Category Archives: Exhibitions

Messe Berlin, the organisers of ITB Berlin have confirmed that this year’s show scheduled from March 4-8, 2020 is on track and only two Chinese exhibitors have cancelled attendance after coronavirus outbreak. At 0.3 per cent overall, the share of exhibitors from China is very low. The percentage of visitors from China is even lower at 0.02 per cent of 160,000 visitors. For the upcoming edition of ITB Berlin, more English-speaking staff as well as additional medical specialists and first responders on the grounds, have been added. The sanitary facilities will be cleaned and disinfected at more frequent intervals. In addition to hand cleansers in the bathrooms, there will also be sanitised dispensers at the entrances. The organisers’ highlight that the safety of our visitors and exhibitor will be their utmost priority and they are taking the situation very seriously.

ATOR, the Association of Russian Tour Operators, reports that the total outbound tourist flow from Russia is 7% higher than the same period in 2018.This exceeds the global average of 4% growth over the first nine months of the year, according to the UNWTO. ATOR reports that outbound, domestic and inbound have all seen a growth in sales over the period. Over 80% of Russian tourists opted for beach destinations, with Turkey remaining in prime position and seeing a 15% rise y-o-y. The Moscow International Travel and Tourism exhibition, Russia’s leading international travel trade exhibition, is the best place to gain access to the Russian travel industry. MITT attracts over 22,200 travel industry professionals – top tour operators, travel agents and other travel industry professionals.

MITT will launch new travel technology sector in 2020. The new sector will be a key hub for travel and booking software providers looking to expand their reach into the valuable Russian market. With 4,000 visitors interested in travel technologies at last year’s show, the Travel Technology sector will be a key interest for visitors, helping to attract a highly targeted audience of travel agents and other industry professionals. With its move to Crocus Expo in 2020, MITT will offer even more space for business and networking. The expansion consolidates MITT’s position as an unmissable industry hub, bringing professionals together to network, do business, and discuss the most prevalent issues facing the travel industry.

Global Panorama Showcase (GPS) ushers in a new era in 2020 by going completely eco-friendly with its Nagpur edition. The ongoing event which began on Monday and ends on Tuesday, January 28, 2020, at Hotel Centre Point Nagpur has done away with single-use plastic. Sharing this information, Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, GPS, said, “GPS goes digital and eco-friendly in 2020. We have removed all plastic bottles from the event and have kept water dispensers at all venues. We also have given steel water bottles to all our exhibitors plus top 250-odd buyers that we expect in these two days. All they need to do is complete certain tasks, which we have planned for them. We have also replaced all standees with 50-inch screens that suppliers can use to display all their promos. They only need to carry the promotional material in a USB drive in whatever format they want. The structure itself is made of recycled material.”

In line with Hyve’s other Moscow exhibitions, MITT this year will be moving from its previous home of Expocenter to Crocus Expo – Eastern Europe’s largest exhibition venue. According to MITT’s Event Director Artem Chernyshov, the move will bring many advantages to help improve the show experience. He believes that with the move, a more developed infrastructure would enable visitors to enter efficiently without queues. There will be extensive places to rest and relax on the 2nd floor, which is a food court with plenty of cafés and restaurants. Also, there will be 35,000 free parking spaces. Large and spacious pavilions would allow the whole exhibition to take place in one pavilion, improving navigation for visitors and providing better stand locations for exhibitors. While Crocus’ distance from the city centre may be seen by some as a disadvantage, Artem shares, “We are prepared to possibly see fewer visitors in 2020, but those who need to be there will come. Our experience with other exhibitions that have already moved to Crocus suggests that targeted visitors will always attend. Our exhibition is trade-only, and we maintain this concept.”

On March 17, Moscow will host MITT Digital- a conference about internet technologies for tourism sector that will take place at MITT, the largest tourism exhibition in Russia and CIS. MITT Digital program includes session by leading international and Russian experts about online travel sector, current trends, new opportunities for business, and future of tourism business.

The next edition of FITUR, organised by IFEMA, will take place at Feria de Madrid from 22-26 January 2020. The 2020 edition will be the 40th Anniversary of the Trade Show. Besides this, Sustainability, technology and specialisation will be the main lines of FITUR, but in addition there will be the promotion of activities aimed at growing in professionalism, representation and internationalisation and, therefore, to exceed the results from the latest edition, which brought together over 11,000 exhibitor companies from 160 countries, and 253,000 participants.  

The Global Panorama Showcase will go completely digital in 2020, with the first event of the year starting in Nagpur from January 27-28, 2020. Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, GPS, said, “We had set a goal for ourselves to go completely green in 2020. This year, we will have only 70 table spaces, with a fixed format wherein the backdrop will be eco-friendly. Instead of using flex, we are giving 15-inch screens to everyone, wherein it will be a 4000 ultra HD TV where exhibitors can showcase anything through their smart tabs, phones, devices or laptop, whether it is wired or non-wired. Even the sticker or paint used in the exhibition area will be eco-friendly, reusable, or recyclable. We will go almost 90 per cent eco-friendly, as we are already paperless. In future, we will have water dispensers put for the exhibitors and provide them with copper bottles to be refilled to avoid any plastic waste. This will be followed in all the cities. Every city will have a maximum of 70 exhibitors in 2020 and we have to go green completely. There will be a total of 8 GPS events and 4 Eco Connect events. Additionally, there will be around 4-6 EDWINs like every year.”

The India International Travel & Tourism Mart (IITT), Mumbai, has been rescheduled to August 2020. The event was previously scheduled to be held from January 15-17, at Bandra Kurla Complex, Mumbai. The new dates and venue for the event have not been announced. The annual event offers a networking and marketing platform for the travel and tourism industry.

MITT has introduced the new Travel Technology sector for its 2020 edition. At its last edition, 4,000 visitors said they were interested in travel technologies such as online booking systems for hotels, transport, and transfers, payment systems, insurance companies and travel agencies. Over 6,000 visitors to MITT 2019 were travel agents. MITT’s event programme includes the popular annual MITT Digital conference, where industry experts discuss the most pressing issues facing travel, current trends, new business opportunities and the future of the tourism industry. This highly-anticipated event creates additional interest and helps attract a targeted audience of travel agents.