News in Brief: Monday August 25

Qantas will boost services between Melbourne and Los Angeles, and between Sydney and Santiago, from early 2015 with the introduction of a new schedule designed to improve flexibility.
From 21 January next year, Qantas will increase its Melbourne to Los Angeles service from a daily service to ten per week and from 20 February will increase its Sydney to Santiago service from three to four per week.
It will also introduce a new schedule providing the flexibility of morning, midday and evening departures between Australia and the US.
APT has launched its first ever Kimberley and Outback pre-release brochure, offering prices for 2015 at 2014 prices.
The pre-release comes as response from growing demand for its holidays in the Kimberley and the Outbac, allowing trade to get a head start on bookings.
APT’s Kimberley and Outback Wilderness Adventures general manager Rob Tandy said “our industry partners have been reporting high levels of pre-registrations for our 2015 program and we’ve taken the decision to support them by bringing out the most competitive market savings possible to help them to covert interest into bookings.”
Princess Cruises’ guests will learn about the many missing personnel of WW2 as US Navy veteran Bruce Petty delivers a series of lectures on Sea Princess’ current cruise to Singapore.
A noted author on the Pacific theatre, over the past four years, Petty has spoken to thousands of Australian cruise passengers during his guest lectures.
Following Petty’s current engagement on Sea Princess, he will depart for Saipan in the Mariana Islands, the scene of bitter fighting in June and July 1944, to work with an organisation devoted to finding American and Japanese soldiers missing in action.
Tasmania’s national parks infrastructure has received a multi-million dollar injection of funds; something that the Tourism & Transport Forum (TTF) believes will help to attract more visitors to the state.
The government is fulfilling its election promise and delivering an additional $6 million in funding for national parks infrastructure in the upcoming budget, including $4 million for the final stage of the Three Capes Track and $2 million for the South Coast Track.
Travellers Choice has announced the appointment of Graham Smith as its new Melbourne-based Business Development Manager for Victoria and Tasmania.
Smith is well known to Travellers Choice members, having worked as Business Development Manager (Victoria and Tasmania) for Cover-More Insurance between 2001 and 2010.
Smith’s role will be supporting the sales and marketing activities of Travellers Choice members across Victoria and Tasmania, as well as maintaining growth of the national retail group’s network and working closely with preferred suppliers.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
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