March is an exhausting time for the travel industry in Russia, ITB Berlin is now separated by just 2 days from the leading Russian travel exhibition, MITT. The two days period is filled by various workshops, such at the Luxury Travel Mart and the MICE Forum, both very successful this year in their own spheres. ITM, the Russian government backed travel exhibition, is practically eclipsed by the other shows and workshops which successfully compete against it. It is now time to make ITM into the official inbound exhibition for Russia, and stop pretending that it is a second rate international tourism exhibition, this would make everyone's life easier, and Russia could seriously position itself as an inbound destination, for which there is a great potential, and the gateway to the CIS and the romantic Silk Road.

As new destinations continue to queue up enter the Russian market, Bhutan is exhibiting at MITT for the first time this year. The Philippines plans to open a tourism office in Russia in April 2011 and a number of Latin American countries are waiting to position themselves in the Russian market in the near future, with many of them simplifying or removing visas altogether to attract the high spenders.

Best regards,