The Queensland town of Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast has been announced the Overall Winner of the Keep Australia Beautiful, Australian Tidy Towns Awards 2012.

The CEO of Keep Australia Beautiful Queensland, Rick Burnett, described the Caloundra win as an outstanding achievement for the Sunshine Coast and for Queensland. 'It is a great win for the local people who have a commitment and pride about their local environment and work really hard to keep it clean, tidy and sustainable,' says Burnett.

Volunteers play an enormous role in ensuring the town achieves positive social, environmental and economic outcomes. The many anti-litter, historical and environmental groups work in partnership with the Caloundra Tidy Towns group across a range of projects and are well supported by the Sunshine Coast Regional Council. Through the Australian Tidy Towns Awards, Keep Australia Beautiful is able to recognise local community and individual efforts that are helping rural and regional communities to become environmentally, economically and socially sustainable.

Harvey World Travel’s National Frontliners Conference will take place in Auckland at SKYCITY on early August 2012 with a ‘Challenge Yourself’ theme. For the first time, the conference’s itinerary on Day One (4 August) will bring together 400 Harvey World Travel consultants from both sides of the Tasman, to share product and industry knowledge, training activities and best practice solutions.
‘The opportunity to unite so many of our team members from across Australia and New Zealand on the first day of the conference, was simply too good to miss.  We feel this approach is important to ensure a streamlined strategy across the business,’ says managing director, David Rivers.

Minister for Tourism and Major Events, George Souris announced that Sydney has secured one of the largest business events from China, The Perfect China Leadership Seminar 2013. Perfect China Co Ltd is a large direct-selling company that has built a strong market in China and throughout Asia for its health food and personal care products. The company motivates and develops its high-achieving sales force through its annual leadership seminars and will bring some 3,500 staff to Sydney next year. The Perfect China Leadership Seminar 2013 is expected to deliver an economic impact of $21 million to New South Wales.

So far this financial year, Sydney has secured 30 corporate events from Asia worth an estimated A$88 million in economic impact for New South Wales. Business Events Sydney together with Destination NSW worked to secure the 2013 leadership seminar.

House of Travel took a top 5 position in the National Randstad Awards for Employer Branding, held last week at the Pullman Hotel, Auckland. The business was only one of only two Travel and Tourism related companies in the Top 20 for 2012. Air New Zealand took out the top prize for the second year running.

'We may be a substantial business in respect of turnover, but for our people at House of Travel it’s about having a real sense of family. Cultural fit is a vitally important part of our recruitment philosophy. And providing the opportunities for career progression has been an important strategy for maintaining effective and satisfied employees,' says Jayne Thornley, group HR manager at House of Travel.

The Randstad Award is the world’s largest employer branding study and is run across 14 countries world-wide, measuring the attractiveness of the country’s 150 largest commercial companies. House of Travel currently employs more than 1,200 staff across its operations in New Zealand and Australia, and this year celebrated its 25th Anniversary.

Another Kiwi chef will head home to bring his flavour to Mondo Travel's Tasting Lounge on May 28. New Zealand-born chef Matt Egan will showcase the influences of his adopted home in the Margaret River region of Western Australia - particularly the tastes and flavours of Cullen restaurant where he is head chef.

Egan will join Cullen winemaker Trevor Kent and Tasting Lounge executive chef Brett McGregor in creating a three-course meal, with matched wines from Cullen Wines. Egan, who has been head chef at the Cullen restaurant since 2005, trained at Waikato Polytechnic in 1992 and went on to work in various London restaurants before moving to Western Australia. He is well-known in Margaret River for his use of local produce - including that grown in the winery's large kitchen garden.

The Tasting Lounge by Mondo Travel has been running since February at the Marvel Grill, in Auckland's newest dining precinct the Wynyard Quarter, on the last Monday of every month. Each month celebrates the best cuisine from a different destination or travel experience with matched wines, and is MC'd by entertainer Jackie Clarke.

Previous Tasting Lounges have showcased  New South Wales, Tahiti and Thailand.

Sopranos Mere Boynton and Deborah Kapohe are taking to the stage at Crown Beach Resort & Spa, Rarotonga for Opera in Paradise. The talented duo will perform at Oceans Restaurant May 25 - 26. Download a pdf for more details. For tickets and enquiries email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Auckland Airport was named for the fourth year in a row the Best Airport in the Australia / Pacific region at the 2012 World Airport Awards held at the Passenger Terminal EXPO in Vienna mid April, and was also awarded Best Staff Service for the Australia Pacific region.

Auckland also came second globally to Vancouver in the Best Airports by 'size of Airport', for airports handling 10 to 20 million passengers annually.

Simon Moutter, Chief Executive of Auckland Airport said, 'Auckland Airport is extremely proud to have been recognised on the global stage in the Skytrax World Airport Awards and we are especially pleased to have reclaimed the award for Best Airport Staff Australia/Pacific.'Making journeys better is the sum of many different parts, from cleaners to Customs, from airlines to Aviation Security, from border agencies to baggage-handlers – everyone plays a part,' says Moutter.

Auckland Airport’s general manager retail & commercial, Adrian Littlewood, expressed his gratitude to all the passengers who voted and to the Auckland Airport community who work to deliver world-class customer service. 'We are committed to continuing to build more international connections, develop innovations, find efficiencies and improve the passenger experience wherever we can. There are some challenges ahead, we know that the domestic travel experience at Auckland lags behind the international travel experience – our longer-term plan is to lift the performance there as well. But we’re ready for the challenge,' says Littlewood.

Incheon International Airport in Seoul scooped the title as the World's Best Airport for 2012, with Asian airports dominating the awards, as six of the top ten positions are awarded to airports across Asia.

Business Events Sydney (BESydney) welcomes the New South Wales Premier’s announcement on April 17 of the tender for the Sydney International Convention, Exhibition and Entertainment Precinct (SICEEP) and is ramping up efforts to profile other venue options during the three-year build.

The tender confirms the functional brief and development timelines for the new precinct, which will see the existing Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre close in late 2013 and new facilities open in late 2016.

'Premier O’Farrell’s announcement demonstrates the NSW Government’s commitment to essential improvements to Sydney’s convention, exhibition and entertainment facilities and their understanding of the valuable legacies – both economic and social – that business events deliver to NSW,' says Lyn Lewis-Smith, CEO of Business Events Sydney.

'The closure of the existing Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre is an end to a stellar 25-year innings for these facilities, but the decision gives the industry welcome certainty about timelines and the Government’s intention to fast track the project.

'BESydney and the wider industry have been long-term advocates of the need to create a cutting-edge and world-class International Convention, Exhibition and Entertainment Precinct to ensure that Sydney’s business event industry remains globally competitive well into the future. SICEEP will cement our status as Australia’s number one destination for conferences, conventions, exhibitions, incentives and corporate meetings, adds Lewis-Smith

Commenting on the development period, Lewis-Smith says 'BESydney will continue to work closely with clients and industry to ensure that it is well-known that Sydney is open for business.'