Travel And Tour World: How is the event industry trying to resume its activities after hit by the pandemic?

Maria Polkovnikova: The event industry is one of the hardest hit during the pandemic, so we have been forced to reschedule many of our events and reduce the number of employees.

Even after the easing of restrictions and obtaining official permission to hold exhibitions, it was not easy for us to resume our activities. But we managed it. Since the company did not stop working for a day, we regularly called up partners and colleagues, held small online events to resolve common issues.

Additionally, we have updated all our resources and added information about the work of exhibitions in the post-pandemic period, but in general, the preparation process has not changed much.

Travel And Tour World: What are the events that ITECA has on its cards for the year 2022?

Maria Polkovnikova: This year, ITECA will traditionally hold 25 large-scale B2B exhibitions in various sectors – tourism, oil and gas, food industry, transport and logistics and many others. The other events around the corner are KITF, KIOSH, TRAVEL EXPO 2022etc.

Travel And Tour World: What measures are you taking for organising safe and successful events in future?
Maria Polkovnikova: Limited number of visitors in the pavilions, availability of masks and sanitizers and passages between stands are increased. We have also drawn up detailed rules for visiting and participating in exhibitions during the post-pandemic period. Only visitors with a green status, which is indicated in the special ASHYQ application, are allowed to the exhibitions.

Travel And Tour World: What are your future plans for contributing to the economic growth of the event industry?

Maria Polkovnikova: We are a modern and progressive company, which occupies one of the leading positions among exhibition companies in Central Asia. By attracting a quality audience of exhibitors and visitors, our events directly impact mutually beneficial trade relationships, both domestically and abroad. Also, we contribute to the development of MICE tourism in Kazakhstan.

Travel And Tour World: Any technological upgrading in your events?

Maria Polkovnikova: During our events, we use an automatic system for counting the number of visitors in each of the pavilions. We only allow a certain number of people to enter the pavilions in order to avoid crowds. Also, we use local application- ASHYQ, which reflects the sanitary status of the visitor.

Travel And Tour World: Where do you aspire to see ITECA in the years to come?

Maria Polkovnikova: Our company has always strived for high-quality results, so in the near future we plan not only to completely overcome all pandemic difficulties, but also to improve the results of our most successful events. We want to pay more attention to the content on our resources, introduce new digital tools and we also hope that new events for the Central Asian B2B market will appear in our portfolio.