Rail Plus is offering a 25% discount on any German Rail Pass booked before September 26, saving travellers up to $187 each.

The new "Sit & Save" promotion is valid in either first or second class, with passengers required to travel between 1 July and 31 October 2014 and to make reservations on all the trains on which they travel.

Freestyle Holidays has launched a competition for travel agents to win a seven-night trip for two to the Maldives.

The prize is valued at over $12,000 and includes return flights and accommodation at the 5-star Anantara Dhigu Resort & Spa.

To celebrate the launch of the competition, Freestyle Holidays has also released a selection of Maldives offers, including luxury stays and all-inclusive offers.

Ecruising.travel has teamed up with Royal Caribbean Cruise Line in a cinema advertising campaign that promotes the many ‘firsts’ that cruise liners have to offer Australian travellers.

The campaign, running over the winter school holidays, will be screened at Hoyts Broadway, Warringah and Fox Studios, and highlights activities that Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s ships can offer Aussie families.

Consumers who book a Royal Caribbean cruise through ecruising.travel during this promotional period will also receive two complimentary Hoyts cinema vouchers.

The Victorian Minister responsible for the Aviation Industry, Gordon Rich-Phillips, and Air Melbourne has launched a helicopter service to transfer passengers from Moorabbin Airport in the city’s south to Melbourne Airport in the north and return.

The Heli-Express service will cost $274, and will cover the 48-kilometre trip in just 12 minutes, and will operate from sunrise to sunset, seven days a week.

Vanuatu Tourism Office (VTO) has launched a practical trade micro-site, www.vanuatuspecialists.com.au, designed to educate and inform travel agents about the destination.

The site include selling tips and facts on Vanuatu, advice on the best places to stay, activities and food tips, as well as a regularly updated calendar of trade events, famils and expos.

The site also features an online training workshop, where agents who complete the training to become a ‘Vanuatu specialist’ will be in the running to win a famil trip at the end of the year.

Rocky Mountaineer is celebrating its 25^th anniversary in 2015 by offering new qualifying bookings from August 31 2014 up to CAD $2500 per couple in added value.

Bookings of seven nights or more in Goldleaf or Silverleaf Service with travel dates in 2015 will qualify for this offer, with trips including rail and cruise packages in destinations such as Vancouver, Whistler and the Canadian Rockies.

Pat Rafter has again been signed up as Mantra Hotels Ambassador, following a three-year partnership with the Australian hotel group.

The brand has enlisted the Aussie sportsman to be the public face of a $500 million listed company for another two years, with upcoming campaigns focusing on what is on offer in the cities and regions around Mantra hotel and resort locations.

“Pat clearly resonates with the Australian public as a respect and trusted figure,” Mantra Group executive director of sales, marketing and distribution Kent Davidson said, highlighting the spike in bookings that occurred after Rafter’s initial appointment.

Tune Hotels is set to continue its growth in Melbourne with a music-oriented social media campaign underway to celebrate the hotel’s first anniversary in the cultural capital of Australia.

Tune Hotel Melbourne is hoping to support and provide a platform for new and young musical talents in Melbourne via this campaign, while working to entice the rising number of tourists from South East Asia.

“Demand has been strong from day one, owing to the invaluable support we have received from the Victorian Government, which accelerated our establishment process and promoted Melbourne as a destination of choice to international and local tourists,” Tune Hotels Group chief executive officer Mark Lankester said.

Research from China Outbound Tourism Research Institute has shown the number of outbound trips from China surpassed 100 million in the year ending March 2014, with over 700,000 visiting Australian shores.

Amplify Me director Andrea Plawutsky has stressed that is it time the Australian tourism industry did more to understand this growing market, with the company preparing to deliver its first China Insight Seminar on Wednesday June 25 at UTS.

The seminar is entitled, ‘What makes Chinese consumers and travellers tick’, and is aimed at encouraging travel businesses to put more effort into catering for the Chinese traveller.

Icon Holidays has predicted a growth in travel to Egypt in the upcoming season, with bookings from Europe and North America already filtering into Icon’s DMC in Egypt.

“Most of the good cruise ships and quality hotels are already refurbishing their products in anticipation of a rush of pent-up demand, and we are ready to go,” Icon owner Simon Hills said.