Although 2015 had its fair share of international tragedy, tourism worldwide continued on an upward trend. International tourism arrivals — or the number of people visiting countries other than their own — grew 4.4% to 1.18 billion last year, according to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

The repeated terrorist attacks in Paris and the disputes within UNESCO between Japan and its neighbors highlight the danger that culture can become a source of international confrontation.

A video game based on the 2014 Taliban school massacre in which at least 132 children were killed in Pakistan's northwest city of Peshawar has been withdrawn after triggering social media uproar and backlash. The game, "Pakistan Army Retribution", was released by the Punjab IT board on Google Play, and invited the player to step into the shoes of a soldier shooting Taliban attackers in a school's hallways.

At the Corea Image Communications Institute’s annual award ceremony last week, which honored individuals who have popularized Korean culture worldwide, over 60 foreign ambassadors and diplomats engaged in an evening of cultural diplomacy. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched the new "Start-Up India" scheme to promote and nurse entrepreneurship in the country ensuring minimum interference from the government with attractive tax incentives.

In new photographs, the American artist Taryn Simon captures a different kind of flower power: bouquets that sat on the tables where world leaders were brokering deals. [...] Simon imported four thousand botanical specimens from the world’s largest flower market, in the Netherlands, and created three dozen still-lifes, evoking diplomatic accords made between 1968 and 2014.

When Starbucks first opened in China in 1999, the company's future seem doomed in a country that has thousands of years of tea-drinking history. However, in just 17 years, Starbucks changed and revolutionized the way the Chinese view and drink coffee. […]It's been reported that Starbucks intends to double its locations in the country by 2019.

In 2015, 45.5 million visitors came to the City of Angels, an increase of 1.3 million from the previous year, tourism officials announced Monday. The numbers marked the fifth consecutive year of growth, according to Mayor Eric Garcetti and Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board. Garcetti has set a goal of boosting tourism to Los Angeles to 50 million people per year by 2020.