Russia’s premier travel and tourism trade exhibition, MITT has announced that Turkey is to become its first ever ‘Partner Country’ for the event in March 2008 at Moscow’s Expocentr. The deal, which is  MITT’s premier sponsorship package, underlines Turkey’s massive presence at the event as Turkey, like many other destinations from around the world, is seeking to attract the growing number of Russian tourists to its cities and resorts.

With a stand area of 1254m² and over 500 Turkish companies represented at the exhibition, Turkey is collectively one of the largest exhibitors at MITT and its companies will occupy the entire space in Hall 1 of Expocentr’s brand new Pavilion 8.

2008 will mark the 15th edition of MITT. It is the largest tourism exhibition in Russia, CIS and Central Asia and is consistently ranked by the World Tourism Organisation as one of the top five most important travel trade exhibitions in the world. Turkey is the first nation in the event’s history to receive the prestigious title of ‘Partner Country’.

Ms Nermin Batmaz, Moscow Culture and Tourism Information Counsellor, indicated that Turkey is an important tourist destination for the Russian Federation. “Today, around two million Russian tourists visit Turkey and the number of visitors coming to see our natural and historical wealth multiplies every year”.

She went on to say that tourist satisfaction has brought momentum to the socio-cultural relations between the two countries, explaining that 2007 was celebrated in Turkey as a ‘Russian Year of Culture’ and that 2008 will be celebrated as a ‘Turkish Year of Culture’ in Russia.

Ms. Batmaz is confident that tourism relations between Russia and Turkey, with their strong historical and cultural heritages, would last for many years. She also added that MITT is an important event in demonstrating the amount of activity in the Russian tourism market. “Travel trade professionals from all over the world show great interest in this exhibition, which has yielded effective results in the Russian and CIS tourism market”.

Commenting on MITT and Turkey becoming the event’s ‘Partner Country’ in 2008, Ms. Batmaz stated that the exhibition has been a real success and that, “the organisers of the exhibition have added a new dimension to their project. Turkey is taking part in the ‘Partner Country’ scheme, which makes its debut this year. We hope that MITT will continue to boost the tourism sector, which is a driving force behind peaceful relations between nations.”