Moscow hosted a key international tourism forum-exhibition before the autumn-winter season. Participation in OTDYKH Leisure 2022 took 307 travel companies and organizations from 40 regions of the Russian Federation and 14 foreign countries.

The opening ceremony of OTDYKH Leisure was attended by the head of the Rostourism Zarina Doguzova, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Tourism and Development of Tourist Infrastructure Natalia Kostenko, head of the Egyptian Tourist Authority Ismail Amer, Tourism Minister of Samara region Artur Abdrashitov, Chairman of the Committee for Tourism Development of Saint Petersburg Sergey Korneev, Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Culture and Tourism of the Leningrad Region Olga Golubeva, Mayor of Novosibirsk Anatoly Lokot, Minister of Resorts and Tourism of the Republic of Crimea Vadim Volchenko, Executive Director of ATOR Maya Lomidze, Head of PCT Ilya Umansky and First Deputy General Director of JSC «EXPOCENTER» Nikolay Gusev.

According to Zarina Doguzova, the industry is actively recovering, and there is a «feeling of boiling energy» and very positive mood. According to her, joint efforts for several years set a phenomenal bar for the development of the industry, and it is necessary for all industry participants to move forward together. «Tourism today is one of the most important priorities in the development of the country. We need to focus on the development of seaside resorts, small villages and cities, expand support programs for small businesses, arrange tourist routes to rest on them was interesting, comfortable and safe», - said Zarina Doguzova.

The head of the Egyptian Tourist Authority Ismail Amer told that Egypt is making a lot of efforts to facilitate the stay of Russians and is increasing the volume of transportation. For many years, Egypt has been a favorite destination for the Russian tourist. It is time to return to this position», - he stressed, adding that Egypt, Partner Country ODTYKH LEISURE 2022, is waiting for the growth of the tourist flow from Russia in the upcoming winter season.

Minister of Tourism of the Samara region Artur Abdrashitov stressed the importance of OTDYKH Leisure for the development of domestic tourism in Russia. The Samara region performed at the exhibition as a Region partner OTDYKH Leisure, and 14 Samara companies were working at the stand of the region. According to Artur Abdrashitov, the national tourist route «Zhigulevsky Weekend», which passes through the territory of the region, this year will play with new colors.

Chairman of the Committee for the Development of Tourism of Saint Petersburg Sergey Korneev noted the importance of programs supporting Rosturism, and said that the Northern Capital is ready to present in the new autumn-winter season many new ideas, proposals and new programs. Saint Petersburg - Partner City OTDYKH Leisure.

Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Culture and Tourism of the Leningrad region Olga Golubeva stressed the importance of the exhibition OTDYKH Leisure and the synergy of this business platform, which annually gathers leading industry participants on the eve of the winter season. Leningrad region - Partner of the official opening ceremony OTDYKH Leisure.

OTDYKH Leisure worked intensively all three days - from 13 to 15 September. During this period OTDYKH Leisure was visited by 7200 professionals.

All three days on the stands of foreign and Russian participants there was active work: meetings, negotiations, business communication. So, in the «fields» of OTDYKH Leisure Head of Rostourism Zarina Doguzova held meetings with the Minister of Tourism of Venezuela, Mr Ali Ernesto Padro Predos, and the Minister of Tourism of Cuba, Mr Juan Carlos Garcia - countries with which Russia has resumed direct flights. The International Department of the Federal Tourism Agency had a business meeting with the Minister of Transport of Sri Lanka, Mr Gunawardan Sumitra Arachchiga.

On the site OTDYKH Leisure was signed a number of important agreements. In particular, OJSC «RZD» and Samara region signed an agreement on cooperation. The document was signed by Deputy Head of Kuibyshev Railway - branch of JSC «RZD» for interaction with authorities Denis Mudarisov and Minister of Tourism of the Samara region Artur Abdrashitov.

The parties intend to jointly develop and popularize railway tourist routes in Russia, as well as to promote the creation of a system of effective interaction with participants of the tourist market to improve the quality of services.

The business program of OTDYKH Leisure was a great success for professional visitors: all platforms, which were held sessions and discussions, were filled on all 27 tracks of the program. In total, more than 170 speakers took the floor in three business programme venues.

Rosturizm held and took part in several events. So, with the participation of the Federal Agency for Tourism on the first working day of OTDYKH Leisure held a strategic session «How to preserve the balance and sustainability of the industry?» Attended by the deputy head of the Rostourism Elena Lysenkova. Among the speakers were General Director of MTS Travel Vadim Melnikov, Acting President of PCT Ilya Umansky, Executive Director of ATOR Maya Lomidze, Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the State Duma for Tourism and Development of Tourist Infrastructure Natalia Kostenko and Vice-President of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Russia Vadim Prasov.

The discussion of the strategy session focused on industry support measures and their effectiveness. According to Elena Lysenkova, Rosturizm is doing a lot of work to create conditions for comfortable travel in the country, stimulates investment and consumer activity, launches national tourist routes. As the deputy head of the Rostourism summarized, the upcoming autumn-winter season will be bright and interesting.

The business session «Human Capital in Tourism and Hospitality» was devoted to the issues of human resources and competencies of tourism workers. It was noted that it is necessary to create conditions for attracting youth to tourism and to create conditions that encourage self-development and increase in competence of existing professionals.

