THE annual Moscow MICE International Forum will likely take a break next year as economic woes in the country deepen and impact outbound travel appetite.
Kim Waddoup, the forum’s CEO who has been organising the trade event for the past 11 years, told TTGmice e-Weekly that there has been a “drastic fall” in demand for outbound tourism and the MICE sector “is a little bit quiet”.
The poor travel health has resulted in a lack of interest from exhibitors and participants, forcing Waddoup to consider skipping the 2016 edition.
Waddoup said the first three months of 2015 saw year-on-year outbound traffic plunge by 40 per cent.
He blamed the poor performance on the depreciating rouble and escalating airfaires that resulted from reduction of flights to Russia.
Also observing poorer performance in the Russian travel market this year is Judy Lum, group vice president for sales and marketing with Singapore’s Tour East Group. “Our booking activities (from Russia) are very much quieter than last year. There are still business coming through and these are essential government business groups or small meeting groups,” Lum remarked.
“The (Russian) economy is also suffering, the growing middle-class is cautious, and many travel agencies and tour operators have folded as a result,” she added.
Nevertheless, Waddoup encouraged MICE suppliers to keep an eye on the Russian market as there will be “pent-up demand” for travel when the economy recovers.
He said: “I cannot predict when the economy will recover but I do know that Russia is a resilient market and when it rebounds, it will rebound quickly.”
