Exhibition World Supplements Russia Supplement | Page 6

Moscow
oscow is the capital of the
Russian Federation and is its
major political, economic,
financial, cultural, religious, educational,
and transportation centre. The city
stands on the Moskva River and has a
population of over 12m.
The wider Central Federal District
region also ranks among the leading
regions of Russia economically.
The capital is a centre of machine-
building, chemical, light and polygraphic
industries – all strong sectors for
exhibitions.
Moscow’s foreign trade turnover
in 2017 was US$248bn and the city’s
historic and cultural backdrop is a great
pull for visitors, with famous sights
including the Kremlin, Red Square,
St Basil’s, The Bolshoi Ballet and a
whole range of theatres, galleries and
cultural institutions (Moscow has 450
museums). Add to that the wedding-cake
buildings and ornate Metro system,
while Ostankino Tower is the tallest free-
standing structure in Europe.
Moscow will mark 2019 as the Year of
the Theatre in Russia, with 92 separate
events planned, including 12 major
festivals.
Over 125m people visited Moscow’s
famous Park Kultury last year, which
alone hosted 13,200 events.
And tourist figures are rising, up 8.8%
last year to reach 23.5m, according to the
capital’s tourism chiefs. International
visitors made up 5.5m of that figure.
Top countries of origin for the foreign
tourists were: 1. China (803,000). 2.
Germany (321,900). 3. France (149,300). 4.
Israel (144,000). 5. USA (137,800).
6
Supplement
Russia’s
captivating
capital
Gazprom, the largest extractor
of natural gas in the world and the
largest Russian company, has its head
offices in Moscow, while the capital
also hosts headquarters of many
telecommunication and technology
companies, including 1C, ABBYY, Beeline,
Kaspersky Lab, Mail.Ru Group, MegaFon,
MTS, Rambler&Co, Rostelecom, Yandex,
and Yota.
A recent tendency has seen some of
the heavier type industrial enterprises
being transferred out of the city to
improve the city’s ecology.
Travel hub
Moscow is served by a major transit
network and has four international
airports. There is no small internal flight
network, linking the city to regional
centres in a country that boasts 11 time
zones.
The Moscow Metro is the fourth
largest in the world and rail links are
extensive.
The FIFA World Cup boosted the
foreign visitor numbers by 71% last
year and Moscow’s rapport built with
the football fans was helped by a special
tourist police, trained to speak the major
foreign languages. There are also free-
to-call tourist information call centres.
The city hosted 12 matches of the 2018
FIFA World Cup, a global event hailed as
a major success.
On the business tourism front,
Moscow is also ramping up its
participation in international tourism
trade events and forums, including
IBTM World, MITT in Moscow, ITB Asia,
World Travel Market and WTM Latin
America, Arabian Travel Market, as
well as a major roadshow in Asia and
participation in tourism expos in Beijing
(BITE) and Hong Kong (ITE & ITE MICE).
Today’s Moscow skyline reflects the
drive to modern development, with
rows of skyscrapers in the Moscow
International Business Centre and
Moscow-City representing the fast
recent tempo of economic and financial
development.
Exhibition activity
In terms of tradefairs, 22 exhibition
organisers and members of RUEF
engage in exhibition activity in Moscow.
In 2018, these companies organised
142 exhibitions with total net space of
742,196sqm. These tradefairs attracted a
total of 34,514 exhibitors and drew 2.2m
visitors to their events.
Major international exhibition
organisers work with the capital’s big
three centres we highlight on page
8 – ExpoCentre, Crocus and VDNH – all
portals for doing business in the wider
region.
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