Yet the presence of costumed adults lining up for London’s own Comic-Con, a Swarovski-encrusted Hello Kittyworth thousands of pounds, and the profiling of Lolita fashion in magazine articles and V&A exhibits, show that cute culture is not just spreading beyond Asia, but it’s here to stay. And it means business. So, what is kawaii and why here and why now? 

A stroll around the UAE section at the recent World Travel Market (WTM) in London confirms the country’s tourism industry is in rude health. Every booth, table and VIP area of each opulent stand was occupied, with Emirati representatives in deep discussions with tourism professionals from all over the world. [...] While Dubai and, more recently Abu Dhabi, have both become firmly placed on the international tourism map, the country’s smaller emirates are also pushing to attract more overseas visitors, as evidenced by their presence at the WTM.

The video, running 48 to 120 times each day from Nov 14 to Nov 28, is a prelude to the launching of the closing ceremony of the 2016 China-US Tourism Year and a grand event with 5,000 Chinese tourists visiting the US in Washing DC and other parts of the United States in late November

Finland became the first country in the world to unveil a collection of national emojis in December, 2015. Finland is set to become the first country in the world to have its own country-themed emojis added to the Unicode Standard. [...] are likely to be introduced to the emoji keyboards of smart devices around the world next June.

The government needs to be more open, creative and clear in its communications with the wider world, instead of the conservative, secretive and dull methods that are currently the norm. [...] It’s needs a 21st century restatement of mission and objectives, and expansion of coverage to reach more audiences. It also needs a complete technical and content re-gig.

Branding consultancies have developed methods to estimate the value of global product brands and regularly publish rankings based on those estimates. I teamed up with US News & World Report and WPP’s BAV Consulting on the “Best Countries” study to measure nation brands—and how nations’ brands affect their economies.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to be the mascot of ‘Incredible India’ campaign as the Tourism Ministry decided to do away with plans to rope in any Bollywood stars, including Amitabh Bachchan, for the role which was lying vacant after ouster of Aamir Khan earlier this year. [...] The ministry is planning to use -- for radio and audio release -- two types of videos of different durations where Modi had talked about the uniqueness and diversity of the country, the official said.