Visit us at the 4th international MICE Forum in Moscow

The next chance to meet me at an international MICE trade show will be in March.

The 4th international MICE Forum will be held on March 18 at the T-Modul Exhibition Hall in Moscow, Tishinskaya sq., 1, building 1. See the map.

The Russian Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions business is growing. It is reported to be worth more than $.150 million per year and increasing fast with more than 3 million Russians traveling internationally on business trips. This is becoming one of the most dynamic sources of business travel in the world.

At the Moscow International MICE Forum you will have the opportunity to meet with most of the leading Russian MICE specialists and corporate travel buyers in a professional workshop environment.

So come and say hello to MICEpoint!

Global Hotel Alliance welcomes two new members

Cooperations are growing and so is it no wonder that the Global Hotel Alliance is welcoming two new hotel chains as member.

The first one, Anantara Resorts , is currently located in Thailand in the seaside town of Hua Hin, on Koh Samui, in the Golden Triangle; and also in the Maldives and in Bali, with several new resorts already under development.

Second hotel group joing the Global Hotel Alliance is Cham Palaces & Hotels , a collection of eleven city and resort hotels in Syria and Jordan and soon Algeria. Royal Regency International Hotels is also part of the Cham Group with its properties in Abu Dhabi, Beirut, Marsa Allam in Egypt and Minsk.

Egyptian rescue for Swiss village?

Andermatt, a sleepy village in the Uri canton of Switzerland perhaps best known for producing the champion Olympic skier Bernard Russi, commands a strategic post in the Alps. Three passes--Oberalp, Furka and the famous St. Gotthard--all meet in Andermatt's bucolic valley 4,737 feet above sea level, historically a mountainous choke point for travelers trying to cut through the Alps en route from Italy to Germany or vice versa.

But now this peaceful Swiss village is moving up two ranks to the same level as St.Moritz, Gstaad or Zermatt, thanks to Samih Sawiris, worth $1.5 billion. He runs Orascom Hotels & Development, one of the Egyptian family's companies, which built from scratch the 2,500-bed El Gouna resort on the Red Sea.

Doubling the town's hotel room inventory, he'd make it big enough to attract tour operators and then add an ice rink, a golf course and an indoor pool with its own beach. He'd quickly follow up with 600 apartments and 100 villas. Let's hope it will work out the way the entire village and valley thinks.

Welcome to Switzerland, Alpine Pharao!

Amazing Spa, even for groups!

It has been a very hectic autumn and I was thinking for a while to go to a Spa in Europe and get my batteries recharged again.

So I have decided to visit the Rogner Bad Blumau Hotel and Spa (near Graz, Austria, just about 1 and half hour away from Vienna), an extraordinary Design Hotel with a VERY large Spa . The philosophy of the Hotel is: "At Rogner Bad Blumau, as a hotel with soul, well being of every individual has top priority. Below its green covered and colourful roofs, its varied shapes and flowing lines activity is combined with a relaxed and laid-back feeling."

Designed by the famous Friendesreich Hundertwasser ("Life in harmony and in harmony with nature", his vision), this hotel is more then just a Design Hotel.

And for the MICE industry, this 4* Hotel offers 5 meeting rooms with up to 200 participants. So why not combining your next conference or workshop with a fantastic Spa visit?

Visit MICEpoint at EIBTM 2007 in Barcelona, Spain

Stop by at our booth O522 during EIBTM in Barcelona, Spain (27-29 November 2007) and participate in our great lucky draw where you can win beautiful prizes!

The prizes are:

• Magic weekend in St.Petersburg, Russia
• Discover Essen, Germany
• A weekend at the Casino, Pfaeffikon (near Zurich), Switzerland
• Meet with our history in Athen, Greece
• Feel the heart of Europes Financial City, Frankfurt, Germany

How to participate: visit micepoint.com for more information...

Ready for Halloween - The world's most creepiest place

Ever heard about the Mütter Museum, Philadelphia, USA? No?

So let me introduce you the world's most perfect venue for a Halloween MICE Party.

From the sliced human head floating in a glass case, à la Damien Hirst, to the gruesome collection of preserved presidential tumors and a plaster cast of Siamese twins Chang and Eng (as well as their actual conjoined livers), Philadelphia's Mütter museum is a must-see, especially for those who found the movie Dead Ringers oddly compelling. Part of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the oldest medical school complex in North America, it combines exhibits of pathological objects, surgical tools, and anatomical curiosities. Other wonders on display include the tallest skeleton in North America and a collection of 2,000 objects removed from people's throats, each with its own case history. There is an almost gleeful disconnection between the museum's mission—"to advance the cause of health, and uphold the ideals and heritage of medicine"—and the often shocking displays. High on the ugh-list are the painted papier-mâché models of the effects of gangrene and the wax faces with various eye injuries; the air outside is bound to seem fresh afterward, no matter what the weather.

2008 U.S. Business Travel Overview & Cost Forecast Report

Interesting report from the National Business Travel Association of the US. The report is based primarily on data from a survey of 215 NBTA member travel buyers.

Key findings of the report are as follows:

• Business travel will continue growing in 2008, though the rate of growth will level off somewhat.
• Published airfares will increase 6-10 percent over 2007.
• Published hotel rates will increase 5-7 percent.
• Published car rental spend will increase 5-7 percent.
• Overall travel costs will increase 6-8 percent.
• Fewer travel managers than one year ago are projecting an increase of more than 10 percent in travel spend.
• More travel managers are projecting travel spend to remain flat.
• 73 percent of respondents expect travel spend to increase 5-10 percent.
• The percentage of travel buyers reducing non-essential travel in 2008 will remain level (just under 8 percent), while the percentage restricting business class air bookings will increase from 7 percent to 16 percent.
• The top three international destinations with highest potential for growth in corporate travel spend in 2008 are China, the United Kingdom and India.

Find more details soon on NBTA.