Ensemble Travel Group has just released its 2012 Ensemble Hotel & Resort Collection directory, the 284-page Imagine Luxury, which lists nearly 500 hotels that are part of a program designed to help members in the U.S. and Canada increase their luxury business.

            Properties featured include Ritz-Carlton Hotels, Orient-Express Hotels, Starwood Hotels & Resorts worldwide and more. Ensemble is adding properties. Orient Express, for example, increased the number of the hotels it has in the program from five last year to 24 this year.

            The organization’s recent focus on creating specialist programs and niche campaigns for its members has guided part of the growth strategy, according to Vincent DeMauro, program manager, and Suzanne Hall, senior director, marketing and development, land products for Ensemble Travel Group. “As we develop specialist programs like the South Pacific and Honeymoons & Weddings, we are careful to consider properties that reflect or support those initiatives,” said Hall. “We also strategically look at ‘need areas’ -- emerging destinations where we may not currently have a partner, as well as the balance of properties to make sure we’re not saturating an area.”

            Among new properties this year are, in the South Pacific, Le Meridien Bora Bora; and The Observatory Hotel and Shangri-La, both in Sydney; for the honeymoon and wedding division, La Samanna, St. Martin FWI; Las Ventanas al Paraiso, a Rosewood Resort, San Jose del Cabo, Mexico; and in the family division, Ritz Carlton Caribbean properties in Cancun, Rose Hall Jamaica, Grand Cayman, San Juan, and St. Thomas; Vail Cascade Resort & Spa; and Westin Casuarina Resort & Spa Grand Cayman.

            In addition to the print directory, which is customized for Ensemble Travel Group members and mailed to strategically selected clients, the four- and five-star properties are accessible through the organization’s digital version that was launched last summer and embedded on members’ websites. It can also be posted on members’ blogs, sent to their contact lists, and distributed via Android devices, Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. New in 2012 is a “live” section that’s continually updated and showcases properties that join throughout the year.