The Middle East is in turmoil and increasingly there is a need for the two regional powers, Iran and Saudi Arabia, to mend their differences in an effort to address urgent regional security matters. There is no denying that the Arab-Persian rivalry and sectarian divide is deep-rooted and will require serious dialogue and engagement to be rectified. 

Australians and New Zealanders tend to get annoyed when their accents get mistaken for one another, but there's one thing they do share. Both countries can lay claim to hosting the world's friendliest city, with Melbourne and Auckland jointly taking top honors in a new survey. Another southern hemisphere destination -- South Africa's Johannesburg -- didn't fare quite as well, being named as the most unfriendly.

When one looks at our top national brands with their domestic and international presence, it is befitting that South Africa continues to rank as a top destination not only for tourism but also inward investment. In this regard, the recent AT Kearney FDI Confidence Index ranks South Africa 13th globally, the only African country to be in the top 25 in the world while the EY Africa Attractiveness Survey attests to South Africa’s standing as the top destination for FDI projects on the continent.

North Korea’s approach to marketing itself to foreign visitors has often been contradictory, the product of competing bureaucracies and the changing whims of the leadership.  In this environment, North Korean authorities can often seem hungry for foreign visitors one minute, then going out of their way to frighten them off the next.

For all RAK’s efforts, the nation-branding exercise has not been an immediate success, critics say.  But FutureBrand has also placed the UAE as the number-one brand of the future. “To achieve its goal of being a model country in the future, the UAE is actively investing in its own commercial and tourism ecosystems,” according to the 2012-2013 FutureBrand report.

A handful of agencies that provide tours to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea say business is growing.  Visitors can circumnavigate the country if they wish, although the itinerary is filled with propaganda with tour guides enthusiastically trumpeting the nation’s achievements and industrial advancement.

China is poised to displace the U.S. as the world’s biggest business-travel market by 2016, aided by accelerating export growth and slowing inflation.  In China, the increasing pace of exports since mid-2013, consumer prices running below government targets and nominal wage gains that support more spending and profit growth are contributing to an expansion in the market. 

Soon enough, Brazil will be able to boast the largest aquarium in South America. It may also be the most truly American project in the Western Hemisphere. While the backers of Acquario Ceará are aiming to create a new design symbol for South America, it will be almost entirely a product of North America.