Mechanisms for attracting foreign tourists representatives of the Rostourism, tour operators and regions discussed during the session «Inbound tourism in the current conditions: directions and factors for attracting foreign tourist flow». The Head of the Committee for Tourism Development of Saint Petersburg Sergey Korneev, Acting President of the PCT, Head of the PCT Committee on Internal Tourism, General Director of the company «Alean» Ilya Umansky, Director for the Development of Tourist Relations between Russia and the Middle East Hotels Key Alexandra Blanco, Project Manager for the Support of Export Services of REC Larisa Magkaeva, Director of Sales of Krasna Polyana Molochkova, Deputy Head of Promotion and Marketing of the Tourism Committee of the Murmansk region Denis Maltsev. On the part of foreign specialists representing key markets for Russia, the discussion was attended by Mr Rajan Sigal, Chairman of the Travel Agents Association of India and Mr Abdulmon Alali, General Director of the Alsyahi Saudi Arabia. According to the participants of the discussion, inbound tourism in Russia has sharply decreased and now it is extremely important to make the entry into our country simple and understandable for foreign guests. Including, this will help the launch of e-visa.

On the second day of the exhibition a master class of the Rostourism for participants of the All-Russian competition of project teams in the field of State Administration , development and implementation of tourism strategies of regions was held. Participants were told about the goals and objectives of the competition, presented the curators of nominations and provided comprehensive information on the stages of the project and submission of applications. Also, a private meeting of the working group on the development of inclusive tourism at the Federal Agency for Tourism was held.

Winter holidays and year-round demand for travel in Russia became a significant topic, which was a main topic through the entire program of the forum. It was discussed separately during the special session «Let it Snow! How to make winter synonymous with vacation». According to experts, the Russian regions have the necessary potential to increase tourist flows in the winter. To do this, it is necessary to think through the event series and prepare the appropriate year-round infrastructure.

In the new format, the theme of winter tourism was discussed during the group work of industry professionals. For the first time on the third day of OTDYKH Leisure for the regions passed «LEISURE Lab. High ideas for a low season». Regional teams with the participation of mentors and marketers prepared tourist programs that can attract tourists in the off-season.

As a result of the application campaign, teams of seven regions were selected and formed, including the Novgorod Region, Sverdlovsk Region, Samara Region, Mordovia Republic, Voronezh Region, Republic of Buryatia and Republic of Bashkortostan. As a result, almost 2 hours of keen work on the projects of the team presented their presentations to members of the jury - Yulia Rybakova (Rosturizm), Olga Sanaeva and Dmitry Manin (PCT), Alexey Vengin (ProfiTravel), Julia Zholya (NAOM), Natalia Lebedeva (Russiad) and Aveyzenu (Regional Tourism Development Center).

All regions presented completely different approaches to winter holidays. According to the results of the jury evaluation two regions became the winners of the laboratory - Samara region and their program «Mountains. Sea. Zhiguli» and Voronezh region with gastronomic tour of the weekend «Eat in Voronezh!». As noted Yulia Rybakova, advisor to the head of the Federal Agency for Tourism (Rosturizm), «the main task of the teams was to find the phenomenon of the region and that USP of identity, which will attract the tourist to travel in the winter period».

For the tourism business, targeted sessions were organized «OTDYKH Travel Technology 2022: Travel in Russian: import substitution and technology», «Law and development of the tourism industry», «Development of hotel infrastructure in Russia».

A separate block of events on the second day of the exhibition was addressed to travel agencies: on the Big Agent Day was a case-session «Storm technique. Adaptation of business and new horizons», where issues of commissions, transfers/returns of tours, competition and work online were discussed. With an absolute full house passed «Educational intensive. Business Practice for Agencies» - a marathon of knowledge and practical business skills supported by Sletat.ru and MGIMO.

The bright final note of the second day of OTDYKH Leisure with the support of the Kemerovo region became the incendiary Zima Party, where the start of the winter season was given. Zima Party guests were awarded with prizes from Kuzbass Tourism Agency. The most successful travel agents have become the owners of souvenirs and merchandise from Vizit Kuzbass, certificates for study immersion in the dive resort «Temir» for accommodation in Kemerovo, for excursions to the most diverse places of attraction of tourists and many other gifts from partners!

In total, 2,800 people visited the business program OTDYKH Leisure. Part of the recorded sessions can be seen on the exhibition website: https://ww.tourismexpo.ru/

Representatives of tourist retail, who visited OTDYKH Leisure, highly appreciated both the organization of the event and diverse business program. In reviews on social media, travel agents stressed the importance of personal visit to the exhibition, the opportunity to participate in business events, obtain new business contacts and improve their skills through professional communication.

The festival program OTDYKH Leisure at the participants stands was also rich and interesting. It was possible to make a virtual excursion «Flight over Khanty-Mansiysk», visit the therms at the stand of the Tyumen region, ride on VR simulator mountain skis, communicate with a robotic employee of the TIC Perm region, to participate in the tasting of drinks and gastronomic specialists at stands of foreign countries and Russian regions.

Partners of OTDYKH Leisure 2022: Egypt - Partner Country, Samara region - Regional partner, Saint Petersburg - Partner city, Novosibirsk - New Year’s capital of Russia, Leningrad region - Partner of the official opening ceremony, Kemerovo region - Partner of Zima Party, MGIMO - Educational Partner, Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug - Business Program Partner. Far East and Arctic Development Corporation - Business Program Partner. Companies Hotelbook, Bnovo and Travelline - Partners of business sessions.

Consider that online catalog OTDYKH Leisure https://onlineexpo.com/ru/otdykh-leisure/ with the possibility of searching for contacts of participants, offers of tourism all over the world and Russia is available in full mode for another two months.

OTDYKH Leisure 2023 will be held on September 12-14 in «Expocentre». See you next year!

The full text of the post-release is available on the website OTDYKH Leisure >>>