My mission and I did choose to accept it was twofold; quickly get more in-depth knowledge about the Russian market and to experience Destination Britain Russia, a four day VisitBritain event in Moscow and St Petersburg a platform for suppliers to have pre-booked appointments with Russian buyers.

It’s the same every year: as soon as the festive break is over it’s the start of the 'silly season' in the tourism industry calendar with the majority of trade shows, sales workshops and marketing activities all happening at the same time in the first quarter of the year.

Well, as they say, Christmas is a time for friends and family and goodwill to all men (and women)!

And having spent a good proportion of Christmas day speaking with and Skyping various relatives and old friends around the globe, it is very clear that there is intense interest as to what is happening in Britain in 2012. I was in Berlin just before Christmas and a huge amount of the end of year reviews in the media from last year all profiled the Royal Wedding and looked forward to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Olympic Torch Relay, World Pride, or the 2012 Games themselves.

If you’ve been reading the UK press over the festive break you can’t fail to have read the many New Year messages from the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary, to sports pundits and columnists all talking about the fact that 2012 is set to be a big year for Britain - and I would add - for British tourism.

Yes I know last time I said I was introducing ‘an occasional series’ on what we know about inbound tourism to different parts of Britain so it perhaps seems a bit premature for a similar feature, but I trust you’ll forgive me, as having been in Scotland for the onset of 2012 the proverbial iron seemed hot enough to be struck…