A thousand corporate exhibitors have applied for today. Close on forty countries will be represented, and eighty out of Russia's total 89 regions, he said. However spacious, the uptown Gostiny Dvor exposition hall, which hosted the fair on the four previous occasions, will surely be too small to hold all. Things will improve next year, with another venue appointed to double the exposition area.
The nearest fair envisages a national conference on tourism-related education and vocational training, a seminar for regional tourist information center managers, and expert postgraduate courses, said Mr. Antyufeyev.
Federal Frontier Service statistics specify last year's number of foreign tourists in Moscow as 2,919,000-17 per cent more than in 2003.
Tourism revenues make close on 7 per cent of the municipal purse for now.
A municipal program is in blueprints to double the number of foreign tourists by 2010. Antyufeyev is more optimistic than its drafters, and says Moscow will strike the target in 2007 or 2008, at the latest.
