Naheed N.A. Hanna - Director of the Arab Republic of Egypt's Embassy Tourism Department
Anatoliy Yarochkin noted in his greetings to exhibition guests and participants: "Fifteen and a half years ago I took part in an organizational meeting devoted to the creation of this exhibition. Most likely many remember that the exhibition started with 3,500 square meters at the Manege, but here we are now holding Otdykh/Leisure at the best exhibition area in the Russian Federation."
This year the Kingdom of Thailand became the partner country for the Otdykh/Leisure exhibition. Egypt's National Office for Tourism is acting as the Otdykh/Leisure Gold Sponsor.
The Moscow Week for Travel Industry Professionals MaTIW again has confirmed its status as the main autumn event in Russia's tourism marketplace. The exposition's total area was 21,000 square meters this year. The exposition occupied four Crocus Expo pavilions. The LUXURY Leisure exclusive tourism exhibition was located in the first pavilion; the MIBEXPO RUSSIA business travel exhibition and a separate TEZ Tour company pavilion occupied the second pavilion; and the third and fourth pavilions were housing representatives of foreign countries and Russia.
More than 1,100 companies from 113 countries and regions of the world took part in the Otdykh/Leisure exhibition. Of them, Kenya, Mexico and Guatemala were exhibited for the first time, and Argentina's tourism ministry again presented its national booth after a 2-year hiatus. The composition of the participants is very meaningful: the largest tour operators - TEZ TOUR, Academservice, Solvex, Neva, Yuzhniy Krest, the KMP Group, Zeus, Natalie Tours, Lanta Tours Travel Company, Coral Travel, Capital Tour, Intourist, Ascent Travel, Russian Express, ICS, BSI, VKO Travel, etc; the national tourism offices of Australia, Norway, Oman, India, Egypt, Brazil, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Cuba, Andorra, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Malta, Hungary, Dubai, Sharjah, Fujairah, Tanzania, Kenya, Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Spain, Venezuela, China, South Africa, etc.; Russian regions - the Republic of Tatarstan, the Stavropol Kray, the Vladimir, Yaroslav and Nizhniy Novgorod regions, Sochi, Anapa, etc.
Many participants significantly expanded their presence at the exhibition. For example, the Dominican Republic's booth area was 150 square meters (for comparison, last year it was 50 square meters), the TEZ TOUR company occupied a separate pavilion this year with a total area of 600 square meters under the name "TEZ WORLD," the YUZHNYY KREST company also increased booth area, and Brazilian Tourism Board Embratur and India almost doubled the space, and the CORAL TRAVEL company increased to 171 square meters.
The business program of MaTIW was extremely informative. Inasmuch as the Kingdom of Thailand appeared as the exhibition's partner country, the first day of the event - September 22 - was Asia Day. Thailand's tourism directorate held a press conference, within the framework of which this country's Minister of Sports and Tourism, Mr. Chumpol Silapa-Archi, declared the aspiration to make Thailand a year-round destination. The manager of the Moscow office of the Thailand tourism directorate, Constantine Kinel, noted that the quantity of tourists increased by 15% in June, in July - by 17%, and in August a growth of 20% is expected in comparison with last year. "These figures pleasantly surprised us," Mr. Kinel noted, "for the majority of Russians traditionally choose a vacation to Thailand in the winter. Thailand's attempts to become a year-round destination are meeting with success."
On this same day, the international tour operator Ascent Travel held a "Combined Tours Hong Kong - Hainan Island" presentation, at which Russian Tour Industry Alliance president S. Shpilko, the manager of the Russian office of the Main Directorate for People's Republic of China Tourism Feh Li-Tao, the representative of the government's tourism department for the city of Sanya Zhou Chinghua, the representative of the Hong Kong Office for Tourism in Russia, Anastasia Shatokhina and others appeared.
The Association of Tour Operators of Russia ATOR held a practical conference and seminar for travel industry professionals with the participation of Rospotrebnadzor specialists (the Russian Federal Service for Oversight in the Sphere of the Protection of Consumer Rights and Human Welfare); the official ceremony of awarding the "Gold Meridian-2009" tourism prize was also conducted. There were Indian and Egyptian press conferences on this same day at which the representatives of these countries shared their plans for the forthcoming season. So, for example, they expect not fewer than 100,000 tourists in India before the end of 2009, and Egypt is planning to receive 2 million Russian tourists this year.
Latin America Day took place on September 23; the general sponsor of the event was the Natalie tours company jointly with the Dominican Republic. It was noted that demand for Latin American Destinations among Russian Tourists is rapidly growing, and destinations like Cuba and Dominican Republic, the Cuban destination is being developed intensively and is enjoying great demand. In particular, the Natalie Tours company announced adding this destination to their business and gave the impressive presentation, "Cuba and Dominicana - Natalie Tours Caribbean destinations." Trade visitors enjoyed some brilliant dance and music performances by Brazilian Samba group; and learned about excellent tourism opportunities and new programs at joined presentation of NATAL Tourism and Tours Brasil.
The official opening of the new Lanta-Tours Travel Company project, "Cruises in the Persian Gulf" took place on this same day in the Crocus Expo IEC hall; senior vice president of the Royal Caribbean International cruise line Mr. Michael Bailey, regional vice president of the Royal Caribbean International, Celebrity Curises and Azmara Cruises company Mrs. Helen Beck, and Lanta-Tours Travel Company president Mrs. Lyudmila Puchkova took part in the event. Afterwards Lanta-Tours Travel Company held a press conference for journalists and a presentation for agencies that set forth officially their new project - "An Eastern Tale on the Waves - Cruises in the Persian Gulf from the Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. cruise holding company."
