15th International Travel Fair
"LEISURE WITHOUT BORDERS. SUMMER 2011"
Manege Central Exhibition Hall, St. Petersburg
(1, St. Isaacs Sq.)

Leisure without borders. Summer 2011 15th exhibition was held at Manege Central Exhibition Hall from 7 till 10 of April.

All these years the exhibition was successfully developing, the number of participants has triple increased. The geography of participants has also expanded. This year the exhibition was attended by 10500 visitors.
Over 287 companies from Russia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Greece, Germany, Cyprus, Israel, Spain, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Turkey, Malta, Portugal, Tunisia, Romania, Estonia, Czech Republic provided travel offers for children and students, out-of-town leisure, cruises, bus tours and weekend trips, offers for May holidays, resorts and spas, etc.

Greek was represented by Rhodes Windsurfing, Kitesurfing and Sailing Academy.

Among exhibitors there were a great number of popular travel companies, such as: Anex tour, Ascent travel, Aurinkomatkat, Balkan Express, Bristol tour, Coral travel, Mostravel, Neva, Pegas touristik, St.PiterLine, Avatara, Rossiya Airlines, Almatour SPb, Atlas, ALS, Aeroflot, Aerotravel, Versa, West Travel, Vilar Tours, Natali Tours, Nica, PAC Group, Solvex, Multitour, Muzenidiz, Expo Tour, Meteors travel, Flamingo, Blue Bird Plus and many others.

This year Malta Tourism Authority for the first time took part in the exhibition.
The geography of regional participants has also expanded: not only exhibition regular participants such as St. Petersburg, Leningrad region Moscow and Krasnodar kraj but such regions of Russia as Vologda region, Irkutsk region, Kostroma region, Karelia, Smolensk region, Tver region, Tula region, Ulianovsk region, Yaroslavl region were represented this year.

The official opening ceremony of Leisure without borders. Summer 2011 exhibition was participated by: I. Petrachev, Chairman of the Committee for Youth Policy and Interaction with Social Organisations, Nikolay Isaev, Head of Tourism Infrastructure Development Department of the Committee for Investments and Strategic Projects of St. Petersburg, Raisa Kartasheva, Executive Director of National Tourism Academy, Natalia Lukicheva, representative of exhibition partner TAP Portugal company in St. Petersburg, Vladimir Shirokih, Head of Resorts and Turism Office of Sochi Administration, Sergey Korneev, Vice-President of the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RUTI), Natalia Garshina, Director of National Fund of Support for business and tourism, Yuriy Kuznetsov, President of the National Business and Tourism Support Fund, Arnold Rish, President of St. Petersburg Association of tourism-excursion enterprises employers (ATEP), Igor Kirsanov - Managing Director of RESTEC® Exhibition Company, Lyudmila Ivanova, Managing Director of JSC "St. Petersburg Express" and other honorable guests.

In the welcome speeches announced at the official opening ceremony Leisure without borders. Summer 2011 congratulations on 15-years of the exhibition, was marked as a steadily growing project and the most popular among citizens and guests of St. Petersburg. All the attended thanked the Organising Committee, congratulated participants and exponents on the event opening and wished all the travel industry experts fruitful work, and hot summer to tourists. Such companies, as Solvex, Trek Star, Baltijskiy Bereg, West Travel, Itertransavia, Lensey, Petropolitana Tour, who take part in the exhibition more than 15 years were presented diploma and were thanked with warm words.

New sections of the exhibition.

The first Medical Tourism specialized exhibition took place: private and specialised medical clinics and centers, plastic surgery clinics, centers of aesthetic and rehabilitation medicine, medical associations, rehabilitation and health centers, medical providers, insurance companies, trade press.
The section Summer holidays for children and students organised by the Committee for Youth Policy and Integration with Social Organisations presented an exposition of some of the best summer recreation camps, at the section Fair of travel events were presented a rich cultural program for summer season around St. Petersburg.

Business program.

Traditionally the first two days of the exhibition were devoted to seminars, presentations of participating companies for travel industry experts and visitors in the conference halls. This year the business program composed 12 events – among which there were presentations about Portugal, presentations made by Coral travel, Petropolitana Tour, Spectrum Avia and Aeroflot, master-classes from Multitour, Sunmar Tour and quizzes from Terra incognita, Eurolines Lux Express, Maritime park hotel, Airbaltic, Neringa hotel, Lermitage hotel.

Following the tradition, there were organised a great number of drawings, quizzes and gifts provided by participating companies.

On April 9th the action The Whole World organised by Trade Union Travel Company among readers of the Metro newspaper was resumed. The action participants were supposed to answer questions published in the newspaper; the main prize – a weekend voucher to Tallin provided by Central Traveling and Exursion Bureau company and Baltic Shuttle company.

In search of Treasure action which is already have become a traditional took place on April 9th, A happy winner of a weekend in Lamanga club Hotel in Spain provided by Lamanga club Hotel and Calypso travel agency was Elena Radyukova, the winner of In search of Treasure action. The adventurers supposed to follow the map route with exponents’ logos, gather all the prompts, compose the key phrase and…get the main prize! 70 people took part in this action.

On April 10th there was held a traditional drawing of prizes provided by exhibitors for visitors.
A Children Club was organised where parents could leave their children who were given a master class on making toys from St. Petersburg Dolls museum or where they can have fun at the trampoline provided by "Air Palace" company.

I, personally, as the Cyprus Tourism Organisation, would like to express my gratitude for good organization and assistance in holding exhibition events for all the years of our cooperation. Both company and the persona1 working there always show their good lever and professional skills.
MariaMikhailova,
Marketing Manager, St. Petersburg Office of Cyprus Tourism Organisation.

The exhibition organisers express their deep appreciation to their partners for support in organising the exhibitions Leisure without borders. Summer 2011 and wish a successful summer season to all participants and a unique summer to the visitors.

We invite you to participate in Leisure without borders. Summer 2012
on April 12-15, 2012 in the Central Exhibition Hall Manege, St. Petersburg.