The second day of the International Exhibition of Tourism and Hospitality Industry MITT has come to an end. A rich business program, a unique number of visitors and 8 hours of useful information - we tell you more in this news.
Conference Hall E hosted the MITT DIGITAL conference: Digital Tourism – Business Development in the Tourism Industry Using Modern IT Technologies. As part of the session "Trends and Analytics in the Tourism Industry", experts presented data on the behavior of travelers, the development of domestic tourism and changes in the work of tourism retail.
Andrey Danilin, industry leader in the Yandex Ads Travel category, spoke about trends and behavioral patterns of travelers based on search demand data. According to him, in 2025, users made 1 billion 190 million requests in the tourism category through Yandex, and the number of clicks increased by 24%. Hotel services remain the leader in terms of the share of requests - 36.8%.
Among foreign destinations, Turkey, Egypt, China, Thailand, the UAE and Vietnam are leading in the search. Among Russian destinations, users are most often looking for the Krasnodar Territory, the routes of the Golden Ring, the North Caucasus and Karelia.
According to the speaker, 3 out of 4 tourists choose to vacation only in Russia, and 51% of users save money for travel, which makes travel the main goal of savings. At the same time, 9 out of 10 people are ready for spontaneous trips, for example, if friends or family offer a joint trip or a tour at an attractive price.
User loyalty to booking services remains high: 42% have a favorite service. At the same time, a new trend is emerging — booking on marketplaces, the share of which is 19%.
Separately, the expert noted the growth of the solo tourism segment, where 56% are men, and the return of the leadership of air travel: 51% of travelers plan to fly by plane. Brand also plays an important role — 54% of users start their search with a branded query.
As examples of digital campaigns, Andrey Danilin cited the case of Pobeda and Yandex Advertising with the launch of digital outdoor advertising for the sale of air tickets, as well as the case of Sutochno.ru and Yandex Ads with video advertising. According to him, July and August remain the high season in the travel category.
Natalia Anisimova, an expert on domestic tourism, the creator of the Media Intelligence project, the director for the development of partner communications of the Tutu travel service, spoke about the development of domestic tourism.
She presented the results of a federal study of the Tutu travel service, conducted in November 2025 with the participation of 48 regions. According to regional forecasts, the growth of tourist traffic in 2025 was supposed to be 8-17%, but the actual average growth reached 10-21%. Above-average growth was noted by the Vologda region, Kalmykia and the Ryazan region. The expectations of the regions for the tourist flow in 2026, according to the speaker, are similar to those of 2025.
The key drivers of tourism development in the regions are natural and environmental potential, gastronomic tourism and the development of territorial brands (for example, the Baltic Cuisine brand), transport accessibility, the development of roadside infrastructure, new display facilities, tourist products and unique routes.
Among the barriers to tourism development, the study participants identified underdeveloped infrastructure, complex and expensive logistics, lack of accommodation facilities, lack of investors, business passivity, low quality of services, personnel shortages, lack of original tourism products and low brand recognition of the regions.
To promote tourism, regions most often use their own websites, social networks and chatbots.
The topic of travel retail was raised by Olesya Oleynikova, CPO and co-founder of the Profi.travel, with the report "Travel Agency Retail Without Filters: Sales, Tourist Preferences and Travel Agent Money – 2026". According to the Profi.Travel study, Russia ranks sixth in the world in terms of tourist spending abroad. At the same time, 49% of tourists buy tours in the offices of travel agencies, and 43% through aggregator services.
In almost all foreign destinations, the share of bookings through agencies is higher, while agency clients, as a rule, choose more expensive objects and services. The number of travel agencies in Russia continues to grow: by March 2026, there were 2300 more of them per year.
According to the results of a survey of travel agents, beach tours remain the best-selling, followed by excursion and health tours. Turkey, the UAE and Egypt are leading in sales plans for the summer, while interest in Vietnam has increased significantly. Almost all agencies book hotels through Russian tour operators. At the same time, travel agents began to use aggregators more often, especially those with B2B departments and special conditions for partners.
At the same time, domestic tourism is losing ground in agency sales. According to the speaker, sales of tours in Russia from agents have decreased: they work less with this destination due to independent tourists and direct discounts from hotels, as well as due to low commission and a limited choice of tourist products.