The day was filled with various presentations. Natalie Tours, TEZ TOUR, the KMP Group, Simple Travel and others presented their new developments. Longtime partner and a major Internet sponsor ACTT held educational activities on IT technologies.
Sun International Hotels from South Africa celebrated 30th Anniversary and invited its partners to a networking wine costing right after their joined presentation and seminar with Capital Tours. South Africa is ready to host the football event of the year 2010; best packages and programs for the World Cup 2010 were presented by South African companies.
On this same day two conferences took place successfully. The 5th International Meeting Industry Conference "Business Travel: A Time of Changes" was held within the framework of the MIBEXPO RUSSIA exhibition with the support of the Russian Association of Business Travel Agencies - BTAA and it was devoted to the new MICE marketplace crisis management standards and effective technologies. Leading Russian and foreign experts took part in the conference: Steen Jakobsen, Director of the Wonderful Copenhagen Convention Bureau and member of ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association), MPI (Meeting Professionals International), DMAI (Destination Marketing Association International); Didier Scaillet, Vice President for Global Development of Meeting Professionals International (MPI); Yuri Sarapkin, Executive Director of the Russian Association of Business Travel Agencies (BTAA), MPI member; and John Hooker, top manager of the Adding Value Consulting company. A separate unit in the program was devoted to the practical experience of leaders of the Russian corporate services market, such as UniFest Travel, Demlink, and Eurocontact plus Lufthansa City Center and Zelenski Corporate Travel Solutions. The Egyptian tourism directorate was the event partner this year.
The 5th International Conference on Medical and Health Travel SPA&Health within the framework of the LUXURY LEISURE exhibition took place on the subject: "The Importance of Medical and Health Programs in Modern Economic Conditions. The Technologies of Sales". Leading specialists of the SPA industry from around the world appeared as speakers: V.Bugai, President of the Ukrainian SPA association; Vello Yarvesalu, Estonian SPA Alliance; Stefan Ritter, Vice President of Germany's Wellness Medicine Association (DMWV), member of the International Association of Wellness Medicine (INWA); Elisabeth Ixmeier, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Healing Hotels of the World, and others.
The day ended with a rousing Latin American party for agencies at the Shore House restaurant from the Natalie Tours company, where trips to Cuba and Dominica were raffled off from the Iberostar, Sol Melia and Barcelo hotel network.
September 24 was Dominican Day, the general sponsor of which was the YUZHNYY KREST company jointly with the Dominican Republic. The company conducted the "Dominicana from YUZHNYY KREST" presentation. A Dominican FAIR turned out to be the main event of this Day, at which nearly 200 representatives of tour agencies, hotels and the media were present. A little corner of heavenly Dominicana was reconstructed right on the Crocus Expo property with real golden sand, green palms, straw umbrellas and beach chairs, on which it was possible to lie down with a glass of mojito or to be photographed with a handsome mulatto man. The Domincan FAIR is a large spectrum of colorful diversions and shows in the "Dominican Spirit," a stirring party with a multitude of pleasant surprises and a stand-up buffet with appetizers and drinks from the famous restaurateur Arkadiy Novikov. Fair guests were plunged into a holiday atmosphere and received lessons in Caribbean salsa and meringue dances, rolled real Dominican cigars, braided extravagant Caribbean dreadlocks and took away with themselves colonial souvenirs and positive impressions for the forthcoming season. The holiday's finale was the raffling of seven trips from the best Dominican hotel network. YUZHNYY KREST was presented with the award "For the Most Creative Exhibition Event".
The Intourist holding company marks its 80th anniversary this year. The holding company's tour operating division - the Intourist National Tourist Company became a strategic partner of the Otdykh/Leisure exhibition. Within the framework of the third day, the company held a series of functions - a seminar and a presentation of winter season 2009/2010 programs, and in the evening they arranged a grandiose "Egyptian Evening" for foreign partners, agencies and press representatives at the Shore House restaurant with the support of the tourism department of the embassy of Egypt and the Russian Federation.
An overwhelming number of exhibitors was satisfied with their participation at the exhibition. "Participation in this year's exhibition, undoubtedly, was effective for the company," the Intourist National Tourist Company representative said. - "Fifteen thousand catalogs were distributed, important meetings and discussions with foreign partners and tour agencies were held, and a presentation of winter programs and the festive 'Egyptian Evening' was organized for partners." The tourism industry specialists worked for four days. According to Crocus Expo, the number of MaTIW exhibition visits was 71,850.
The Otdykh/Leisure exhibition confirmed once more the status of the main autumn event for Russia's tourism industry.
EUROEXPO thanks all exhibitors and visitors of MaTIW for great support and cooperation!
We await our faithful and new participants and visitors at the 16th Otdykh/Leisure International Tourism Exhibition, at the 6th International Business Travel Exhibition and Conference MIBEXPO RUSSIA and at the 5th International LUXURY Leisure exhibition of exclusive travel within the framework of the Moscow Autumn Travel Industry Week MaTIW at Crocus Expo in 2010 from September 21 through 24.
