Hilton Worldwide announced the opening of its first Doubletree by Hilton hotel in Southeast Asia. The 540-room, 34-story Doubletree by Hilton, Kuala Lumpur rises high in the skyline of Malaysia’s capital city within Kuala Lumpur’s Golden Triangle district, just northeast of KL City Centre. Positioned along the Jalan Ampang at the Jalan Tun Razak crossing in Embassy Row, the Doubletree by Hilton, Kuala Lumpur is managed by Hilton Worldwide, and owned by MGPA Asia Fund II and is part of an integrated property called The Intermark. Besides the hotel, The Intermark also has on site a Retail Podium, and a grade A office tower. Another new office building, which has been awarded Platinum LEED pre-certification, is scheduled for completion in 2012.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. announced the signing of a Non-Exclusive Master Agreement with D.I.H (Cyprus) Limited, an affiliate of Duet India Hotels Ltd., and JHM Interstate Hotels India Pvt. Ltd. The agreement was signed concurrently with the execution of the agreement for the Four Points by Sheraton Pune, Nagar Road.

The tourist season in Bulgaria has started for the Russians as usual in June: 72 thousand people visited the country with tourist purpose (+23.9 percent in comparison with June 2009). The total number of people who visited Bulgaria amounted to more than 84 thousand people (+24.5 percent). As for the share of the Russians (12.4 percent), they took the lead over the Germans (11.5 percent) giving way only to the Greeks (18.5 percent) and the Romanians (15.7 percent).

After almost two years of non-representation in UK, the Seychelles Tourism Board (STB) re-opened its Tourist Office in London on July 15. The decision to recapture that market has been greatly welcomed by both the local and British travel trade.

The Amsterdam canal district was added to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Heritage List. The decision was announced at the 34th Session of the World Heritage Committee in Brazil, making the canal district the ninth World Heritage Site in The Netherlands.

Africa Travel Association will hold its Fifth Annual Presidential Forum on Tourism, Wednesday, Sept. 22, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., in which it will gather African leaders at New York University to discuss tourism as an economic engine of growth and development. The event will be part of the NYU-Africa House Conference of African Leaders on the occasion of the UN General Assembly meetings.

After a difficult year for tourism in 2009, particularly in terms of foreign visitor arrivals, the recovery in the sector in the latter part of the year has continued into 2010. In Abu Dhabi in the first four months of 2010, there was a 16 percent year-on-year (y-o-y) increase in tourist numbers to over 620,000 (including strong domestic tourism).

The two licensed helicopter operations on the main island of Mahe, Helicopter Seychelles and Zil Air, have recently commenced discussions of a joint venture operation, which would make better use of resources and streamline administration and operation of both companies, aimed to improve bottom line performance for the shareholders of the two companies.

With a remarkable growth at a steady rate, tourism has been rated Tanzania’s leading economic sector during the past five years.

This summer Turkey is making a major push for tourism in New York City with two months of video images of Turkey from July 8 to Sept. 1, 2010, as well as New Year’s Eve in Times Square. Turkey’s videos are the first to appear on the new Sony/News Corporation 30-by-40-foot screen with the latest in big screen technology located at 43rd Street facing north.