The 27th edition of the OTDYKH Leisure Fair has come to an end and it was a resounding success. It ran from September 7th to 9th in Expocentre Fairgrounds in Moscow. This year an astounding 450 companies participated, from 41 Russian regions and 23 different countries. The countries that participated in the 2021 OTDYKH expo were: Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Cyprus, Egypt, Germany, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Lithuania, Moldova, Peru, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia and Venezuela.
This year the OTDYKH Leisure Fair celebrated several newcomers to the event, including the country Azerbaijan, the region of Ceará in Brazil, the prefecture of Tottori in Japan and the company, Sri Lankan Airlines. The expo was proud to boast Egypt as its partner country this year with a phenomenal stand and large delegation, headed by the esteemed, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities of Egypt, Mr Khaled al-Anany. The high level of professional interest in this year’s event was due to the resumption of direct flights between Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh and 41 cities in Russia.
A special mention goes to the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau who presented an exclusive, large stand with thirteen co-exhibiting companies. Sri Lanka featured a large delegation which was headed by the Ministry of Tourism & Aviation, the Hon. Ranatunga Prasanna. In addition to this, Sri Lankan Airlines participated for the first time in the fair’s history, with their own bespoke stand.
Latin America was well represented at the 2021 OTDYKH Leisure fair; Cuba marked a transition back to the pre-pandemic format of exhibiting with its very own 100m2 stand. At the opening ceremony, the Cuban First Vice Minister of Tourism, Maria del Carmen Orellana Alvarado stated that Cuba is working incredibly hard to be a COVID-safe destination for travellers, and is gradually preparing to reopen its borders. As a result, from November 15th 2021 onwards, Cuba will cancel mandatory COVID PCR tests for tourists, and instead random testing will be carried out upon arrival.
Although many western European countries still have closed borders and travel restrictions, there was a healthy turn out from Europe. Bulgaria, Spain and Cyprus all had their own stands, while other exhibitors included Italy, Germany and Lithuania.
Attendance at the expo reached almost 10,000 people both in person and virtually. Over 6,000 trade visitors came in person to the expo whilst over 3,000 people followed the exhibition via online platforms. Еhe general partner was Sberbank, the largest bank in Russia. There were many highlights of the 2021 OTDKYH Leisure Fair, including the many official agreements that were signed. The partner city St Petersburg signed three agreements, one of which was an agreement between St. Petersburg and Moldova to co-operate and work together in the tourism industry.
