AVOIDING ‘OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND’ EFFECT
By joining Russia’s biggest tourism fair, Malaysia is reminding tourists that it is still a leading destination
CAN you gather the whole world in one pavilion? In the case of the travel industry exhibition — definitely, yes.
I’m referring to the Moscow International Travel & Tourism Exhibition (MITT 2021) that has a quarter of a century history, and it is recognised as the largest exhibition in Russia for “Tourism and Recreation”.
Every year, tourism professionals from Russian regions and around the world come to MITT because they know that participation in the exhibition is an effective tool in solving their business issues.
The whole secret is the event’s reputation in the professional community. About 46 per cent of MITT visitors are chief executive officers. Founded in 1994, MITT is a springboard for a full-scale summer offensive in the tourism market.
Participation in MITT is a kind of carte blanche in the upcoming season. Reports five years ago said that MITT was attended by more than 28,000 people from 77 regions of Russia, and 97 other countries in 2016.
The exhibition provides an opportunity to establish personal contact with hundreds of foreign partners, to seize the attention of travel agencies, to outline your plans and to demonstrate potential.
This is a proven international circuit that has been consistently reliable for years. With the current difficult situation in international travelling, MITT was held offline from March 16 to 18, and traditionally featured a variety of exhibitors.
Exhibitors from abroad, unable to come to the exhibition for objective reasons, invited the employees of their Russian tourism offices to participate, because one cannot miss MITT, the leading annual international tourism event!
With more than 1,600 participating companies from around the world, MITT is the key meeting place for the industry and an opportunity to catch up with colleagues and clients.
In addition, it enables participants to increase awareness of their destination, present their new programmes and gain a real feel of the Russian travel market.
The central event of MITT is the business programme — the three-day forum that brings together heads of travel companies, hotels, and government officials to discuss strategic issues of industry development.
Among the key topics this year were the impact of Covid-19 on tourism; strategy for the development of tourist business this year; state regulation of the Russian travel industry; and, problems and prospects for the development of domestic tourism in the Russian Federation.
More than 15 countries participated in MITT 2021, including Malaysia through its agency, the Tourism Malaysia Moscow office.
The physical exhibition in the face of Covid-19 epidemic was a platform eagerly awaited by all players in the tourism industry for the long haul tourism market of Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to promote and market Southeast Asian holiday destinations.
This included Malaysia, which always was the focus of international tourists during the winter holiday season.
Malaysian Ambassador to Russia, Datuk Bala Chandran Tharman, who officiated the Malaysian part of the exhibition told the author in an interview that Tourism Malaysia’s participation in MITT this time was very relevant.
He believed that it was also beneficial in efforts to promote and maintain the momentum of interest among tourists from Russia and CIS countries to Malaysian destinations.
According to him, this exhibition was important as a continuous effort to maintain visibility and inform the market that Malaysia is, indeed, waiting for the arrival of Russian tourists.
Another purpose is to avoid the “out of sight and out of mind” effect, and at the same time, remind Russian tour operators about Malaysia as a leading tourist destination in Asia.