All eyes on luxury at Moscow show

Talk of luxury travel and all the attention turns towards Russia in the month of September. The 11th International Trade Fair for Luxury Travel, OTDYKH Luxury 2015, from September 15-18 is expected to draw participants from all over the world, providing a plethora of opportunities.

The Russian Federation is one of the most promising markets for luxury travel products.

Figures speak loud about the success of the event last year.According to the organisers, there were over 1,000 exhibitors from 67 countries with over 68,000 visits within four exhibition days.Over 150 business programme events were held. For the UAE, which enjoys a prestigious international stature, Russia and CIS regions are known to hold a special place.

Interestingly, research by leading luxury hotel and resort marketing specialist SweetBeam has revealed that there has been a significant uplift of in-house guest spending across Dubai during 2014 and Q1 2015.The data reveals that of the top 20 nationalities occupying luxury hotels, Russians were the top spenders while on holiday in Dubai.

Propelled by flydubai’s new services to Slovakia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Croatia, as well as Emirates to Hungary and Smart Wings to Czech Republic, Eastern Europe turned out to be the top region in terms of percentage growth in tourism. Russia and CIS (28.6 per cent) also witnessed robust growth driven by flydubai’s new routes to many destinations in Moldova and Kazakhstan.

The luxury travel industry flies high in the region and the fact is also validated by the British Airways announcement that its new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, complete with a new First Class cabin, will start flying to Delhi from October 25 with the UAE and Oman to follow later in 2015.

There is little doubt that as various tourism wings in the UAE expand their premium travel offerings, the Russian mega event will add more sheen to the glittering prospects of the tourism industry.