EAST EUROPE. Tax Free World Association has announced its intention to run a two-day conference next year to address the “rapidly changing East European travel retail market”.
The new conference will be staged in Moscow with the Russian Duty Free Trade Association during the latter part of September 2005. According to TFWA it “promises cutting edge discussion and debate on the growth and development of travel retail in Eastern Europe and particularly within Russia”.
A full new study of the travel retail business in the region is being undertaken by TFWA and will be one of the main points of the proceedings.
TFWA Vice President Conferences and Research Thom Rankin said: |”This is an extremely exciting project for TFWA. As Eastern Europe becomes integrated into the EU, new member countries such as the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are facing momentous potential for the positive growth and development of their travel and tourism businesses. The opportunities for companies to invest in the region are tremendous.
“This conference will aim to assist those companies and individuals who are either looking to build new businesses within Eastern Europe or who are striving to expand their horizons outside the region, to better understand the dynamics, appreciate the potential pitfalls, and gain a new insight into the demographics of this exciting new marketplace.”
TFWA said it is seeking industry partners to further develop the East European conference, in addition to working with JSC Maxima of Moscow.
Comment: TFWA is moving back into an area it helped pioneer, having been a partner in the original East Europe conference in association with Raven Fox in 1996. Two successful events between the two organisations were held in Budapest and Prague. Last year Raven Fox went it alone with a successor event, the Baltic and East European Travel Retail Conference.
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