At the 8th annual ceremony of the Russian Business Travel & MICE Awards (RBT&MA) 2017, held in Moscow, the Malta Tourism Authority office in Moscow was announced as the winner of “The best national tourism office or convention bureau in the field of MICE promotion”. The award was received by Mr. Anthony Caruana, MTA representative in Moscow and Dr. Carmel Brincat Malta’s Ambassador for the Russian Federation.
The award is recognition of the excellent work being done by the MTA and Conventions Malta in Moscow, who fought off competitors such as Spain, Italy, Israel, Germany, as well as various Russian regions.
The Russian Business Travel & MICE Award is an award for the best companies and enterprises in the sphere of business tourism and MICE. This award was established in 2010 by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, Business Travel magazine and Conference.ru portal and is supported by the Federal Agency for Tourism of the Russian Federation and is considered as the most prestigious award in its category in Russia.
The award covers all participants of the business tourism market. In its framework, the best congress hotels in Moscow, St. Petersburg and the regions of the country, the best congress centres, organizers of conferences and incentive programs in Russia and abroad, business travel agencies, online booking systems, airlines for business-travellers, convention-bureaux.
Over 200 nominees vied for the prestigious award with the winners being chosen over two stages. The first stage took place online, over a period of three months, with 2 million Internet votes being submitted in 14 categories.
In order to determine the winners, a council of experts was formed, bringing together market experts, leading Russian and international companies - large customers of business travel services and MICE. The specialization of companies, representatives of which are members of the expert council, covers the most diverse market sectors - aviation, defence industry, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications and others.
MTA CEO, Paul Bugeja said “this prestigious award is an honour for the Maltese Islands and winning it ahead of reputable competitors is representative of the Authority’s hard work. This award also pays tribute to the effort which the local stakeholders, in particular the Destination Management Companies, have put in to promoting this market”. Mr. Bugeja concluded by thanking all those involved in Russia for their hard work, such as the Maltese Ambassador to Russia as well as the MTA office, as well as those in Malta that aid in this promotion, as without their effort, this would not have been possible.
Photo Caption (left to right): Carmel Brincat, Ambassador for Malta in Russia, Anthony Caruana, Malta Tourism Authority representative in Moscow and Ivan Kalashnikov CEO of "Turbusiness" publishing house.