Travel agents themselves note that tourists are becoming more independent and economical, but the average check continues to grow. The average income of a travel agent is 75 thousand rubles, and market participants plan to increase their income by switching to a higher check. At the same time, a third of agents are purposefully looking for new niches for work.
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Meanwhile, in Hall F, at the business breakfast for hoteliers from TravelLine "The Universe of Hospitality: Launch Sales into Space", Yuri Kostin, Director of Tools Development at TravelLine, gave a speech entitled "Space Mission of the Hotel: Full Cycle of Managed Loading". The speaker began his speech with SiteMinder analytics, noting a global trend: online travel agencies (OTAs) have overtaken search engines as a starting point for planning trips. 26% of travelers start their search for hotels with OTAs (up from 18%) and 21% with search engines (up from 36%).
"People go to the usual services through which they are used to looking for hotels," said Yuri Kostin, urging hoteliers to make cards on these sites as attractive as possible. The role of recommendations and brands is growing, with searches based on the advice of friends and family growing from 7% to 14%, and searches starting with a well-known brand from 3% to 7%. Guests are looking for predictability and stability, and the path to booking becomes more difficult: customers check prices on marketplaces, social networks, and hotel websites before making a decision. 18% of users who start searching in channels end up booking directly with the hotel.
The key trend is the explosive growth in the popularity of artificial intelligence. If in 2024 only 1% of searches began with AI queries, now this figure has reached 4%. 80% of guests want to use AI when booking, most often for price tracking (44%). An analysis of the first two months of 2026 showed that guests have become extremely sensitive to price.
"As if we hit the ceiling of the price, above which the guests are not ready to pay," Yuri Kostin stated. Instead of playing with cost, he suggested "squeezing the most out of what you have, using the tools you have, and to some extent showing a fairly high degree of activity in order to quickly adjust to the events that are happening." The expert outlined a new cycle of interaction with customers - "SPUV", which stands for "Attract, Surprise, Learn and Return".
// Engage: website as the main sales channel
The share of direct sales in hotels today is 40-45%, in order to increase this figure, TravelLine has updated the "assistant" on the platform.
// Surprise: TailChat and 24/7 Service Sales
The main surprise tool is TL:Chat, which is an AI consultant trained on the data of a particular hotel. "It looks like a person who has already been to this hotel is sitting next to you and just telling you what is there for you," Yuri Kostin described his work. Chat answers 80% of guests' questions. In the process of finalization, the team faced non-standard requests, for example, a case with a cat: the chat faced a situation when the rules said "pets are allowed", but the administrator refused guests with cats on the spot. Now the AI clarifies who exactly is considered a pet. In addition, the platform integrates the sale of additional services (early check-in, spa, meals) right at the booking stage, which will allow hotels to earn 24/7 and save guests from queues.
//Discover: Smart Polls
The new feedback collection system collects information at three key moments: at check-in, after the first night, and after check-out. "If something goes wrong, it is important to find out about it quickly and correct this situation if possible," the speaker explains. AI analyzes even incomplete questionnaires and helps generate responses to reviews, saving staff time.
// Return: Loyalty, Referrals and Certificates
The loyalty program has ceased to be an advantage, becoming a necessity. A TravelLine study proved that loyal guests spend more, despite discounts: they are ready to buy more expensive rooms and additional services. A novelty is the referral program. Guests will be able to receive rewards (points, vouchers) for bringing friends, and newcomers will be able to receive bonuses when they first book. "Such a story is cheaper than attracting a guest through direct, through advertising," the speaker emphasized. Gift certificates will also appear in a single personal account. An interesting fact: even with a small number of hotels using this tool, in 2025, guests purchased certificates for 270 million rubles, and a significant part of them burns out, which brings additional profit to hotels.
Running a full cycle of managed loading yields tangible results. According to TravelLine:
// +8% (if you follow TL:Assistant's recommendations)
// -75% of the cost of attracting a guest (case of the Miracleon hotel)
// 90 days - guest return (instead of 140)
// -80% of guest questions (TL: Chat will take care of them, and you can focus on more important tasks).
According to the expert, "the cycle of managed loading, firstly, is the way to the heart of the guest, and secondly, it really brings money."
