MITT 2018 Comes to a Close
MITT 2018, the Moscow International Travel and Tourism exhibition comes to a close after having been off to a great start in its 25th anniversary.
Throngs of tourism professionals from across Russia and many other countries braved Moscow’s cold weather to discover the latest offerings from the world’s top tourist destinations.
With a 10% year on year rise in visitor pre-registrations, the anniversary event was set to see many more travel agents and tourism industry buyers through Expocentre’s doors over its three days.
The pavilions were filled with vibrant displays by companies from across the world, including new countries and regions joining the exhibition with group stands: Dubai, Brazil, Karnataka, Sri Lanka, Sarajevo, Goa, South Africa, Slovakia, and San Marino.
Oleg Safronov, Head of the Russian Federal Tourism Agency, returned to MITT to take part in the official opening ceremony, joined by key industry figures such as Sergei Spilko, President of the Russian Union of Tourism Industry; Alla Manilova, Deputy Russian Minister for Culture; and Nikolai Gulyaev, Head of the Department for Sport and Tourism for Moscow.
Mr. Safronov spoke of the current positive climate for the Russian tourism industry both outbound and inbound, particularly the opportunities presented by the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2018.
After the opening ceremony, it was straight down to business with an analytical session on the Russian outbound market, which confirmed the healthy statistics many destinations have been experiencing. This was first event in a whole series of industry-focused sessions that form the MITT Tourbusiness 365 program.
Over 80 high-caliber speakers took the stage to tackle the key issues facing the tourism industry. Events covered a wide variety of topics, from ski tourism to market shocks, changing legislation to influencer marketing.
The brand-new matchmaking system, MITT Meetings, which launched a few weeks ago, was used widely by visitors and exhibitors to arrange meetings in advance. The system logged 1,270 meetings that were booked by around 2,500 active users.
