Wishing you a prosperous and healthy 2013. The first half of the year is always the busiest in the Russian event calendar, both in terms of marketing opportunities as well as the no. of holidays available for Russians to travel abroad. TMI will be attending ITB Berlin and MITT in Moscow and will be glad to set up individual meetings with you, to discuss how we can enhance your activities in the Russian market. Now is also the final month to sign up for the B2B Luxury and MICE Workshops in Almaty (Kazakhstan) and Baku (Azerbaijan) in April, 2013. These 2 oil rich markets have a rapidly growing upper middle class, interested in FIT and luxury travel. The workshop ensures a high no. of prescheduled appointments with the leading agents, allowing an efficient entry strategy to these new, hungry markets. Contact me directly or go to the website www.B2Btravelworkshop.com and register. Don’t forget, we can assist you with visa support and accommodation. We also have some interesting outbound travel statistics figures for 2012 in the main Feature, showing the results of the first 9 months of 2012, with an impressive overall growth rate of 10% and 6% growth for the leisure sector. Finally don’t forget to prepare some special offers for your Russian clients, for the up-coming holidays Feb 23-25th, March 8-10th and May 1-10th. The summer holidays on May 27th and last until Sept 1st, but there is also a week off school from March 25-31st, which is a good time to offer family programmes.

Best regards,