Q & A with Maria Badakh, MITT Events & Sales Director

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17 June 2016 8:20pm
Q & A with Maria Badakh, MITT Events & Sales Director

Caribbean News Digital sat down with Maria Badakh, the most authorized voice when it comes to Russia’s number-one travel and tourism fair: MITT. In this exclusive interview, she sheds light on the Russian market, on how the country is becoming increasingly available for all travelers, and the dates and features for next year’s edition of MITT.

How is the outgoing Russian market doing?

I believe it is improving for the Mediterranean countries this year, especially because of the situation with Turkey. As you know, Russians cannot travel to Turkey anymore for political reasons. There are no charter flights. We are talking about five million tourists who used to go to this country in the past.    

Also Egypt used to have about 2 million Russian tourists every year, so now they cannot go to Egypt until the situation with the flight safety is approved by the Russian authorities. This is not happening any time soon.

So, there are 7 million Russian tourists who have lost their holiday destinations. Of course, half of them will go to other domestic tourism destinations in Russia, like Sochi or Crimea, but half of this amount will choose alternative destinations in the Mediterranean. These would be Greece, Spain, Cyprus, Bulgaria and probably Italy and Croatia, depending on the packages these countries can offer.

As far as I know, some countries have worked out policies for Russian tour operators and agents, with all-inclusive packages for Russian tourists. That’s very important to have this flexibility and to be able to arrive quickly.

Russia is a very big market and I’m sure that the figures for this summer will be much better than 2015.

Russia is also a destination for inbound tourism. What are the plans for the tourism sector?

It’s a very good question because the Russian government is investing a lot in improving the image of the country and the facilities, and to make them much more comfortable for foreign tourists who visit the country, to make it friendly at least, to make signs in English and make lots of things easier.

The main question here is visa, because for most countries in the European Union it takes time and you have to answer a lot of questions, formalities and you have to pay for the visa first. It is expensive, of course.

So, the Russian government is trying to find ways to improve it. Perhaps it would be for three days, 72 hours, or visa free.

However, the inbound tourism is growing because Russia is now a very cheap destination to visit. Moscow used to be one of the most expensive places in the world to go to. Now you can stay in a Ritz Carlton Hotel in the Red Square for 180 euro a night. This is your chance to go to Russia and at least visit two of the most important places: St. Petersburg and Moscow. You can do it on a very nice budget. Russia is now finally affordable.

That’s part of what our show looks forward to: do business and try to find Russian partners. I would like to invite them to MITT to do business at the show.

From what part of the world is the main inbound market for Russia?                

China. Chinese are very interested in Russia as it used to be part of the communist bloc. Russia has borders with China and they want to see Moscow, but there are lots of business connections between China and the Far East of Russia. You can literally walk through the border if you’re in Russia or in China. China is by far the largest inbound destination.

Which are the dates for MITT?

We have an important announcement to make for next year because the show will go on for three days only, so we decreased it from four days to three and it’s going to be purely B2B. So, we have canceled the last day. So, MITT 2017 will take place from March 14-16. 2017.

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