Miss Tourism World 2012 Candidates

The annual Miss Tourism World 2012 beauty pageant will take place on December 16 at the award winning Siam Niramit Theater in Bangkok, Thailand.

60 international beauties will vie for this year's crown which currently worn by Ekaterina Sau, Miss Tourism World 2007 from Moldova. Meet them:

Australia Laura Thompson	Belarus Viktoriia Pustynnikova	Belgium Magalie Torfs	Benelux Leena Asarfi
Bolivia Dominique Peltier de Liotta	Botswana Motamma Kelebigile Sesinyi	Canada Melanie McGregor	China Li Zhang
Croatia Viktoriia Jug	Cyprus Izampela Eleftheriou	Czech Republic	Denmark Sofie Gosmand Jensen
Ecuador	Equatorial Guinea	Finland Katrie Daler	Ghana Emmanuella Awunyo
Great Britain Charlotte Perkins	Guadeloupe Meloane Lecolas	Hungary Andrea Makk	Honduras Natalia Coto Hernadez
Luxembourg Viviane Poensgen	Indonesia Reinita Arlin Puspita	Italy Mara Dall’Armellina	Ireland Aoife Cleary
Kyrgyzstan Zhamilia Ishenbaeva	Kazakhstan Gulnar Birzhanova	Latvia Anita Baltruna	Lebanon Nadine Abdel Aziz
Lithuania	Luxembourg Viviane Poensgen	Macedonia	Malaysia
Mexico Diana Alvarado	Mauritius Diya Beeltah	Mongolia Uyanga Amarmend	Moldova Lydia Shychka
New Zealand Sophie Needham	Netherlands Angela Van Den Broek	Nigeria Tomi Salami	Norway Marie Bogucka Selvik
Philippines Meryl Angeline King	Poland Katarzyna Jaracz	Portugal Susan Nogueira	Puerto Rico Darling Cruz
Romania Cristina Roventa	Russia Tatyana Maksimova	Scotland Amanda Quinn	Singapore Jean Tan
Serbia Andrea Agatic	Slovakia Lenka Lopuchova	South Africa Frieda Du Plessis	Spain
Sri Lanka	Suriname Wynona Redmond	Sweden Elina Norlen	Thailand Sasima Surasapmani
Turkey Nadide Durmaz	Ukraine	Zambia Athrone Milimo	Zimbabwe Ruvimbo Katiyo

Russia crowned Miss Tourism World 2012

Zhazira Nurimbetova wins Miss Kazakhstan 2012

Miss Shymkent, 20-year-old Zhazira Nurimbetova from Kentau won the title and crowned as the new Miss Kazakhstan 2012 during an event held at the Palace of Independence, in Astana last December 8.

Zhazira is currently a student taking up Economics and Finance. She will represent Kazakhstan at the Miss World 2013 pageant scheduled to take place in Jakarta & Bali, Indonesia on September 14 next year.

Miss France 2013 winner is Marine Lorphelin

Miss Bourgogne, Marine Lorphelin was crowned as the new Miss France 2013 during an event held at the Zenith of Limoges (capital of Haute-Vienne) on December 8, 2012 in front of an audience of more than four thousand people.

19 year old Marine stands 1.77m tall. She will compete in Miss Universe and Miss World 2013 contests next year.

33 lovely women competed during the live telecast. Finished as the 1st run-up was Hinarani de Longeaux (Tahiti). 2nd run-up Sophie Garenaux (Nord-Pas-de-Calais). And 3rd run-up was Camille Rene (Martinique).

Melinda Pare (Pays de Loire), Julie Jacquot (Rhone-Alpes) and Charlotte Mint (Cote d'Azur) emerged as the 4th, 5th and 6th runners-up respectively.

Completing the 12 semi-finalists were Deborah Trichet (Champagne-Ardenne), Marine Mahiques (Provence), Emilie Mika (Picardie), Estelle Sabathier (Bretagne) and Marilou Cubaynes (Roussillon).

The event was broadcasted live via TF1 and hosted by Jean-Pierre Foucault and former Miss France Sylvie Tellier.

The panel of celebrity judges includes screen legend Alain Delon, Mireille Darc, former model Adriana Karembeu, Nikos Aliagas, Miss France 2006 Alexandra Rosenfeld, Olympic swimmer Camille Muffat, and Frederic Diefenthal.

Marilyn Ramos crowned Miss South Africa 2012

21 year old Marilyn Ramos from Pretoria, Gauteng won the prestigious title of Miss South Africa 2012 during a glamorous pageant took place on December 9 at the Sun City Superbowl and aired live on Mzansi Magic on DStv. Handing over the filigree silver and Swarovski crystal crown was last year's runner-up Remona Moodley.

Marilyn stands 5'9" tall and currently studying Interior Architecture at Inscape Design College in Pretoria. She will represent her country in next year's Miss Universe 2013 and Miss World 2013 competitions.

1st princess was 23 year old law student Stacey Webb from the Western Cape. Twitter favourite Pearle Nxele was crowned 2nd princess. The social media network's other darling Koketso Modiba from Gauteng didn't make it into the top five finalists.

Awarded as Miss Congeniality was 19-year-old Danelle De Wet from Western Cape.

Hosting the event were former Miss South Africa Jo-Ann Strauss, TV presenter and former contestant Bridget Masinga Khanti and Channel O video jockey Lungile Radu.

ChianoSky, the Bala Brothers, Jacques Terre'Blanche, Zakes Bantwini and Toya DeLazy were invited as the guest performers.

The panel of celebrity judges were former Miss South Africa and principal judge Sonia Raciti-Oshry, Cape Talk and Talk Radio 702 talk show host Kieno Kammies, Metro FM sports anchor and TV presenter Robert Marawa, radio presenter Anele Mdoda and actress Sonia Sedibe.