HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (23 June 2009) "” The landmark Caravelle Hotel turns 50 years old this year, but don't look for any dust on the equipment in the hotel's fitness center. It's brand new.
After a $100,000 investment in a suite of new products, the Caravelle reopened the fitness center earlier this month as the city's most contemporary facility.
"We want the Caravelle's fitness center to rank as the single best place in Ho Chi Minh City for a workout," said John Gardner, general manager of the hotel. "That's why we now keep the center open 24 hours a day, and it's why we've invested in the new Star Trac machinery."
The jewels in the new Star Trac package are the company's E Series cardio trainers, including four elevating treadmills embedded with televisions, two body trainers, two upright bikes, a recumbent bike and a stepper. The two body trainers are completely new fitness options at the Caravelle.
As well, the Los Angeles, U.S.-based company is delivering urethane dumbbells, Olympic plates, and a range of machines in Star Trac's Instinct line, including presses, pull-downs, benches and racks.
Last September, the Caravelle opened the doors on its 128-square-meter fitness center to in-house guests all day and night, every day and every night.
As one of the premier business hotels in one of Asia's most dynamic business destinations, the Caravelle found that many guests from distant time zones required access to the center when their body clocks were still chiming high noon in the small hours of the night.
ABOUT THE CARAVELLE
Ho Chi Minh City's premier hotel, the Caravelle stands at 19 Lam Son Square, across from the Municipal Theater. The hotel opened in 1959, boasting a suite of amenities never before seen in Saigon, including bulletproof glass, a Berliet generator and Trane air conditioners (a first for any hotel in the city). In 1998, after more than two decades of operation on a shoestring budget, the aging landmark was resuscitated with a complete renovation and a complementary, 24-storey tower. The hotel celebrated its 50th anniversary in May 2009 with a keynote address by the renowned AP and CNN war correspondent, Peter Arnett.
A beneficiary of myriad awards from DestinaAsian in Southeast Asia to The Robb Report in North America, the Caravelle was most recently hailed as the top hotel in Vietnam by the Vietnam Tourism Association.
For more information, contact Ms. Ngo Thi Thuy Vy in marketing at (84-8) 3 823 4999 or mcm@caravellehotel.vnn.vn, or visitwww.caravellehotel.com.
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