The 12th annual Moscow International Travel Fair (Intourmarket-2017) was held at the Crocus Expo International Exhibition Centre in Moscow from March 11 to 13, 2017. 

    The Hunan Provincial Tourism Development Committee brought 12 people from eight exhibitors to showcase Hunan tourism. Hunan had the largest number of booths and participants of the 13 Chinese provinces, autonomous region or municipalities that attended. 

    During the 3-day event, more than 50,000 people visited Hunan’s booths. More than 12,000 copies of Hunan tourism publicity materials were given out. This is a new step in Hunan’s promotion of itself to the world as a tourist destination. 

    Intourmarket-2017 is the most influential tourism event in CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries. It attracted 93 countries and Russian regions. 

    Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Vitaly Mutko, Head of the Federal Agency for Tourism, Oleg Safonov, and other guests attended the opening ceremony and visited Hunan’s booths. 

   On the morning of March 11, Director of the Russian Office of the China National Tourism Administration, Zhao Hongqing, visited Hunan’s booths and commented. Tourism sector Directors of Russian regions and the CIS countries exchanged views with Hunan exhibitors. 

   On the afternoon of March 11, the Hunan delegation met with Deputy Director of the Federal Agency for Tourism, and held an in-depth discussion on red tourism (revolutionary site tourism) cooperation between Hunan and Russia. The Hunan delegation also exchanged views on red tourism with a delegation led by Ulyanovsk Oblast (an administrative division or region in Russia) Governor Sergei Morozov. They exchanged gifts. Ulyanovsk Oblast, birthplace of Lenin, established a sister-province tie with Hunan.