. President Donald Trump’s proposed budget marked Brand USA for elimination.

“Upbeat consumer attitudes and solid labor market conditions continue to support the domestic travel market,” said Adam Sacks, president of Oxford Economics’ Tourism Economics group. “However, stagnant wages and the recalibration of expectations regarding the Trump administration’s campaign pledges pose risks to consumer and business sentiment. Additionally, the president’s continued rhetoric and policies weigh heavily on the international inbound market outlook.”

Not everyone walking around college campuses this month is a student, and some won’t be leaving at the end of the day. More universities than ever are including conference hotels on their grounds to accommodate meetings of the mind in academic settings. In fact, a cottage industry of campus hotel management companies has emerged.

Check out some of these properties and the opportunities they represent for creating smarter meetings.

Southern Management Corporation

The Hotel at the University of Maryland opened at the beginning of September and offers 297 guest rooms, four restaurants, a lobby bar, open-air Zen garden terrace and spa. Southern Management Corporation owns and operates the hotel and works in partnership with the university. Ten separate event spaces totaling 43,000 sq. ft. are named for notable figures, including the Wright brothers, who taught the first army pilots how to fly at the world’s oldest continuously operating airport (located just around the corner); Harriet Tubman, who was born on Maryland’s Eastern Shore; and Muppets creator and UMD graduate Jim Henson. The hotel also boasts a penthouse event space with views of the campus. The company already operates The Hotel at Arundel Preserve near BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, and Bear Creek Mountain Resort & Conference Center in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. “We wanted to spark economic growth along Baltimore Avenue and throughout the town of College Park,” explained developer David H. Hillman.

Graduate Hotels

This Chicago-based company runs nine hotels on college campuses—Ann Arbor, Athens, Berkeley, Charlottesville, Lincoln, Madison, Oxford, Richmond and Tempe—and has plans for three new locations—Iowa City, Minneapolis and Seattle—in the next year. Graduate Berkeley (formerly Hotel Durant) was purchased and completely renovated in 2015. It offers 1,836 sq. ft. of meeting space in three areas, including a boardroom, dining room and conference space, popular with banquets. Like Graduate’s other campus properties, the decor pulses with local art, academic memorabilia and free Wi-Fi.

LVX Preferred Hotels & Resorts

The Charles Hotel, Harvard Square, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, opened in 1985. The five-star property has welcomed celebrities, scholars, moguls, artists, philanthropists, politicians, opinion-makers and world leaders. Dignitaries making this campus tradition a temporary base include Barbra Streisand, former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton, Ben Affleck and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. It includes 18,000 sq. ft. of indoor and outdoor meeting space, 295 guest rooms, the local culinary gem Henrietta’s Table, the decadent nightlife of Noir and the world-famous jazz club Regattabar.

Cornell University

Students from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration have been working at The Statler Hotel at the heart of the campus in Ithaca, New York, since it was built in 1950 as an experiment in hotel education. The contemporary-style property includes 153 guest rooms, three restaurants and an Ivy League experience with every visit. Gatherings held in Statler’s 16,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, including J. Willard Marriott Executive Education Center and Carrier Ballroom, get high marks from attendees for training a future generation of hospitality experts.

Morris Inn at Notre Dame

University of Notre Dame owns and operates its own hotel and conference center based on the motto “where scholarship and hospitality meet.” Notre Dame Conference Center houses 20,000 sq. ft. of meeting space spread out over 12 seminar rooms and a 375-seat auditorium equipped with translation services for as many as 14 different languages all at once. The 150-guest-room Morris Inn was built in 1952 as the result of a gift from an alum. It was renovated in 2013 thanks to another gift from the benefactor’s daughter and is now a AAA Four Diamond Hotel.

dining in or out hotel

Imagine having a pizza delivered to your hotel room, and getting rewards points from your hotel for dessert. Or booking a table at your local sushi joint and getting hotel points for that, too.

If you belong to hotel and airline loyalty programs—millions of us do—then you know they often award points for stuff other than flights and hotel rooms. From discount magazine subscriptions to online shopping deals, these programs are continually trying to make themselves indispensable to their members.

Now, however, InterContinental Hotels Group will reward the 100 million members of its IHG Rewards Club for making restaurant reservations on OpenTable and ordering takeout on Grubhub.

IHG Rewards Club members can earn 500 points for their first completed OpenTable reservation. Thereafter, they earn 300 points for an IHG restaurant, and 150 points for any other dining venue. They don’t have to be staying at an IHG hotel. For Grubhub purchases, members earn 500 points the first time, and 250 points for each subsequent purchase. But members must be registered guests at one of three IHG limited-service brands—Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites. There are about 1,000 such hotels in the United States, and none offers full-service restaurants or room service.

