World Tourism Day 2011 will be celebrated under the theme Tourism – Linking Cultures, an opportunity to highlight tourism’s role in bringing the cultures of the world together and promoting global understanding through travel (27 September 2011). “The message on this World Tourism Day is that, thanks to tourism, millions of people from different cultures are being brought together around the world like never before,” said UNWTO Secretary-General, Taleb Rifai. “This interaction between people of different backgrounds and ways of life represents an enormous opportunity to advance tolerance, respect and mutual understanding”.

AirAsia announced today that it has signed with CAE, a global leader in flight training solutions, a joint venture agreement to set up a world-class aviation training centre that will offer state-of-the-art training for airlines throughout Asia. The signing was witnessed by the Deputy Minister of Higher Education of Malaysia, Yang Berhormat Dato’ Saifuddin bin Abdullah. The centre, to be aptly named the Asian Aviation Academy, is the initial effort and a part of the joint venture between AirAsia and CAE which forms the company Asian Aviation Centre of Excellence Sdn. Bhd. The establishment of the training centre will positively contribute to AirAsia’s vast expansion plans by providing highly skilled and certified personnel required for the airline’s fast growing fleet and operations.

airberlin and American Airlines have expanded their codeshare relationship to include airberlin’s new services between Berlin-Tegel and New York-JFK. The non-stop flight operates since May 2011 every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday between the German capital and New York. With the addition of this new flight, the codeshare agreement between airberlin and American Airlines now encompasses the entire U.S. network of the second largest German carrier.

The seven Central and Eastern European countries sharing the Carpathian mountain range have agreed to jointly manage the sustainable development of tourism; a sector of fundamental importance to the region. Meeting at the 3^rd Conference of the Parties to the Carpathian Convention, the countries adopted the Protocol on Sustainable Tourism, drafted by UNWTO and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), which lays the foundations for a coordinated approach to tourism (Bratislava, Slovakia, 25-27 May).

Y.A.B. Tan Sri Dato Haji Muhyiddin Bin Mohd Yassin (Right), Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, recently visited Phuket FantaSea, where they were welcomed by Director of Public Relations of Phuket FantaSea, Ms. Sirikun Ammaramorn (Left). The Deputy Prime Minister and his family were given a commemorative souvenir after attending the “Fantasy of a Kingdom” show at the “Palace of the Elephants”.

Chinese state media say a high-speed railway linking the capital, Beijing, and the financial hub of Shanghai will open by the middle of this year, ahead of schedule. China began construction of the $33 billion rail link in 2008, and originally planned to open it in 2012. But the official Xinhua news agency quoted railways minister Liu Zhijun Tuesday as saying the launch date has been moved forward to June. He did not elaborate.
The new Beijing-Shanghai railway will cut the travel time for the 1,318-kilometer route to less than five hours, compared to the current 10-hour rail journey.