Bulgaria is simultaneously taking part in two international tourism expos in Moscow. The first, ITM 2007 took place on March 18-21 and the second, MITT 2007, was scheduled for March 21-24. This was announced by the Bulgarian State Agency for Tourism (SAT). During the expos, SAT chairwoman Anelia Kroushkova was to meet the head of the Russian federal agency for tourism Vladimir Stjelkovskii as well as leading Russian tour operators who work actively with Bulgaria.

ITM was held for the second time in Moscow and was organised by Euroexpo, a Russian tourism company. It was organised with the co-operation of the federal agency for tourism, the federal agency for internal transport, the Russian union of tourism industry, and the Russian hotel association.

During the expo, March 20 was announced as “Bulgaria Day”. A number of Russian tour operators gathered at the Bulgarian stall to get acquainted with the latest from what Bulgarian tourism offers.

On offer at the expo were various tourism services including plane tickets, transport services, holiday packages, business trips, eco, educational and spa tourism.

Bulgaria had its own stall with nine Bulgarian tourism companies.

SAT said that on the first day of the expo, demonstrations of spa treatment procedures attracted great interest. Companies also showed off Bulgarian national artifacts, ethno jazz, and traditional Bulgarian food and wine. During the two expos, Bulgaria was advertised on billboards in central parts of the city.

Bulgaria’s exhibition area at MITT this year was its largest ever at the event, 608 sq m. MITT is the fourth largest tourism expo in the world held before the summer season. In 2006 it was visited by almost 100 000 people, many of whom were tourist industry representatives.

Bulgaria takes part in the expo every year. This year, there were 60 applications from Bulgarian firms to take part. Advertisements promoting tourism in Bulgaria were published in leading Russian tourism magazines TTG-Russia and TourBusiness, part of a planned year-round advertising campaign for Bulgaria in the two magazines.

As with ITM, the Bulgarian stall was to include various demonstrations related to Bulgaria and its traditions.