Cairns open for business after cyclone

AIRPORTS were open and some tours resumed last week after Australia’s most powerful cyclone in decades wrecked hundreds of homes and businesses Monday in mainly rural areas on the eastern coast.

Some resorts and roads remained closed in Queensland state after Cyclone Larry, a Category 5 storm, struck the Innisfail area south of Cairns especially hard.

But the storm largely spared the resort town of Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef, according to Tourism Australia and the region’s Tourism Tropical North Queensland.

Voyages, a Sydney-based travel company, evacuated more than 200 guests and 150 employees from two resorts it operates on Dunk and Bedarra islands before the cyclone hit. The islands are off the coast, about 60 miles south of Cairns.

In a statement on its website, www.voyages.com, the company said Tuesday that it planned to keep both resorts closed until Friday, pending evaluation of the damage.

Cairns hotels were generally open, tourism officials said.

The storm also affected a small section of the 1,250-mile-long Great Barrier Reef, which is visited by nearly 2 million tourists a year, park officials said. Most operators expected to resume reef tours from Cairns and Port Douglas last week.

Many highways, mostly south of Cairns and in the Atherton Tableland in northeast Queensland, remained closed Tuesday. For updates on road conditions, visit www.racq.com.au, a website run by the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland.

For local weather updates, visit www.bom.gov.au/weather/warnings.shtml. Tourism Tropical North Queensland was also expected to post updates on its website, www.tropicalaustralia.com.au.

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Radisson Seven Seas Cruises is now Regent

RADISSON Seven Seas Cruises has been renamed Regent Seven Seas Cruises. Its owner, Carlson Cos., a conglomerate based in Minneapolis that also runs Regent International Hotels, Radisson Hotels & Resorts and other hospitality brands, said it would invest millions in outfitting its ships with plush bedding, new technology and other upgrades in the next 18 months.

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Disney ship heads for Europe

THE Mouse is setting sail for Europe.

Disney Cruise Line’s Disney Magic ship will spend summer 2007 in the Mediterranean, offering 10- and 11-night round-trip itineraries out of Barcelona, Spain. Ports of call include Palermo, Sicily; Rome; and Villefranche, France. Departures are May 26 to Aug. 8, 2007.

Two 14-night transatlantic sailings between Port Canaveral, Fla., and Barcelona, departing May 12 and Aug. 18, will reposition the ship for the summer.

Bookings open April 4. Cruise-only prices begin at $2,399 per person, for 10 nights.

Information: (888) DCL-2500 (325-2500), www.disneycruise.com.

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A home for no-frills flying

SINGAPORE’S Changi Airport today was scheduled to open a no-frills Budget Terminal for low-cost airlines.

So far, only Tiger Airways has signed up to use the facility, which can handle 2.7 million passengers a year, said Satwinder Kaur, spokeswoman for the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore.

The terminal consists of two single-story buildings, one for departures and one for arrivals. Passengers walk about 65 feet from the terminal and up stairs to board planes.

It may lack escalators and jetways, but the facility does offer a few perks: 13 retail outlets, several eateries, free Internet access and a free shuttle to other airport terminals.

Is it a trend? Maybe so. Malaysia last week was scheduled to open an even bigger low-cost-carrier terminal, with a capacity of 10 million passengers a year, about 12 miles from Kuala Lumpur International Airport, wire services reported.

-- Compiled by Jane Engle