To be awarded points for either OpenTable or Grubhub, members must book or buy through IHG channels—the IHG app, website or IHG Connect, the company’s on-property Wi-Fi.

IHG’s partnership with OpenTable, one of the world’s largest restaurant reservation platforms, applies only to restaurants in the U.S. for now, but is expected to expand to the U.K. and Australia by year’s end.

“The benefits that we offer IHG Rewards Club members are based on extensive research into what they want from a loyalty program,” said Liz Crisafi, IHG’s head of loyalty, partnerships and portfolio marketing for the Americas. “Members have told us they would like more ways to earn points while dining. These collaborations allow us to provide benefits that enhance the food and beverage experience for our members, whether ordering delivery to their hotel room or dining on or off property.”

hotels respond to climate change

If you’ve noticed more recycling bins in hotel rooms or temperature controls that automatically switch off when you’re away, it might be your hotel is taking a stand on global climate change. More than eight in ten hotels say the issue of climate change impacts their decisions to make operational improvements and investments, according to Green Lodging Trends Report 2017.

What’s especially notable is that, of the hotels that say climate change figures in their decision-making, “more of them shifted to ‘having significant impact’ [instead of] ‘having some impact’ this year,” to quote the summary of the report’s key findings. Globally, nearly 40 percent of hotels say climate change is a game changer.

We tend to think of high-end hotels and resorts as poster children in the Color Me Green world. Yet make room for the so-called limited-service hotels—the budget players such as Fairfield Inn and Homewood Suites by Hilton. Limited-service hotels, the report indicates, are stepping up their green game—”continually improving in the areas of sustainability, going toe to toe with full-service properties and in some cases even beating them,” as the report puts it.

There’s another big reason for real progress on the sustainability front. You, and other frequent travelers like you. Hotel guests are not only giving more feedback on hotel sustainability practices but are keen to make a positive environmental impact during their stays.

In other words, take that comment card seriously. Almost half the hotels surveyed say guest comments triggered a change for the greener.

The survey also asked about guest health and wellness issues. “Guests are paying closer attention to the products that they use,” the report states. It found nearly nine in ten limited-service properties offered eco-friendly amenities. Nearly six in ten full-service hotels did likewise.

Another example cited is environmentally safer paints in guest rooms and common areas. “Toxic substances in paints…can be hazardous to guests’ health and well-being,” the report notes. According to the survey, some nine out of ten hotels—both limited- and full-service—now use low-VOC or VOC-free paints during renovations.

Electric- and hybrid-car owners are increasingly welcome guests. More than a quarter of hotels say they have installed electric-vehicle charging stations. More than a third say they provide preferred parking locations for fuel-efficient vehicles.

Half of all hotels globally say they practice recycling in common areas of their properties. In the Americas, that practice is nearly universal. Twice as many Asia Pacific (47.4 percent) hotels—as compared to hotels in the Americas (22.6 percent)—say they donate excess food to local nonprofits or charities.

Are hotels wearing their green proudly? Alas, only half talk up their green cred on their website. About the same percentage send out press releases about green investments or initiatives.

The Green Lodging Trend Report, which is in its second year, is a joint project of Green Lodging News and Greenview, a hotel sustainability consultant. Respondents to a 110-question survey numbered 2,093 hotels across 46 countries.

Zac Posen at Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek

The next time you step into Rosewood Hotels & Resorts for a meeting, you will be putting your best fashion foot forward. Designer Zac Posen has been named a curator for the brand.

Catwalks and trunk shows take Posen all over the world to showcase his latest collections, so he considers himself a bit of a travel expert. He encourages other travelers to take in the museums of a city, which are often great venues to hold events or team building activities.

“I enjoy returning over the years to see how the art collections evolve,” he told Peter Schlesinger and Christina Geyer of Paper Magazine. “Stepping into a museum and experiencing the works takes you away for a moment.”

Posen is particularly fond of Dallas, which is why he’s representing Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek in the curator program. He held his first trunk show there 15 years ago.

zac posen

“Dallas has an incredibly distinct style. From the inherent graciousness of the locals to the powerful spectacle of the rodeo and the sophisticated energy of the ever-changing art scene, Dallas is bold, elegant and vibrant,” the native New Yorker said in a press release. “The city’s powerhouse style and vibrant culture is a constant source of inspiration.”

There certainly are parallels between designing clothing and designing events. The fashion and meetings industries are constantly looking for inspiration to be on the cutting edge of what’s new and what’s next.

“You never know what will be a source of inspiration. So you need to get your head out of your phone and keep your eyes open,” Posen said in the interview. “I try to be an open cultural ‘receive dish’—from people I meet, different experiences, scents and textures, colors and moods.”

The Rosewood Curator program was launched in 2013. Posen is not the first household name from the fashion world to take on this role. Elle editor-in-chief, Project Runway judge and author Nina Garcia infused her influence into the brand too.