Laura Hyde

Microsoft is helping its customers and partners to adopt artificial intelligence technologies by providing payment flexibility and discounts.

Seeding and sodding work on the Scott Hoffman-designed course for the new Mapleton Golf Club in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, is almost complete. The course is expected to open by early autumn of 2025.One of the primary characteristics of the course will be its wide bentgrass fairways, with expanded areas of fairway cut around many of the greens. “The fairways are wide so playability is great off the tee but angles and using the slopes, which are definitely prevalent on many...

Overnight cruise stays bring substantial benefits to both the port destination and the cruise line according to speakers at the ‘Cruise overnights - a growing trend?’ panel at the International Cruise Summit (ICS), which took place in Madrid, Spain, from 12-13 November 2024.The panel, moderated by Mark Robinson, general manager at BC Group, analysed the growing trend of cruise ships staying overnight in ports. Speakers on the panel included Andrea Ferla, manager of...

Over 150,000 cruise passengers visited the Port of Québec in Canada during the 2024 summer cruise season, according to figures from the port.The port handled a total of 154,299 cruise passengers during 112 cruise ship port calls from 23 different cruise lines, with eight of the 42 visiting ships calling at the Canadian port for the first time.In January 2025, the international winter cruise season will begin with a visit from Ponant’s Le Commandant Charcot,...

MSC Cruises’ MSC Grandiosa has returned to service following a three-week drydock refurbishment at the Palumbo Shipyard in Malta.The refurbishment project on the cruise line’s flagship vessel, which debuted in 2019, began when hydrojetting high technology robots were deployed to clean and prepare over 17,000 square metres of the hull for a fresh coat of specialised silicon-based paint. This paint was chosen to minimise drag as the ship moves through the water,...

Cruise Ship Interiors Design Expo Europe (CSI Europe) will be held in partnership with Hamburg Messe Und Congress (HMC) in Hamburg, Germany from 2025 onwards.Having originated at the Fira de Barcelona in Spain in 2019, CSI Europe has taken place annually at ExCel in London, UK, since 2021. It is hoped the relocation of the two-day marine interiors-focused event, which caters exclusively to the European cruise market, will enable more interior designers, outfitters and suppliers...

MSC Cruises’ 2024-2025 winter season in the Caribbean has begun with the arrivals of MSC Divina and MSC Seaside at PortMiami in Florida. Every itinerary will include a call to the cruise line’s private island, Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve in The Bahamas.Homeporting in Miami, MSC Divina will operate three- and four-night itineraries to Ocean Cay and Nassau in The Bahamas. The ship will also sail several 10-night cruises calling at ports in Jamaica, Aruba, Curacao,...

The number of British people choosing to travel by ferry has increased in 2024, with 23.5 million passenger ferry crossings so far this year, according to industry body Discover Ferries.The IRN Ferry’s Ferrystat report shows there were more than 12.4 million passenger crossings for business and pleasure from ports around the British Isles in June, July and August 2024. Additionally, 8.2 million UK passengers have visited France by sea so far in 2024, up eight per cent on...

Quantexa has launched a public preview of its new Unify Workload to provide enterprises with advanced, artificial intelligence-powered entity resolution and data-matching capabilities within Microsoft Fabric.The solution, which was previewed at Microsoft Ignite in Chicago, USA, allows organisations to use capabilities in Quantexa’s Decision Intelligence Platform to create an enterprise data estate with a unified, interconnected view of their data.Organisations can...

Dye Designs has been appointed to renovate Flatirons Golf Course in Boulder, Colorado.Work on the course, which was originally designed by Willie Tucker and is owned and operated by the city of Boulder, will be led by Dye Designs’ senior design associate, Matt McGarey.The first phase will include remodelling the par-four thirteenth following the death of a large tree that was on the fairway. Three other trees in the right rough will also be removed. Two...