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Early Bird Registration is Now Open for 26th OTDYKH International Russian Travel Market

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Following the success of the 2019 event, the dates for the upcoming OTDYKH Leisure fair 2020 have been announced. Next year’s highly-anticipated three-day event will take place at the Expocentre in Moscow from September  8-10,2020.

The largest tourism event in Russia, this fair is unmissable for major competitors in the travel industry seeking to tap into the vast and ever-growing Russian travel market. Despite having fluctuated in recent years, from 2016 to 2017 Russian outbound tourism increased by an impressive 25%, rising a further 5.8% in 2018. With a population of almost 145 million, and given its key positioning between Europe and Asia, Russia is a primary player in the global travel industry with huge potential for companies providing travel-related services.

Russians also reportedly spend on average 42% more per person, per foreign holiday than their European counterparts. In 2018 Russia placed 8th on an UNTWO report which ranked countries by their contribution to outbound tourism. Russia’s total spending amounted to $31.1 billion USD, up almost 30% from the previous year. These statistics point to a flourishing trend in Russian outbound travel, and well as lucrative opportunities for companies looking to harness the Russian market.

The OTDYKH Leisure fair of 2020 will see the return of the many spectacular business networking events of the 2019 edition. The 2019 event welcomed almost 15,000 industry experts with 600 exhibitors from 35 countries and 41 Russian regions.

Highlights of the expo included a series of exclusive B2B marketing events for exhibitors, such as roundtable meetings between leading Russian tour operators and international organisations. Other features included a sales-call service, expert workshops and the B2B Speed Dating service which facilitated one-on-one meetings at exhibitors’ stands.

The highly popular Hosted Buyer program will also be making a comeback in 2020, establishing hundreds of meetings between high-level buyers, tour operators and travel agencies.

The Business Program in 2019 comprised of 45 business events with over 150 speakers and almost 2,700 participants and will be a winning feature of the upcoming expo when the OTDYKH Leisure fair returns on September 8, 2020.

Early bird booking rates are on limited release until December 31, 2019.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Ms. Anna Huber at [email protected]  

International office: +43 1 230 85 35

OTDYKH International Russian Travel Market to host a series of B2B marketing events for exhibitors

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Organizers of the OTDYKH Leisure Trade Fair are offering a range of unmissable B2B marketing events for exhibitors to partake in at the OTDYKH 2019 expo, which takes place this year, 10-12 September. This comes at a time where live events are proven to be especially important for B2B professionals when it comes to increasing brand awareness and customer engagement. The scheduled events include B2B Speed Dating, where industry specialists will be granted the opportunity to have short, individual meetings, one after the other at exhibitors’ stands. This will be the perfect way to network with a large volume of specialists in a short space of time. Exhibitors will also benefit from roundtable meetings with Russian tour operators, co-organized by The Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR), and a special sales-call service. Exhibitors are invited to deliver their own bespoke workshops, facilitated by OTDYKH, to a number of key players in Russian regions in order to explore business opportunities. And of course, one of the best ways to meet travel professionals from major Russian regions is through the Hosted Buyers Program.

OTDYKH’s digital support is also fully engaged in the distribution of information provided by exhibitors, disseminating exhibitor news, logos and press releases via various promotional channels. These include the OTDYKH website, partner websites, social media platforms and the expo newsletter which currently has over 63,000 recipients. 

In another exciting update, the Komi Republic has been announced as a sponsor region. Representatives have purchased an exclusive 42m² stand and a sponsorship package. The Komi Republic lies to the west of the picturesque Ural Mountains and to the north-east of the East European Plain. It is perhaps best known for the Virgin Komi forests which is not only the largest virgin forest in Europe, but in 1995 became the first natural UNESCO World Heritage Site in Russia. Information on all of the regions’ top tourist attractions will be available at their exhibition stand.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the OTDYKH Leisure Trade Fair, and over 900 countries and Russian regions will be participating in the 2019 expo. Companies and individuals from all over the world who operate in the travel and tourism industry will come together to explore the potential of the vast and ever-expanding Russian market.

OTDYKH International Russian Travel Market will be held on the 10th-12th of September 2019
Location: Expocentre Fairgrounds in Moscow, Russia.

For further information please contact Ms. Anna Huber at [email protected]  International office: +43 1 230 85 35

eTN is a media partner for OTDYKH.

Russia prepares for OTDYKH International Travel Market and UNWTO General Assembly

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Two landmark events in the Russian travel industry – which take place this September – mark not only an important development in Russian travel but also a fantastic opportunity for companies in the travel industry looking to take advantage of the lucrative Russian market.

All eyes in the travel industry will be on Moscow and St. Petersburg this fall, as Russia’s capital gets ready to host the OTDYKH 2019 and Russia’s second major city prepares to host the General Assembly of the World Tourism Organization, at which representatives from 156 countries will participate. It is the first time that this biennial event is being hosted by the Russian Federation.

