If there’s one category of travel that just might be recession-resistant, it’s the honeymoon and romance segment. Newlyweds still seem to want to go on a honeymoon, and they’re willing to spend for this (hopefully) once-in-a-lifetime experience. Romance travelers still want to travel to that private beach or experience that romantic city stay. And destination weddings are still in vogue, sometimes because they’re actually less expensive than more traditional wedding receptions,

That’s why we’ve focused this issue once again on the honeymoon, romance and destination segments. Now, we did this fairly recently—in our October 2009 issue to be exact—but we’ve restructured our monthly themes for 2010 to put our honeymoon and romance focus earlier in the year (in time for the proverbial wedding season in the spring and early summer).

In this issue you’ll find cover focus articles on how to qualify your honeymoon clients, where to find honeymoon and destination wedding clients, and the 11 top things to remember when creating the perfect honeymoon and romance trip. Our industry segments also stick to our theme, with stories on how to sell honeymoons on small ships, top suggestions for honeymoon and romance packages, and another look at major honeymoon and destination wedding programs available at major all-inclusive chains.

Beyond the theme of this issue, I wanted to let you know about two great trade events taking place this year. The first is our own Virtual Luxury Expo, which will debut Feb. 23-24 on your desktop. You can hear great ideas about how to sell luxury travel by viewing executive panels on upmarket cruising, upscale tours, high-end hotels and luxury resorts.