Whether you travel to eat or shop, surf or ski, new adventures await. The New York Times has put together this comprehensive list of THE places to visit this year.

By feature writer Lily Lin, MBA, Ph.D: Victor Clavell is the Ritz-Carlton Area Vice President, Asia Pacific.  He is responsible for the management of 18 properties with more than one billion dollars of revenue. In addition, there are 20 projects either under construction or in the pipeline in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Japan. Victor Clavell is a soft-spoken and a gentle man. But one should not let his demureness fool you. He is a hardworking executive and is absolutely determined to do his best.  He has an insatiable desire to learn. In fact, he thinks that all senior level executives should go back to school at one point in their career.

By Dr. Jonathan Barsky, Co-founder & Chief Research Officer of Market Metrix: In part one of this two-part post we discussed how copying competitors and replacing CEOs to improve profitability have fallen short. We explored the competitive advantage that others have discovered — employee crowd sourcing.  This post focuses on the importance of employee engagement programs, and how companies like Tropicana and Joi de Vivre leverage their own employees to find new opportunities for growth.

By Andrea Petersen: Spas, even the most glamorous ones, can elicit their share of cringe-inducing moments. There's the awkward scene in the locker room. The forced "relaxation room" time with other robe-clad clients—some who want to party, others who want to sleep. Not to mention sauna etiquette conundrums (towel or no towel?). Now, hotel companies are designing spas to give privacy-craving guests a spa of their own. These mini "spas within a spa" include their own bathrooms, showers, lounging areas and even Jacuzzis and steam rooms.

By Bernhard Warner: By now it is almost gospel that investing in innovative new products and services helps a company’s long-term success. That doesn’t mean it’s easy. A new study from Accenture, “Why ‘Low Risk’ Innovation Is Costly,” found that fewer than one in five chief executives believes his strategic investments in innovation are paying off, and that this poor track record is starting to discourage companies from taking risks.

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide says young millionaires are emerging as an influential segment in the highly competitive global tourism industry. Today, 85% of Starwood's luxury guests are rich travellers from Generation X and Y, so the US hotel chain is positioning itself to cater to this group.

By feature writer Chris Martin: There's a growing push for hotels, resorts, and other hospitality properties to become more environmentally-friendly. Not so long ago, that meant shelling out precious cash to purchase energy-efficient equipment and supplies without seeing any financial benefit from these investments. But now, the "green industry" has evolved to the point where conversion project costs can be recouped quickly and energy savings can significantly affect a property's bottom line. Here are several ways to go green and save money in the process.

By feature writer Alan Campbell: We have come a very long way and learned some valuable lessons along the road. Let’s not lose sight of the reason we decided to enter into this business. If it were not for customers, we (the hotels) would not be here today.

By Asher Fusco: When Google rolled out its Panda algorithm update in February 2011, it upended search engine results pages (SERPs) in a major way, affecting 12 percent of all results. The algorithm adjustment essentially penalized low-quality sites and rewarded sites with engaging, high-quality content. Because Google is always changing its algorithms in minor ways, the threat of another Penguin or Panda update might not seem like much to worry about. But Google is currently busy preparing a major Penguin update that will have a major impact on SERPs, according to SearchEngineWatch.