St. Petersburg is the first Russian city to sign a cooperation memorandum with UNWTO, which was signed in July last year in order to facilitate the development of cultural, winter and medical tourism as well as technological advances related to the travel industry.

Visitors can conveniently attend both events, as Moscow and St. Petersburg are connected by a high-speed train which travels between the two cities in just 4 hours.

OTDYKH International Travel Market is Russia’s leading B2B travel and tourism event. Since 1995, OTDYKH Leisure is a traditional meeting spot for travel professionals, including tour operators, private companies as well as national and regional tourism agencies.

In an exciting development in the run-up to OTDYKH, the Republic of Komi and the Republic of Crimea have decided to increase their stands this in order to showcase even more information at the upcoming expo. The expo also welcomes several new-comer Russian regions which are the Republic of Buryatia and the Kemerovo Region – both located in Siberia – the Primorsky Region in the Far Eastern Federal District, and Russia’s largest island, Sakhalin.  In addition to this, 23 other Russian regions have already confirmed their participation in the expo, with many more expected to sign up in the coming months. These include the Republic of Karelia, home to the beautiful Kizhi Island, and the Republic of Tartarstan, of which the capital Kazan receives over a million tourists every year. Last year 44 Russian regions displayed at the expo.

OTDYKH is excited to announce the Hosted Buyers Program 2019. Once again, suppliers will have the opportunity to network with a select group of hosted buyers in the interest of forging valuable working relationships. Last year the expo invited 40 hosted buyers from across 32 cities in Russia to meet the exhibitors.

In addition to the Russia regions, among the 900 participants featured in the expo will be Indonesia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, India, Spain, Greece, Serbia, China, Thailand, Sri Lanka etc. will also be participating. It is the perfect opportunity for travel and tourism related companies to take advantage of the Russian market.

Over 38,000 visitors attended the expo in 2018, as well as 287 media attendees from 80 media partners. This year will feature multiple conference halls with guest speakers and exclusive live performances. The business program will combine all relevant sectors of the tourism value chain, from MICE and Luxury Travel to Health and Gourmet Travel.

Exhibitors are invited to participate and celebrate the 2019 OTDYKH Leisure trade fair and celebrate 25 years of the expo’s continued success. Early-bird offers are available on a first-come-first serve basis to those looking to seize the opportunity to tap-into the Russian travel industry.

For further information please contact Ms. Anna Huber at [email protected] International office: +43 1 230 85 35

Travel News | eTurboNews

Strongest year-by-year growth in a decade expected

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The number of business trips and the cost of those trips is set to rise in 2019, according to the 14th annual International Travel Management Study (22 October 2018). Almost half (45 percent) of the 777 corporate travel managers surveyed by AirPlus in 24 countries expect their company to travel more in the year ahead. That figure is up from 35 percent in 2018 and the highest since the global financial crisis of the late 2000s.

Only 10 percent of travel managers believe their company will travel less, while 44 percent expect no change. India is the country where the highest number of travel managers (83 percent) forecast more trips in 2019. In contrast, 33 percent of Russian travel managers, more than any other country, predict less travel.

Travel managers are economic optimists

Almost half (46 percent) of travel managers expect the global economy to affect business travel positively in 2019. That is well up on last year (27 percent) and the highest figure in the six years the study has asked this question. Only 16 percent of travel managers expect the economy to affect business travel negatively, down from 20 percent in 2018.

The optimism among travel managers may seem surprising given several risks threatening to slow the global economy in 2019, including Brexit, slower growth in the Chinese economy and international trade disputes. But at time of writing the International Monetary Fund’s 2019 forecast is for global GDP growth of 3.5 percent (slower than 2018 but still a relatively high figure), and business travel volume and GDP have long been shown to correlate.

Expect business travel to cost more in 2019

The almost inevitable consequence of more travel is more cost, and sure enough, 51 percent of travel managers expect their company to increase its travel spend in 2019 — up from 41 percent in 2018.

“Our travel managers’ prediction of increased corporate travel highlights the importance that business travel has gained over the years. Regardless of any possible positive or negative effects of the global economy, travel managers consider business travel to be necessary and essential in order to gain new business and meet corporate challenges”, says Yael Klein, a marketing director. “But more travel also means companies need to pay increased attention to controlling their rising spend. Luckily, there are many excellent tools and techniques to help track and manage travel spend. 2019 is definitely the year to put these good travel management practices in place, or review them if you already have a strong managed program.”

Action points recommended to control budgets include:

  • Make sure you have a good corporate payment solution providing the best possible travel spend data.
  • Review your policy to identify fresh potential savings.
  • Re-visit your supplier deals. If you have more spend, you also have more spending power.
  • Communicate. Tell your travelers that costs are increasing

Travel News | eTurboNews