Travel Roundup: MGM Mirage Sells Treasure Island, West Virginia Buys Ads, Delta's New WiFi and More
MGM Mirage to sell Treasure Island Resort & Casino -- MGM Mirage agreed Monday to sell its Treasure Island Resort & Casino to businessman Phil Ruffin Sr. for $775 million. The casino company will sell the 2,885-room resort to Ruffin Acquisition LLC for $500 million in cash and $275 million in secured notes. Ruffin, a Wichita real estate mogul, sold the New Frontier Casino & Hotel in Las Vegas last year which was torn down to make way for the Trump International Hotel & Tower. [Source: Kansas City Star]
West Virginia tourism gets $5.35 million for ads -- West Virginia's state Tourism Commission will give $5.35 million in matching funds to venues across the state to pay for tourism ads. The Charles Town Races and Slots will receive $355,000, while the Mountaineer Casino Racetrack and Resort will get $162,481 to lure Ohio and Pennsylvania players. Other grants go to the Morgantown Convention & Visitors Bureau and Winterplace Ski Resort's 13-hotel coalition, which is trying to attract skiers from Southern states like Florida, Georgia and Alabama. [Source: Charleston Daily Mail]
Delta offers WiFi to passengers for $9.95 and up -- Delta Air Lines will feature WiFi, the wireless Internet service, for $9.95 for flights less than three hours and $12.95 for flights running longer. By Tuesday, the carrier is expected to begin its WiFi experiment on four shuttle planes running from New York to Boston and New York to Washington, D.C. The service will be filtered to prevent access to pornographic and other inappropriate sites. The airline will be promoting WiFi for the next two weeks by offering it free of charge. [Source: Washington Post]
Taj Mahal Palace and Tower opens again Dec. 21 -- The Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, the last stand in the deadly Mumbai terrorist attacks last month, will reopen at 7 p.m. Dec. 21. The chief executive of Indian Hotels Co. Ltd., Raymond Bickson, said it dedicated the reopening to the city of Mumbai and said the hotel would "shine again." [Source: HospitalityNet]