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, 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 country’s tourism opportunities at the Dominican Republic’s official stand.
Alexandra Streltsova, Deputy Director, Ministry of Tourism Dominican Republic Tourism commented, “It 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”.
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, “This 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.”
Sasa Radovic, Managing Director, National Tourism Organisation of Montenegro, said “The Russian market has been one of three most important markets for us. The growth of this market means that for next few years, Russia will be the most important”.
A comprehensive programme takes place alongside MITT. The 3rd Moscow Medical and Health Tourism Congress took place on 22 and 23 March, 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, “MITT 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 20-23 March 2013.”