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The Sber Arena hosted a panel discussion "Russia and the Arab World: New Routes of Cooperation. From tourist flows to joint investments". The moderator was Yulia Maksutova, President of the Association of Russian-Arab Cooperation in the Field of Tourism and Investment.
The discussion focused on the growth of mutual interest between Russia and the countries of the Arab world. The Arab countries are becoming one of the most dynamic and promising destinations for outbound tourism from Russia, and the interest of Arab tourists in traveling to Russia is also growing. At the same time, the participants of the discussion noted that the key potential of cooperation lies not only in increasing tourist flows, but also in the formation of a common investment ecosystem for the development of the hospitality industry.
The participants discussed the possibilities of transforming the growing tourist interest into long-term partnerships - from the creation of joint tourism products and visa facilitation to direct investment in hotel infrastructure, services and digital solutions.
Ilya Umansky, President of the Russian Union of Tourism, Head of the Russian Union of Tourism Committee on Domestic Tourism, Director of the Alean Company, stressed the need to adapt the tourism product to the characteristics of specific markets. According to him, it is important to form an offer that can produce the maximum effect on new guests. "It is important for us to surprise for the first time and form a desire to come to Russia again," he said.
The expert also stressed the need to improve the level of service. According to him, tourists from Arab countries are not only solvent, but also demanding, so it is important to develop hotel infrastructure, family recreation formats, as well as provide a sufficient number of interpreters and guides, especially in the regions. In addition, Ilya Umansky noted that Arab partners are actively investing in tourism infrastructure, and their experience and investments could be useful for the development of tourism in Russia.
His Excellency Azzan Kassim Mohamed Al Busaidi, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Tourism of the Sultanate of Oman, reported on the growth of tourist traffic from Russia to Oman. According to him, this is facilitated by the steps of the states towards each other, visa simplifications, direct flights between countries, as well as the marketing promotion of the country in the Russian market. He noted the diversity of Oman's tourist product and expressed optimism about the future of tourist exchanges between the countries, despite the situation in the region.
Dr. Raja El-Ali, Deputy Chairman of the Russian-Moroccan and Russian-Kuwaiti Business Councils of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, noted that despite the difficult global situation, investments from Arab countries continue to grow.
Natalia Kostenko, Deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, stressed that the Arab countries are not yet among the largest investors in the Russian economy, where China occupies a leading position. She also drew attention to the importance of security issues, which are directly related to the development of tourism and investment activity. According to her, Russia and the Arab world are united by common values, and Islam is one of the popular religions in the country. As an example of possible cooperation, she cited the development of tourism infrastructure in the south of Russia, noting that the participation of Arab business, for example, in development in Anapa, could be useful for the regions.
Daria Kochetkova, CEO of the Ostrovok Group of Companies, noted the high interest of Arab guests in traveling around Russia. According to her, such tourists book hotels in advance and often choose rooms of a higher category, often with included meals and halal menu options. In addition to Moscow and St. Petersburg, there is a growing interest in destinations such as Murmansk.
She also recalled that after the departure of international booking services, it is necessary to more actively inform foreign guests about Russian platforms. At the same time, it is important to take into account the international experience in the development of inbound tourism, in particular the experience of Turkey, where state measures to support promotion are actively used. According to Daria Kochetkova, the company's service translates content and reviews into different languages and uses halal friendly standards, and also provides an opportunity to pay for accommodation both through the service and directly at the hotel.
Ismail Amer, Head of Inbound Tourism at the Ministry of Tourism of the Arab Republic of Egypt, shared his personal experience of visiting Russia. He noted that during his first trip in 2007, it was difficult for him to navigate, while today the country has become much more comfortable for travel. According to him, small details of the service play an important role, which greatly affect the impressions of Arab tourists. He also stressed the need to strengthen marketing campaigns to show the Arab world the diversity of Russian attractions and form long-term relationships with tourists.
Natalia Lukyanova, Minister of Tourism of the Tver Region, spoke about the potential of the region to receive Arab tourists. According to her, an ecologically clean area and a large number of forests can become a point of attraction for guests. The region has already held four info tours, participated in foreign exhibitions, organized training events for business and provided financial support to the industry. A three-day tourist route in the Tver region has been developed. The Zavidovo resort with a large water park and yacht club is already receiving Arab tourists and receiving feedback. It is also planned to build an Encore Resort on the banks of the Volga, which was presented in Dubai.
