Exhibitors at the travel industry event UITT unanimously agreed that Ukraine has established its place on the map of the global travel industry…
Exhibitors at the travel industry event UITT unanimously agreed that Ukraine has established its place on the map of the global travel industry. The event, which was held this year on April 2-5 in Kiev, at the new International Exhibition Centre hosted 35,000 visitors and 500 exhibiting companies from 35 countries.
An official delegation from the World Tourism Organisation has visited the exhibition. The speakers at the Opening ceremony the were V. Tsybukh, Chairman of the State Tourism Administration of Ukraine; V. Strjalkovski, Chairman of the WTO Executive Council and Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Russian Federation; A Shlevkov, Assistant to the WTO Regional Representative for Europe; K. Samoylik, Chairwoman of the State Rada Committee for Youth Policy, Physical Culture and Tourism of Ukraine.
Director of ITE Travel Exhibitions, Stanislava Blagoeva-Duschell commented on the international element of the event. Over 200 international companies were represented in Kiev and 16 National Tourist Boards were promoting themselves to the Ukraine market. This proves beyond doubt the growing interest in Ukraine for outbound travel. Exhibitors did a roaring trade according to Blagoeva-Duschell. Many exhibitors sold out the whole of their season in the first 2 days of the exhibition. Everybody commented on how good the business was. We are delighted with these results.
Exhibitors confirmed that they will return for UITT in 2004 and many National Tourist Boards are looking to significantly increase their presence at the show. The Ukrainian outbound market has become very attractive, says Sergey Kanaev, Director of Dubai Department of Tourism Representation in Russia and CIS. All of the tour operators on our stand were very pleased with the results of the show. `Go Ukraine` is our new marketing slogan.
This opinion was shared by most exhibitors. Switzerland is often perceived as an elite destination. But we have seen a stable increase on numbers of tourists from Ukraine and we consider this market to have a great potential, said Maria Makarova, Marketing Manager for Russia and CIS, Switzerland Tourism.
UITT 2004 will take place in Kiev at the International Exhibition Centre from March 31st to April 3rd.
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