Increased confidence and interest in the Russian, CIS and Ukrainian markets.
Now more than ever, the travel industry is looking to Russia, the CIS and Ukraine as lucrative outbound markets for the international travel and tourism industry. For this reason ITE Travel Exhibitions, the leading organiser in emerging markets, will continue to concentrate on their core events in these regions, actively helping new and established destinations to gain access to these valuable markets. Since the events of September 11th, these markets have noticed little effect on their respective economies, with inbound and outbound markets only marginally affected. The economies have remained stable and continued to experience rapid growth, providing companies searching for new business with alternative destinations and markets in which to promote themselves.
ITE Travel Exhibitions' flagship event, MITT (Moscow International Travel and Tourism Exhibition) provides an ideal gateway to enter the Russian and CIS market. At the last edition, MITT 2002 welcomed some 2,000 of the top names in the international travel industry from over 100 destinations and had a visitor audience of over 100,000. The 10th anniversary edition of MITT, taking place at Expocentr, Moscow, 26-29 March 2003 will see the launch of new initiatives including the 1st Russian Travel Conference, "How to Bring in Business" organised in collaboration with cecta (Central European Countries Travel Association) and focusing on the MICE industry (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events), as well as the 5th edition of the TTG Travel Awards organised in conjunction with TTG Russia.
Russia is experiencing a healthy economic period with a GDP growth of 8.3% in 2000 and 5.5% in 2001. The tourism market is mirroring this development, boasting an outbound growth of 45%. In the year 2000, over 18 million Russians travelled abroad with a projected increase of 15%-20% between 2001 and 2002 and according to the World Tourism Organization, by 2020 the CIS region will be among the top 10 tourism producing countries.
Ukraine also has huge potential for outbound travel. With a population of approximately 50 million, Ukraine is the largest country in the region after Russia and, with an ever increasing disposable income, the number of tourists from the Ukraine is expected to boom. Between 1994 and 2000, 5321 Ukrainian Travel Agencies were granted licences to cope with the demand in outbound travel and the number of employees in licensed tourism increased by 18%. ITE Travel Exhibitions' UITT (Ukrainian International Travel and Tourism Exhibition) provides the ideal opportunity for companies to break into the Ukrainian market. It traditionally takes place in Kyiv one week after MITT, allowing participants to effectively target the whole region in a period of only two weeks. In 2002, the UITT exhibition attracted some 500 companies representing 35 countries and regions. Visitor numbers, including trade and public, reached 25,000. The next edition of UITT will take place at the new International Exhibition Centre from the 2nd 5th April 2003.
ITE Travel Exhibitions' core events open the doors to rapidly growing and expanding markets. As the leading events in their markets, and accompanied by a number of parallel activities organised in collaboration with associations and governmental bodies, they offer companies the perfect opportunity to generate new business in new markets. All of ITE Travel Exhibitions' events have been recognised or are members of WTO (World Tourism Organization), ETTFA (European Tourism Trade Fairs Association), PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association), cecta (Central European Countries Travel Association) and ICCA (International Congress and Convention Association), and this combined with the expertise from our world-wide offices guarantees events organised to the highest standards.
For further information, please contact:
Alison Colley, Marketing Executive,ITE Travel Exhibitions, ITE Group Plc 105 Salusbury Road, London NW6 6RG, UK
Tel: 44 20 7596 5000 Fax: 44 20 7596 5102/5111
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.ite-exhibitions.com/travel