Mohamad Youssef Atrash, General Director of PREMIUM GALAXY LLC, noted that the tourist flow is significantly influenced by major international events. According to him, Arab tourists like the variety of Russian cuisine, including dishes familiar to them. Among the difficult issues, he named payment for services and obtaining SIM cards, as well as difficulties with online payments in Russia.
Evgeny Zhukov, CEO of Z.Brothers Chauffeur Service Worldwide, spoke about the role of transport services in serving foreign guests. The company is engaged in logistics and VIP customer service, paying great attention to driver training so that tourists feel comfortable and safe. According to him, transport is a strategic element of tourism infrastructure. At the same time, he noted that many Arab guests are accustomed to German car brands, while in Russia today Chinese cars are mainly used. When receiving large delegations, it becomes difficult to provide everyone with the usual brands of cars, so market participants have to adapt to new conditions.
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Hall A hosted a panel session "Independent Tourism: Betting on Growth" with the participation of key players in the tourism market and representatives of specialized associations. Experts discussed how travel trends have changed, what role travel aggregators play in the development of regions, and what consumers actually expect from them. Opening the meeting, the speakers noted a radical change in the preferences of Russian tourists: if earlier beach resorts were in the main demand, now the situation is changing.
"It is unlikely that this type of client will reorient himself to rest in Sochi or Anapa. Most likely, we will travel in a different format. We saw a very strong growing trend for agritourism: visiting farms, festivals, local holidays in small towns," said one of the speakers, stressing that country tourism and glampings will gain momentum.
Experts called the information vacuum one of the main problems in the development of domestic tourism. Igor Sivets, a member of the board of directors of the Tutu travel service, gave a vivid example: "If you ask what can be done in Ulyanovsk, people do not know. And this is an amazing region. There is yachting, industrial tourism, ecoparks with marmots. And the flight is only an hour from Moscow."
According to him, people choose the usual destinations like Antalya or Egypt, because "everything is clear" there. Russia is so large that hundreds of regions simply do not fit in the head of a tourist. To remove this barrier, aggregators are launching large-scale media projects. "After each trip, the region receives from 5 to 20 million coverage. That is, from 5 to 20 million people learn about the regions. The regions are queuing up for us," said Igor Sivets.
Answering the question about the benefits of aggregators for the regions, Vladislava Sakina, Commercial Director of the Avito Travel Technology Platform, focused on expanding the offer. In many interesting places, the number of rooms is underdeveloped, and online platforms help to cover this need at the expense of private housing.
However, the main problem of the private segment is unpredictability. "When you choose a private segment and come to some Torzhok or Vytegra, you never know what awaits you. Surprise. Is it a good surprise? A big question," the speaker said.
It is here, according to experts, that the role of the aggregator becomes critical. The platforms take responsibility for verifying the objects. "We inspect each object with video checks, so that when you arrive, it is not "quite right," Vladislava Sakina explained. This work to build trust and safety has been identified as one of the key missions of modern travel platforms.
During the discussion, considerable attention was paid to the psychology of the consumer. Yulia Mikhaleva, Deputy Head of Roskachestvo, cited research data: 32% of consumers consider it critically important to have free cancellation, and a third pay attention to cashback in the first minutes. In addition, 61% of tourists are faced with the fact that the reality in hotels does not correspond to the declared stars.
However, the main expectation from services lies in a different plane. Participants agreed that the modern user is overloaded with choices. "How many of you order products for delivery? You find yourself in a huge abyss of choice. I don't want to browse through 300 sausages to pick one. Choice is psychologically stressful," the representative of Avito Travel shared, drawing an analogy with tourism.
In her opinion, the user wants to delegate this stress to the platform. "This story is about "reading minds". So that the platform produces the most relevant result. I want a glamping with a view of the lake, with the ability to bring a crocodile, and I want it tomorrow," she concluded.
The introduction of artificial intelligence, according to the participants, should be aimed precisely at this - simplifying the choice. However, as Evgeny Abramzon, head of Yandex Travel, noted, the consumer himself "does not expect" AI as a technology, he is waiting for a specific result — for his trip to develop quickly, safely, and with minimal effort on his part.
