China has launched a program to promote stories of well-behaved outbound Chinese tourists in an effort to improve overseas images of Chinese world travelers. [...] China's tourism industry, which has seen rapid growth, has become an influencing force in the world. [...] "The behavior of Chinese [outbound] tourists is one of the important parameters to gauge the national soft power," ​

Pop culture has worked a powerful magic in South Korea, turning it into one of the coolest places on the planet, which begs the question: How can Singapore get in on the act? The Hallyu fever, which started around 20 years ago, had overtaken Japanese pop that held sway from the 1980s to the early 1990s, and shows no sign of cooling.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has urged the Cabinet to enhance the soft-power approach to improve Indonesia's image, highlighting national branding as a strategy to improve the country's competitiveness in trade, tourism and investment.

The measure has already generated a dramatically increased number of tourists not only from Thailand but from across Southeast Asia. They have now become a major source of Taiwan's foreign-currency earnings, economic growth and development. Most importantly, it has expanded people-to-people exchanges between Taiwan and a region previously little seen by outsiders. 

Changdong district, a relatively small residential commuter area, lies on the northern outskirts of Seoul. Home to a few hundred thousand people, it's an area that's growing but which has little cultural facilities or industry. [...] City planners hope that K-pop can do for Changdong what the Beatles did for Liverpool in the UK attracting both locals and tourists into the area, who could bring jobs and spending power with them.
 

The 2016 Sino-Thai Culture and Tourism Friendship Caravan was co-organized by the China International Culture Association and Thailand Tourism Bureau, in order to promote “Belt and Road” Initiative-guided cultural construction, and give a boost to cultural exchange and cooperation between China and Thailand.

“From an increase in flight connectivity, to promotion of the country through the success of films and TV shows set in Scotland such as Outlander...to the launch of our first global marketing campaign – Spirit of Scotland – there are numerous individual reasons why tourism is performing well...as a world-class destination."

An inaugural University Dialogue on Nation Branding will be held by Brand South Africa at the University of Pretoria on Wednesday 5 October 2016 from 8am-8pm. It will assess the theoretical discourse around the discipline of nation branding in order to enable South Africa to evaluate how the current efforts to build a cohesive nation brand can be strengthened.