After Santiago de Compostela, Spain and Cologne, Germany, the third edition of CULTOUR, Global Heritage and Culture Travel Exhibition, was successfully held in the City of Quito, Ecuador, as part of Quito as the American Capital of Culture 2011 program, sponsored by the Ministry of Tourism and the City of Quito. This is the highest City in the world ( 2.980 m). Besides buyers and media from around the world , the delegation from Bhutan had the longest journey.

Darren Edmonstone, Managing Director of Outrigger Hotels & Resorts, Asia Pacific, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr William Visser as Vice President Operations, Asia Pacific. Visser will be based in Outrigger’s Asia Pacific corporate office in Phuket, Thailand. He will be responsible for overseeing and directing all hotel operations of the Group in the Asia Pacific region. Visser previously held finance and operations positions with the Mandarin Oriental and Peninsula hotel groups.

Australia’s leading convention bureau, Business Events Sydney (BESydney), has appointed Lyn Lewis-Smith as Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO), taking the reins from long-term CEO, Jon Hutchison. Ms Lewis-Smith assumes this role, in addition to her responsibilities as Chief Operating Officer (COO), after more than 8 years at BESydney. Previously she held the roles of General Manager Marketing and Director of Sales.

by Reinhard Hohler, Chiang Mai

An ancient Angkor temple in northwestern Cambodia was re-opened to the public on Sunday following the completion of a decades-long renovation project described as the world’s largest puzzle. The restoration of the 11th-century Baphuon monument, one of the country’s largest after Angkor Wat, was celebrated with a high-profile ceremony attended by Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon. The finished project is the result of half a century of painstaking efforts by restorers to take apart the crumbling tower’s 300,000 sandstone blocks and then piece them back together.

AirAsia X, the Malaysian based long-haul, low fare affiliate of AirAsia has once again exceeded expectations by flying over 5 million guests to date since its first flight in November 2007. To commemorate this achievement, AirAsia X will be having a special promotion offering low, all-in fares starting 4 July 2011 across its network (excluding Tehran) from Kuala Lumpur.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) has approved a strategic plan to drive tourism growth in an era of unprecedented change in the global operating environment and regular occurrences of unpredictable external factors. Also agreed at the TAT’s annual Marketing Action Plan 2012 (MAP) meeting held between 23-26 June 2011 was a marketing plan that will take advantage of emerging opportunities in a world of changing demographics and technological innovation.