LAS VEGAS -- A company that markets mail-order brides from around
the world spent a day distributing brochures and videos from a
booth at the ASTA trade show here, embarrassing Society officials
who finally forced the company to leave the floor.
"There is no issue here," said Paul Ruden, ASTA staff senior
vice president of industry affairs. "It was something we had to
take care of and we took care of it."
Ruden declined to comment on the specific reason that motivated
ASTA to expel the company, called A Foreign Affair, from the trade
show at the ASTA World Travel Congress.
A Foreign Affair president John Adams told Travel Weekly that he
was not exactly sure what transpired since he had not yet spoken
with his representatives.
However, he suspected it was due to "a misunderstanding."
Five-year-old A Foreign Affair is a Phoenix-based firm
specializing in "international introductions," matching prospective
brides from such countries as Russia, the Philippines and Colombia
with any groom willing to pay a price.
The company had a booth in the tour operator section on the
trade show floor. Two company representatives were at the booth,
including a young woman dressed in a full wedding gown. Two TVs
also were set up showing a video on the mail-order bride
service.
A company representative handed out dozens of copies of the
videos to curious passersby including ASTA delegates on Monday, the
first day of the trade show.
Brochures touting a Web site called Loveme.com also were
handed out.
The site features pictures and profiles on more than 16,000
women from around the world, including such details as their age
and measurements.
It was not long before delegates and other exhibitors were
buzzing about A Foreign Affair.
ASTA officials finally got wind of the situation and, on the
second day of the trade show, Society representatives and security
guards from the Las Vegas Convention Center escorted the company
representatives off the floor.
"It was handled in a businesslike way on both sides," Ruden
said.
Adams, who grew the business out of a local dating service he
owned, said some travel agents sell his $3,250 packaged tours,
which include airfare from New York (Kennedy), hotel accommodations
and participation at prearranged socials where the brides-to-be can
meet their prospective husbands.
Foreign Affairs pays a $500 commission on the package, which
includes the services of an immigration attorney. But Adams said he
would like to work with more agents.
"That's why we went to the ASTA show," said Adams, who like the
other principals at A Foreign Affair, is married to a Russian woman
he met at a prearranged social.
Ruden said ASTA does not know exactly what the various companies
that exhibit at its shows do.
"It would be impossible," he said. "How could you investigate
everybody -- and you wouldn't want to. What's the worse that can
happen? Someone will get on the trade show floor and you have to
deal with it. And we did."