MITT 2012: Russian outbound travel market stronger than ever

The 19th Moscow International Travel and Tourism Exhibition (MITT) took place at the end of March and was hailed as a great success by exhibitors and visitors from around the world.

The 19th Moscow International Travel and Tourism Exhibition (MITT) took place at the end of March and was hailed as a great success by exhibitors and visitors from around the world.

MITT welcomed the Dominican Republic as the events official partner country, and as part of their participation, the Dominican Republic held lively Caribbean dancing, cigar rolling, and rum cocktails as part of Dominican Day during the show. There was also a presentation on the countryโ€™s tourism opportunities at the Dominican Republicโ€™s official stand.

Alexandra Streltsova, Deputy Director, Ministry of Tourism, Dominican Republic Tourism, commented: โ€œIt has been a great opportunity to be Partner Country this year. We are very happy to have this great booth with 14 participating companies who are delighted with the number of people they have met. We feel it has been a great success at MITT, and we are proud to be here together with our delegation from the Ministry. The Dominican Republic received 120,000 Russian tourists in 2011, compared to 400 in 2004; we have had a huge increase.โ€

New exhibitors this year included Jamaica, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Singapore Airport, the Peloponnese region, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Brescia Tourism, Palau, and Guam. A combined French national stand participated at MITT 2012 including tour operators and the luxury department store chain, Galeries Lafayette.

Patricia Samuels, Tourism and Culture, Embassy of Jamaica, commented: โ€œThis is our first time as an exhibitor. We are making an effort to grow tourism from Russia by attending. We are here to meet tour operators; we have met most of them and had constant visitors to our stand. We are planning to return next year.โ€

Sasa Radovic, Managing Director, National Tourism Organization of Montenegro, said: โ€œThe Russian market has been one of three most important markets for us. The growth of this market means that for [the] next few years, Russia will be the most important.โ€

A comprehensive program takes place alongside MITT. The 3rd Moscow Medical and Health Tourism Congress took place on March 22 and 23, which gave professionals the chance to discuss trends and development prospects in the area of medical and health tourism. The main topic at MITT 2012 was sea cruises, one of the most actively-growing sectors of the tourism industry. In light of this, the 1st International Conference on Sea Cruises took place during the exhibition.

Maria Badakh, Head of Sales, ITE Group plc, commented: โ€œMITT is the only international platform for destinations to promote themselves to the growing and lucrative Russian outbound travel market. Over 4 days, exhibitors had the opportunity to demonstrate why Russian tourists should visit their destination and what they can offer. We look forward to the 2013 edition, which takes place on March 20-23, 2013.โ€

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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