On Wednesday 11 May, visiting executives from both Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau and Fort Worth Convention & Visitors Bureau invited select media guests, including LATTE, to a cocktail party at Café Sydney to discover what’s new in Dallas and Fort Worth, the perfect combined destinations for a taste of true Texan culture, style and, of course, cowboys. Here are a few things we learned that you probably didn’t know about two of the USA’s most dynamic cities.

• Inbound visitors from Australia have grown from 25,000 to 75,000 since Qantas launched its nonstop service to Dallas in 2011
• Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) is the third busiest in the world (after Chicago and Atlanta), based on aircraft movement
• DFW has also been voted the Best Airport in the Americas for customer service and the Best Cargo Airport in North America
• Get around Dallas aboard the vintage M-Line trolleys, offering free of charge transport around the Uptown Neighbourhood
• The vibrant shopping is perfect for visitors, who can claim back tax at the airport
• Dallas is soon to be one of only five Virgin Hotels in the USA
• Dallas is 25.7km (16 miles) from DFW, and Fort Worth is only a little further
• The airport is bigger than the island of Manhattan!