The 25th edition of Moscow International Travel & Tourism Exhibition (MITT) will be held from March 13-15, 2018, at Expocentre, Moscow, Russia. The 2017 edition, held from March 14-16, witnessed 1971 companies from 187 countries and regions of the world, comprising 23,047 visitors from 79 regions of Russia and 89 other countries in 40,000 sq.m. of exhibition area. For the first time, MITT was a B2B-only event. The exhibitors included leading operators of outbound, domestic and inbound tourism, national and regional tourism organisations, hotel chains, airlines and transport companies, and operators of search systems and tour booking services. Among the visitors at the event were 39% representatives of travel agents, 21% tour operators of search and booking systems for tour services, 11% hotels and accommodation and 8% corporate customers.
A.U. Manilova, Deputy Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, said, “MITT has established itself not only as the place for presenting the tourism potential of dozens of countries, but as the place to meet professionals in the tourism industry: from tourism administrations to representatives of national governments. I wish that the hope that both international exhibitors and the Russian regions (more than 60 Russian regions are exhibiting, which is very important for us) have come here with is realised. Now is a very good time for developing international tourism – both in Russia and throughout the world. Tourism never creates barriers, it only eradicates them. I wish everyone success.”
O. P. Safonov, Head of the Federal Agency on Tourism, said, “I am confident that constructive dialogue, sharing experience, and expanding partner relations at MITT 2017 contributes to the further establishment of tourism as a high-revenue and dynamically growing industry of the Russian economy and a reliable foundation for long-term socio-economic development for Russian citizens.”