A separate topic was the discussion of the situation in the Russian market, which is unique for the world: after the departure of Booking.com, a dense competitive environment of several strong domestic players was formed. "In our country, having left Russia, they have created space for a competitive environment. We compete with each other, but how can we compete? Only by improving the quality, introducing promotions and making more profitable offers," the speaker said.
According to him, this race makes all participants "run three times faster", which benefits both business and, as a result, tourists. "With such a high-tech race, the quality is growing at an incredible pace," he stated.
The participants of the discussion came to the conclusion that the current market model, despite the abundance of players, creates healthy competition. Everyone strives to come up with a unique selling proposition, but any successful solution quickly becomes the industry standard, forcing everyone to move on.
Summing up, moderator Alexander Bragin, Director of the Association of Travel Aggregators (ATAG), expressed the hope that the current competitive environment will continue to develop for the benefit of the consumer, helping him to overcome "competition with the sofa" and discover new corners of Russia.
A panel discussion "Discover Your Russia: Development of Inbound Tourism" was held in Hall D. The co-organizer was the Agency for Strategic Initiatives. Moderator — Olga Shandurenko, Director of Tourism Projects of the Urban Economy Division of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives.
Alexander Biba, President of the Cosmos Hotel Group, noted how the situation of interaction with the regions of Russia has improved in recent years. The speaker also spoke about the development of the company's internal products, internal brands, and hotel infrastructure in the regions.
Oleg Kochug, Director of the Center for International Tourism Development of the Center for Strategic Research, spoke about the national tourism brand Discover Russia, which allows you to comprehensively combine the country's tourism potential for promotion in foreign markets. The speaker noted that the brand is an ecosystem that has already been joined by 60 regions of Russia, and also spoke about the brand portfolio, the regional identity system and ecosystem tools.
Elena Litvishchenko, Deputy Head of the Public Diplomacy Department of Rossotrudnichestvo, spoke similarly about the New Generation program. The program includes short-term study trips to Russia for young representatives of political, public, scientific and business circles of foreign countries aged 14-40 years. The program has been operating since 2011, and during this time more than 11 thousand people from 150 countries of the world have visited Russia. The speaker also shared areas of work and plans for 2026.
Maria Trofimova, Director of the Department of Consumer Market and Tourism of the Tyumen Region, spoke about the thermal resorts of the region. The speaker noted the transport accessibility of the region, the competitive advantages of the tourist product, including the health effect and diversity of the product, and also spoke about promotion tools and tourist routes for different categories of foreign tourists.
In conference hall F, the Big Legal Workshop "TOURISM AND LAW" of the legal agency "Persona Grata" was held. The moderator was Ekaterina Golubeva, Head of the Legal Department of the Committee on Travel Agency Activities of the Russian Union of Travel Agencies, Partner Lawyer of the Law Firm "Persona Grata".
Georgy Mokhov, Vice President of the Russian Union of Travel Industry, founder of the Legal Agency "Persona Grata", shared the latest changes in the legal field of the tourism industry:
// Legal reform of the classification of accommodation facilities - the inclusion of recreation centers, mini-hotels, campsites and glampings.
// Standards for guest houses - the introduction of a self-assessment system for guest houses, the process is only gaining momentum.
// Amendments to the Administrative Code (Article 14.39 "Violation of the Requirements of the Legislation on the Provision of Accommodation Services" and Article 14.51 "Violation of the Legislation of the Russian Federation on Tourist Activities").
// Changing the concept of a tourist product.
Among the projects in the industry are a project to create a register of tourist aggregators, a bill on tourist trails, a bill on additional requirements for guides and tour guides, and others. The speaker also noted the new rules for the provision of hotel services that came into force on March 1, 2026.
Alexander Osaulenko, Director of the Association of Tour Operators in the Field of Outbound Tourism "Turpomoshch", noted the rules for the return of funds to tourists from the fund by the personal responsibility of the tour operator when canceling tours and commented on the work of existing mechanisms in the industry over the past few years.
Ekaterina Golubeva commented on the changes in the new version of Part 11 of Article 10 of Law 553-FZ, the nuances of the application of VAT benefits for tour operators and changes in the law on personal data.
