In Moscow, the international forum-exhibition OTDYKH Leisure 2022 ended on a high note. More than 300 travel companies and organizations from 40 regions of the Russian Federation and 14 foreign countries took part in OTDYKH Leisure 2022.
The head of the Federal Tourism Agency Zarina Doguzova took part in the opening ceremony of OTDYKH Leisure. According to her, thanks to common efforts, the industry is actively recovering: this year the tourist flow has almost returned to pre-pandemic levels, the number of tourists has doubled in two years, and jobs have recovered. As Zarina Doguzova emphasized, not only these indicators are important, but also the “feeling of ebullient energy” that is present in the tourism industry.
Natalia Kostenko, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Tourism and Tourism Infrastructure Development, Ismail Amer, Head of the Egyptian TouristAuthority, Artur Abdrashitov, Minister of Tourism of the Samara Region, Sergey Korneev, Chairman of the St. Petersburg Tourism Development Committee, Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Tourism Development of St. Olga Golubeva, Chairman of the Committee for Culture and Tourism of the Leningrad Region, Anatoly Lokot, Mayor of Novosibirsk, Vadim Volchenko, Minister of Resorts and Tourism of the Republic of Crimea, Maya Lomidze, Executive Director of ATOR, Ilya Umansky, Head of the PCT, and Nikolay Gusev, First Deputy General Director of EXPOCENTRE JSC.
According to their common opinion, OTDYCH Leisure holding on the eve of the start of the winter season is an important event, since this status business and exhibition venue highlights the main trends in the industry and annually gathers under its auspices the leading participants in the tourism market.
The OTDYKH Leisure exhibition worked intensively for all three days – from 13 to 15 September. During this period, 7200 specialists visited Leisure.
During all three days, active work took place at the stands of foreign and Russian participants: meetings, negotiations, business communication. So, on the “fields” of OTDYKH Leisure, the head of Rostourism, Zarina Doguzova, held meetings with the Minister of Tourism of Venezuela, Mr. Ali Ernesto Padro Peredos, and the Minister of Tourism of Cuba, Mr. Juan Carlos Garcia – countries with which Russia has resumed direct flights. The International Department of Rostourism in a business format talked with the Minister of Transport of Sri Lanka, Mr. Gunawardana Sumitra Arachchige.
A number of important agreements were signed at the OTDYKH Leisure site. Thus, at the stand of the Partner Region of the exhibition, Russian Railways and the Samara Region signed a cooperation agreement. The document was signed by Denis Mudarisov, Deputy Head of the Kuibyshev Railway, a branch of Russian Railways for interaction with authorities, and Artur Abdrashitov, Minister of Tourism of the Samara Region.
The parties intend to jointly develop and popularize railway tourist routes in Russia, as well as contribute to the creation of a system of effective interaction with participants in the tourism market to improve the quality of services.
The RECREATION Leisure business program was a great success with professional visitors: all the venues where sessions and discussions were held were filled on all 28 tracks of the program. Rostourism held and took part in several events at once. In total, more than 170 speakers spoke at the three arenas of the business program.
Thus, the main business event of the first working day OTDYCH Leisure was the strategic session “How to maintain the balance and stability of the industry?”, in which Elena Lysenkova, Deputy Head of Rostourism, took part. The business session “Human capital in tourism and hospitality” was devoted to the issues of human resources and competencies of workers in the tourism industry. The mechanisms for attracting foreign tourists were discussed by representatives of Rostourism, tour operators and regions during the session “Inbound tourism in the current conditions: directions and factors for attracting foreign tourist flow.”
On the second day of the exhibition, a master class of Rostourism was held for participants in the All-Russian competition project teams in the field of public administration, development and implementation of tourism strategies of the regions. And the main topic of the day was winter holidays and year-round demand for travel in Russia, which were discussed during the special session “Let it Snow! How to make winter synonymous with vacation.”
Target sessions “Storm technique. Business adaptation and new horizons”, “OTDYKH Travel Technology 2022: Tourist business in Russian: import substitution and technologies”, “Law and development of the tourism industry”, “Development of hotel infrastructure in Russia”. With an absolute full house from the professional visitors of the exhibition, the “Educational Intensive. Business practice for agencies” – a marathon of knowledge and practical business skills with the support of Sletat.ru and MGIMO.
For the first time at OTDYCH Leisure for the regions, on the third day of the exhibition on September 15, OTDYCH Lab. High ideas for the low season. As part of a special format, regional teams, with the participation of mentors and marketers, prepared tourism programs that could attract tourists in the off-season. As a result of a 2-hour brainstorming session, 7 projects were presented, 2 of which were especially noted by the jury members and received prizes from the organizers – Rostourism, the Russian Union of Travel Industry (PCT) and the OTDYKH Leisure forum-exhibition.
a total of 2,800 people visited the RECREATION Leisure business program. Part of the recorded sessions can be seen on the exhibition website: https://www.tourismexpo.ru/
The festival program OTDYKH Leisure at the stands of the participants was also rich and mega interesting. It was possible to take a virtual tour “Flying over Khanty-Mansiysk”, visit the thermal baths at the stand of the Tyumen region, ride a VR-simulator of skiing, communicate with a robotic employee of the TIC of the Perm Territory, take part in tasting drinks and gastronomic specialties at the stands of foreign countries and Russian regions .
Leisure Leisure 2022 Partners: Egypt – Partner Country, Samara Region – Partner Region, St. Petersburg – Partner City, Novosibirsk – New Year's Capital of Russia, Leningrad Region – Official Opening Ceremony Partner, Kemerovo Region – Partner of “ZimaParty”, MGIMO – Educational partner, Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Partner of the business program. Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic – Partner of the business program. Hotelbook, Bnovo and Travelline are business session partners.
LEISURE Leisure 2023 will take place on September 12-14 at Expocentre. See you next year!