Meet the Russian Outbound Travel Market at MITT
Meet the Russian Outbound Travel Market at MITT
The number of outbound trips taken by Russian tourists increased by 14 percent in 2010. As more Russians start to explore worldwide destinations, outbound tourism is expected to demonstrate stable growth in departures, with a 6 percent CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) during 2011.
Participating at the Moscow International Tourism and Travel exhibition (MITT) is an efficient method for global destinations to promote their countries and build awareness amongst the local tourism trade and consumers. The exhibition takes place from 21-24 March 2012, at the Expocentre, Moscow.
The continued success of the event over the last 18 years reflects the growing demand for outbound travel abroad. For many international destinations, Russia represents a huge potential market to be explored and to target a vast population, and to discover the latest destinations available to the Russian outbound tourist market.
The destinations that Russians visited from April-September 2011, compared to the same period in 2010 demonstrated that Thailand had a huge growth of 109 percent, with the following traditional summer resorts also showing a strong increase. Cyprus reported a 54 percent increase, Greece 50 percent, Italy 36 percent, Montenegro 35 percent and Croatia 33 percent. Business departures also increased by 14 percent in 2010.
Air departures accounted for a 47 percent share of the total number of outbound trips in 2010. The growing share of outbound trips can be explained by the widening choice of low cost carriers and destinations that make outbound trips more affordable and accessible to the Russian middle class.
At MITT 2012, the Palau Tourism Board will exhibit for the first time, and in 2011 fourteen new destinations joined the exhibition to promote their country and its unique appeal to tourists. The luxury sector at MITT has also increased, as many luxury hotels and service providers have expressed their interest to participate at MITT, due to Russian tourists outnumbering Europeans in many luxurious resorts.
For the first time, MITT 2012 will be hosting a sea cruising conference on 22nd March 2012 in Moscow, which will attract key international companies to meet a specialized audience. The conference will run alongside MITT (Moscow International Travel and Tourism), Russia’s leading travel exhibition.
In 2011 over 3,000 companies from 189 countries and regions exhibited at the exhibition in 2011 to 79,930 visitors over 4 days from 479 Russian cities and 95 countries. The conference has been launched in response to the growth of the sector, and will cover the integration of domestic tourism into the global cruise market, the formation and development of the cruise market in Russia, new routes and special onboard services.
The number of tourists arriving in St. Petersburg by sea increased by 15 percent compared with last year, and in total, and the new Marine Facade port in St. Petersburg received 220 cruise liners during the summer cruise season. In Sochi, on the Black Sea, plans are underway to build an international sea passenger and cruise centre by 2014, which will also serve modern cruise ships and ferries.
For the 3rd year, alongside the exhibition MITT also hosts a medical tourism sector, which proved once again to be a popular attraction in 2011. Medical tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors of the Russian travel industry, as the increasingly health-conscious population seeks more advanced technology, better healthcare services or faster medical services abroad.
According to World Health Organization estimates, tourism and healthcare by 2022 will form together a global industry that influences the economy worldwide. In 2012, the overall market volume of medical tourism will reach $100 billion.
At MITT 95 percent of the exhibition represents holidays abroad, with one hall dedicated to inbound travel. The high spending power of Russian tourists makes them a desirable market to target. For the first 3 days the exhibition is B2B, for the trade industry to hold business discussions, with the last day being open to the general public.
MITT exhibitor, Alfredo Perez Bravo, Mexican Ambassador in Moscow commented, “Mexico recently entered the Russian tourism market and, within a short space of time, from 2007 to 2010, tourist arrivals have grown from 1400 to 30,000 per year. Currently, the Russian market is the fastest growing tourism market in Europe for Mexico.”
Head of Sales, Travel Division, ITE Group, Maria Badakh, commented, “MITT has taken place for the past 19 years and is well established in the travel calendar for professionals. MITT provides the platform for exhibitors to learn more about the Russian markets travel requirements and where the investment opportunities can be found”.
