Greetings

Tourism is big business in many countries, one which demands the development of an entire infrastructure: organizing air travel and insurance, building hotels and modernizing banking services, and creating all of the conditions necessary for foreign investors. We hope that our magazine will help promote tourism in Central Asia. This is our task.

To achieve our goals the ZOOM staff intends to participate in the largest tourist and other fairs that take place in Central Asia and Europe. The magazine will be distributed free of charge. The articles of ZOOM Central Asia magazine will help you orientate yourself in the flow of cultural and entertainment events in cities such as Tashkent, Bishkek, Issyk-Kul, Alma-Ata and other tourist hot spots. We will bring you this information along with news from the restaurant business and provide listings of the best restaurants and cafes.

In this issue we will talk about the healthy and delicious food of Central Asia. You will find out the secrets of national cuisines and, with the help of our recommendations, just might be able to cook a dish that will surprise your friends.

As before, our pages you will introduce you to interesting people from the diplomatic corps, show business, the art and sport worlds. Our doors are open for all guests; the magazines' pages await their authors.

On the subject of authors, we are proud of our young journalists: Emilia Asadova, Konstantin Serikov, Alexandra Spiridonova, Vlad Orlov, Petr Stalbovskiy and many others. Most of our photographs are photographs provided by Artur Konovalov. Taking into account the fact that our magazine is read mainly by English-speaking citizens and guests of Central Asia we attract Americans and Europeans as consultants. Filling important posts, they, nevertheless, find time to help us out. We all of their assistance we thank them. And of course we invite our dear readers to tell us what you think of ZOOM.