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MITT: Russia’s Best-attended Travel Show Returns in March

The Moscow International Travel and Tourism Exhibition (MITT), Russia’ s largest travel show, returns for its 24th edition on March 14–16 in Moscow. Up to 28,000 travel industry professionals and over 1,600 exhibitors are expected to attend the event.

According to MITT organizer, ITE Group, 2017 marks a more powerful year for Russian tourism. Traveller traffic through Moscow Vnukovo Airport terminal grew by 49.5 percent to at least 1.8 million passengers in January 2017 compared to the same month last year. Passengers to Russia included visitors from Phuket, Bangkok, Goa, Istanbul, Milan, Larnaca and Dubai.

“The Russian outbound market provides definitely picked up in 2016”, said ITE Group’s International Sales Director, Maria Badakh.

“We had a lot of interest for MITT from well‐established regions, but also managed to attract new exhibitors, such as Venezuela, Burundi, Palestine and Andhra Pradesh (India)”, she said.

Destinations returning to MITT after an absence include Botswana, Jamaica, Kerala (India), Romania and Tanzania, which seek to attract more Russian visitors.

Another positive indicator for the Russian tourism market is that holidaymakers are now able to choose Turkey as a traveling destination, since sanctions have been lifted. Turkish tourism industry leaders expect over 5 million Russians to visit Turkey this year. Turkey will make up the largest national team at MITT, according to ITE Group.

Spain has confirmed to be the “Partner Country” of MITT 2017 as this year marks the “Year of Cultural Tourism” between Spain and Russia. Spain was the most popular destination for Russian travellers from January to September 2016. According to the National Statistics Institute of Spain, over one million Russian tourists visited Spain in 2016, 2.2 percent more than in 2015.

Other Mediterranean destinations have also seen significant increases in Russian arrivals such as Italy, which will increase its presence at MITT by 30 percent, having traditionally been one of the exhibition’s largest national pavilions.

Repeat MITT participant, Cyprus attracted 787,000 Russian tourists in 2016, a 50 percent growth.

Eilat (Israel), a popular resort town on the Red Sea, welcomed a fourfold increase of 10,957 Russian tourists over the past year, following its participation as MITT’s Partner Region in 2016.

MITT 2017 will also welcome the return of the Dominican Republic, Thailand and Japan, another popular Asian destination that has increased its participation in MITT.

MITT Passport returns
MITT Passport is an incentive programme aimed at helping participating exhibitors, which include national tourism boards, operating companies and hotels, attract more travel agents to their stands.
Visitors who are travel agents will be offered a booklet, in the form a passport, to collect ‘stamps’ from each exhibitor. In doing, the travel agents enter a draw to win prepared unique travel packages offered by each participating exhibitor.

Visitor registration and press registration is now open for MITT. To register as a visitor, visit www.mitt.ru and enter the code mitt17tNLLD for free entry. Members of the press can also register at www.mitt.ru.

The Greek Travel Pages (GTP) is an official media partner of MITT 2017.

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