Welcome to the Russia & CIS Hotel Investment Conference

We are delighted to present the 2009 Russia & CIS Hotel Investment Conference (RHIC). Even in these uncertain  times, the potential in the region is enormous and the conference will aim to gather industry leaders  to discuss how to navigate these stormy seas. With support from the hotel industry, the St Petersburg Government and our Patron, HSH Prince George Yourievsky, we have moved the conference to St Petersburg for 2009. The conference will be held at the Theatre of Musical Comedy and the Grand Hotel Europe, which are a few minutes from each other, from the 26-27 October 2009. The nature of this venue means that it has a purpose built stage and all the facilities to hold an international conference. The sumptuous Grand Hotel Europe is part of Orient-Express Hotels and is located on Nevsky Prospekt, St Petersburg's main avenue, close to the Russian Museum and Mussorgsky Theatre. We would like to thank all our sponsors, supporters and the members of the Advisory Board for their backing and enthusiasm in helping to make this conference a great success. We hope you will join us at RHIC in October. The new programme is being worked on and will be loaded onto this website once it is ready.  Kind regards

Kerry C. Gumas Chief Executive Officer Questex Media Group, Inc

Jonathan Worsley Chairman Bench Events

"A most productive and informative conference for those who are actively engaged in high profile hotel investment dealings in Russia and CIS countries." Stephane Meyrat, Jones Lang Lasalle Hotels

The first Russia CIS Hotel Investment Conference was a sell-out, with 420 delegates, 50% from outside the region: 110 total were investors-developers. In his opening remarks, the conference patron, HRH Prince Michael of Kent GCVO, pointed out that the hotel sector often acts as an economic barometer of change. The lifetime achievement award, an Inuit bear statue, went to the Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, who came to Horwath's opening vodka reception.

Macro-economy came from The Economist's Daniel Thorniley. Whatever happens, China and Russia's GDP growth will be about 5 times that of Europe/USA for the foreseeable future (CNN says every Russian partner will steal your money and kill you - all of which is at least 97.6% wrong). Russia's big weakness is that it is very bad on PR: even the USA knows Russia is between Cuba and Nicaragua. Russia is still today one of the top macro-economies in the world. Here topline growth is 13-35%: Microsoft is growing at 99%. There is lots of opportunity. Only 1% of the population are shareholders (in the USA it is 45%) and only 3% are in mortgages (in the USA it is over 50%). Russian consumers understand quality and will pay for it. In Russia real wages after inflation are growing 12%; Germany and Japan are zero, USA 0.1%. Since 2004 corruption has diminished significantly generally but it has increased in dealings with government and state-run companies. What the government should do is double spending on education and health, and cut the defence budget by 80%.

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