The opening-up of the Eastern Europe countries creates op-portunities for new business relationships. Although some companies have already been successful in this respect, others start realising that it is difficult to succeed on their own. Companies from the East have the same experience when dealing with Western European countries. In order to do something about this, Mr Alex Karpov, a Ukrainian businessman, living in Belgium for well over 10 years now, stimulated the creation of a non-profit organisation: the TTI Club Crystal Lotus.

Building business bridges is the main objective of the TTI Club Crystal Lotus. It aims at being a meeting platform for trade and travel professionals from East and West so that business partnerships can emerge. Mr Karpov is a Ukrainian with Russian roots, but lives in Belgium, where he is the dri-ving force behind Travel and Trade International, Inc., a concern with sister companies in England, Belgium and Ukraine. The following pages provide an introduction to Russia and Ukraine. In later issues, more attention will be devoted to various aspects of business and the travel trade in these countries, as well as in other Eastern European states.

BUSINESS CLUB
TTI Club Crystal Lotus is a business club, gathering Belgian companies interested in doing business with Eastern Europe. In order to do so, conferences and seminars are or¬ganised in Belgium with delegations from Eastern European industry, educational institutions and government. Both incoming and outgoing travel between Belgium and Eastern European states will be focused on. In a first stage travel industry missions and incentive organisers will be invited to Belgium, so that they can meet Belgian incoming tour operators, Destination Management Companies, Event Management Companies, convention bureaux, event organisers, hotels, etc.
Furthermore,members of the TTI Club Crystal Lotus will be able to share a booth at major national and international travel trade shows. During these events, the Club will organise specialised seminars and workshops.

THE YOUNG GENERATION
Another objective is to build bridges between the young ge-nerations of both European areas, which will have to carry on the good work in their later professional careers. It is the Club's aim to facilitate the exchange of professors and stu-dents from the travel and tourism departments of institu¬tions of higher education, as well as to provide traineeship opportunities. Apart from the educational aspects, these ini-tiatives will undoubtedly contribute to the creation of jobs in tourism, both in Belgium and in the Eastern European part-ners of this project.

CONFERENCES
In order to provide full information on how to open up new markets and establish new forms of profitable co-operation, the TTI Club Crystal Lotus is organising various conferences. These events are aimed at companies in tourism and busi¬ness travel, wishing to expand their markets, especially in the Eastern European countries, and to increase their visibi¬lity abroad in their target markets.

The first event coming up is the conference Marketing & Management in International Tourism (Brussels)
The focus of this conference will be on:
-    Trade exhibitions;
-    Workshops during these exhibitions
-    Maximising the use of media advertisement and free publicity
-    Networking with potential business partners;
-    Networking for Tourism Schools;
-    Advantages of membership of the Bridges between East & West project.

TRADE FAIRS
Apart from organising its own conferences, the TTI Club members can share a stand during the major travel trade fairs in Europe and to get special exposure in TTI Club se¬minars organised during these events. The list of these trade shows includes Meeting & Weltra (Brussels), EIBTM (Geneva), CIS Travel Market (St Petersburg), MITT (Moscow), and others.

If you wish to receive full information on the TTI Club Crystal Lotus, please fill in the form on the next page and return it to the address below.