The discussion was also attended by Yulia Alcheeva, Director of the branch of RSO EUROINS LLC, and Inna Rudenskaya, Head of the Legal Department of the Last-Minute Vouchers Shop travel agency network.
Within the framework of the MITT Digital Hotel Conference on Business Development in the Hospitality Industry Using Modern IT Technologies, a panel discussion "Digitalization and Personalization: How Technologies Are Changing the Accommodation Services Market" was held. Experts discussed the payback of digital solutions in the face of economic instability, process automation with maximum ROI, the effectiveness of artificial intelligence tools in personalizing services, the limits of AI in the hotel business, and training staff to work with new technologies. The discussion was moderated by Alexey Musakin, Head of the Committee on Infrastructure Projects of the Russian Union of Tourism, Managing Partner of Cronwell Hospitality Group.
Anastasia Molochkova, Executive Director of the Sber Tourism Business Management Directorate, noted that it is easier for small hotels to work with guest data, since they receive information faster and can use it to personalize the service. According to her, guests are attracted by hyper-personalization. "You can collect a lot of information through CRM systems, but no one has canceled the human approach," she stressed.
Ekaterina Kursova, project manager for the development of tools for working with guests at TravelLine, noted that routine and frequent tasks should be automated, and employees should be transferred to more creative tasks that artificial intelligence cannot cope with. She also drew attention to the importance of working with the content of the hotel website. According to her, the site should be structured and adapted to work with AI. Creating a website once is not enough – it needs to be regularly updated and adapted, since it is the structure and content that algorithms pay attention to when analyzing content.
Elena Vysokovskikh, CEO of Comfort Booking, spoke about how consumer behavior is changing against the backdrop of the spread of AI. According to her, more and more guests are looking for hotels through artificial intelligence tools. "The more places the hotel is represented in, the better," she said. At the same time, according to her, it is important that information about the hotel is equally presented on different sites and inspires confidence in AI. If emotions and visual images used to play an important role, now accurate and structured information is more important for algorithms. She also suggested that hotels check how they appear in the results of AI queries by searching on behalf of their target audience.
Konstantin Spoludenny, Project Director of Rostelecom, noted the great potential of the tourism market. According to him, the company is traditionally present in the industry, but not in full, so now there is an adaptation of existing services to the needs of the hospitality industry. "We have begun to tweak our product to adapt our existing services and create solutions that will be chosen by hotels," he said. At the same time, Rostelecom strives to develop universal services that can become part of the ecosystem without limiting the variety of solutions on the market.
Dmitry Arnaut, CEO of Book Online, stressed the importance of direct selling for the hotel business. According to him, it is this channel that provides hotels with the highest margins. At the same time, many hotels declare their desire to develop direct sales, but do not always clearly understand what tools are needed for this. The expert noted that each user who comes to the hotel website requires investment. Therefore, it is important to take into account different promotion channels — not only SEO, but also contextual advertising and other tools. According to him, technology companies can give recommendations, but the sales development strategy should be formed by the hotel itself.
The most important and final event of the second day was the award ceremony for the participants of the MITT 2026 exhibition at the Sber Arena.
The winners of MITT 2026 in the following categories are:
// Expert of the MITT Connect online community — Dialogue of Peoples
// MITT Connect Online Community Expert – The Pearl Hoi An
// Expert of the MITT Connect online community — Route.Business
// The most inspiring destination is Oman
// Best National Stand - Egypt
// Best New Entrant - Namibia
// For Outstanding Presentation of the Country's Tourism Potential – China
// For many years of cooperation – Uzbekistan
// Spirit of Travel Award - Armenia
// International Country Spotlight Award – Da Nang (Viet Nam)
// Bright debut — Daichi
// For many years of cooperation – Novgorod Rus
// The point of attraction is Chuvashia
// The main mood is St. Petersburg
// Honorary participating region — Buryatia
// The legend of the exhibition — Krasnodar
// Strategic tourist region – Dagestan
// Best Representation of a Russian Region - Sakhalin
// The Land of Adventures and Tastes – Kamchatka
// For spectacular participation in the exhibition – the Atom Museum
// The most active participant is Tatarstan
The awards were presented by Maxim Shilov, director of the MITT exhibition.