Hi Everyone,

Looking at the results of all kind of surveys on Russian buyers of international real estate we can see that the #1 reason to buy a property at a particular foreign place is always a trip over there during which the potential Russian buyer liked the place.

Building on this trend many travel agencies in Russia, along with the usual vacation, sightseeing and business trips, develop and offer a new travel product - *Buy properties abroad* tours - for their Russian clients traveling to foreign countries. These trips can be arranged for an individual or group of potential buyers of real estate in a particular country / area / city. Along with their major activities of getting travel visas, booking flights, hotels, transfers and excursions for their Russian clients going to foreign countries, Russian travel agencies might also offer property showings and other real estate related services in foreign countries.

Here is an example of such services that one of Moscow travel agencies offers on their website (it's in Russian there of course):

"We offer tours to Tenerife, Canary Islands to buy real estate.

"The island of Tenerife is great, because... (We'll omit this part here as it's only specific to this place). It's time to read our tour guide on Tenerife here on this website.

"How does it work? Our travel agent here in Moscow will complete all the organizational part of your trip including visas, tickets and hotel reservations. Out partner, a local real estate agent, will meet you in Tenerife upon arrival, show you properties, consult on local real estate laws and help with paperwork if you decide to buy.

"Our special offer: ... (We'll omit this specific here as it can be completely different for any other partnership between a Russian tour agency and a foreign country real estate agency or developer)"

Searching for more information on this new travel service for our newsletter I have even come across a course that is being taught to Russian travel agencies *How to grow your travel business by selling real estate abroad on the side*. Well, without taking the course we can use our common sense to realize that these Russian travel agencies should have partners in real estate abroad first of all – to have properties for sale to offer to their clients on a trip, correct?

So, if your properties are located around some vacation, sightseeing or well-known tourist places, you might partner with travel agencies in Russia and receive Russian buyers for real estate showings as well, correct?

Why is a travel agency almost always the first point of contact for a Russian traveler who is planning a trip to a foreign country? First, Russians need a visa to travel to many countries of the world and travel agencies can get it much faster and easier than a traveler himself as they already know the procedures very well. Second, e-ticketing is not all over the place in Russia yet and people go to the travel office to get their paper tickets anyway. Third, travel agencies often have better prices for flights and hotels as they buy in bulks and then pass these savings onto their clients.

Would you like to be in front of the eyes of potential Russian buyers for your properties? You can be... Get Russian business partners among travel agencies in Russia.

If you need some help with that, just shoot me an email.

To your best business success,

Sincerely,