Published on : Wednesday, October 24, 2018
There was strong participation from Asia, Latin America, and Europe destinations. Top countries which made distinctive marketing efforts were Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, China, Georgia, Spain, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Hungary, Cuba, Tunis, Egypt, and many others.
The exhibition became the well established B2B platform where more than 40 business events were held in 11 conference halls totalling 200 speakers and 2,000 participants. Fifteen governmental agreements were signed during the expo.
Destinations such as Palestine, Andhra Pradesh, Taiwan, Republic of Bashkortostan, Omsk, and Penza regions made debut in OTDYKH International Russian Travel Market 2018.
The Dominican Republic with 200 sqm stand became the official sponsor of the exhibition.
There was increase of the Russian domestic travel exposition to the visitors by 26% as compared to 2017. ‘All-Russia Meeting on Inbound and Domestic Tourism Development‘ was held on 11th of September which was attended by over 200 participants. Organisations related to Russian tourism industry held meetings, conferences, seminars, workshops, case-study presentations, and other networking events.
Some notable events were The Hosted Buyers Programme 2018; The 7th International Travel Technology Conference; ‘Hotel today and tomorrow‘, organized by Euroexpo, Russian Hotel Association and the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Russia; 3rd International Food & Wine Tourism Conference ‘Tasteful Journey‘.
A photo and video contests, featuring top travel destinations across Russia were held and it included 62 artworks from 28 Russian regions.
The partner country of OTDYKH 2018 was The National Tourism Organization of Japan (JNTO). Japan launched an international tourism campaign, ‘Enjoy my Japan‘ to spread awareness about their activities and cuisine of the country. Similarly, other destinations made unique advertising campaigns.
The Ministry of Culture of Russian Federation, the Association of Russian Tour Operators, the Russian Union of Travel Industry, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation and other national and regional authorities have shown support to OTDYKH.
Russia is one of the largest tourism markets in the world covering over 20 million outbound travellers per year and in 2019 OTDYKH International Travel Market will celebrate its 25th anniversary.