Business Meetings, an Interactive Art Event and a Journey into the World of the Russian Avantgarde: Wrap-Up of the World Travel Market Travel Trade Show

Moscow showcased its tourism potential at the World Travel Market (WTM) travel trade show, which was held on November 4–6 in London. On behalf of the Government of Moscow, deputy chairman of the Tourism Committee, Tatyana Sharshavitskaya, took part in the trade show, and held a number of business meetings and interviews with international companies and foreign media outlets.

The Moscow stand, put together by the metropolitan Tourism Committee, won two categories at once: the Best Stand Design Award  and the People's Choice Award. The modern set-up of the stand featured graphical representations of the Kremlin stars, Stalin-era skyscrapers, the bends of the Moscow River, and the bright colors of the “stained-glass windows”, all suggested by the Moscow style itself. Similar coloristic choices can be seen in the ensembles of the Moscow Kremlin, while the overall appearance of the stand is an allusion to festive Moscow and carved timber terems of Muscovite Russia.

“As always, the new concept of the Moscow stand impressed all visitors, including those from the UK, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Italy, the USA, France, and deservedly won in the best design category!”, said Natalia Cherednichenko, Deputy Director of Sales and Marketing of the Metropol Hotel, “At the Moscow stand, we represented the capital together with the strongest players in the Moscow tourism industry: tourist attractions, travel agencies, hotels and museums. On behalf of our hotel I want to express my gratitude to the Moscow Сity Tourism Committee for the opportunity to participate in the World Travel Market trade show".

The Moscow stand at the World Travel Market became a platform for establishing professional relations between the capital tourism industry and the international community. At the exhibition, meetings were held with tourism offices of cities such as Malaga, Delhi, Vilnius, Madrid, Cape Town and Budapest, as well as with participants in the international tourism community and representatives of popular online services for travelers.

“The set-up and the unique cultural program created a vivid and positive view of Moscow. We were pleased to become part of this new modern image of our capital. The bottom line of participating in the trade show is obvious for us: we negotiated with aggregators and agencies representing Russia, made contacts and exchanged information with foreign partners from France, Italy, the UK, and outlined partnership package projects with hotels. In addition, participation in the exhibition gave us new competitive ideas as to how to position the Tsaritsyno Museum on the tourism market”, said Kamilya Baidildina, Deputy General Director of the Tsaritsyno open-air museum.

Of particular interest was the presentation of the tourism potential of the capital, which was conducted daily during the three days of the trade show by Theo Ogden, a sports blogger, who became widely known in Russia during the 2018 World Cup.

During the interactive art event “Build your own Moscow”, guests created a unique collage of elements depicting the sights of Moscow under the watchful eye of Maxim Goshko-Dankov. Visitors could also go on an interactive VR-journey into the worlds of famous artists Ivan Shishkin, Natalia Goncharova and Kazimir Malevich.

“The visitors were extremely interested in an interactive VR journey that provided a virtual immersion into the history of the Russian avantgarde: about 150 participants who attended it in three days received prints of their own paintings with the details of the New Tretyakov Gallery,” said Daria Pravednikova, a PR manager of the Tretyakov Gallery, “We’ve already seen the results of our participation in the World Travel Market trade show: visit.tretyakov.ru, our gateway to visiting the New Tretyakov Gallery has seen a large number of registered visitors from the trade show. Thanks to our participation in WTM, we were able to speak in earnest about the valuable collection of the New Tretyakov Gallery to a large number of tour operators on the inbound tourism market, which is expected to attract tourist flows in the future”.

A unique program was prepared for visitors to the stand. Every day, representatives of metropolitan tourist attractions held presentations, and a five-meter panoramic screen, where one could see the capital's sights, helped to immerse into the atmosphere of the metropolis, feel its life and culture.

The short-term plans of the Moscow Сity Tourism Committee are to present the metropolis as one of the centers of business tourism at the specialized exhibition IBTM World 2019, which will be held on November 19–20, 2019 in Barcelona (Spain).