It seems that many Ukrainian businessmen don’t give up the hope to make money with the help of European Football Championship despite the general economic situation. We have already reported about the problem of high prices in the Ukrainian hotels. It is possible that because of this, Ukraine lost the right to accommodate national teams and football supporters during the upcoming European Championship. Almost all participants decided to stay in Poland.

 It is getting the impression that not only greedy hoteliers but also some of the Ukrainian exhibition organizers will try to earn super profits on Euro 2012.

For example, the Ukrainian International Travel & Tourism exhibition 2012 (UITT) will be held in Kyiv from the 28^th March till the 30^th March.  PREMIER EXPO is its co-organizer.

It is known from the organizers’ websites that more than 400 companies have already announced its participation in this exhibition.  It should be noted that last year more than 500 companies took part in it.

Taking into account the fact that Ukraine joined the world's top 10 tourist destinations in 2012, one should be expected more activity from the participants of the tourism market. And travel exhibition is a good opportunity for the travel agents to make a name for themselves. So what’s the problem? What keeps down the travel industry players to introduce themselves on the specialized event? Perhaps, it is because of the price, established by the organizers for participation in the exhibition.

For example, we know that in order to rent a square meter at the UITT exhibition, Ukrainian tour operators should pay 220 EUR for the unequipped stand area. Or they can pay 260 EUR for the area equipped with a stand. Foreign exhibitors will be offered to pay 280-350 EUR. In other words the price for the stand of 20 square meters will range from 4400 EUR to 7000 EUR.

Let us recall that Ukrainian stand of 400 square meters cost 200.000 UAH at ITB Berlin, at recent travel trade show in Berlin. In other words it is about 50 EUR per one square meter. And this is almost five times cheaper than the cost of one square meter from PREMIER EXPO. In this connection there is a fair question: where is Europe and where is Ukraine?  And maybe the appetites of PREMIER EXPO are too excessive.

Of course, PREMIER EXPO is a commercial organization and can set any price for its services. On the other hand, Euro 2012 is the national idea, and the whole country works for the success of this project. Some farsighted businessmen make every effort not only to earn money during the championship, but also to show foreigners that Ukraine is the country, which can be also interesting after the football championship. Fair price for goods and services is one of the components for the touristic success of any country.

It seems that the current tourist exhibition organizers are proud that, according to the website, President Viktor Yanukovych and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov support this exhibition. We have read the welcome letters of the highest state officials to the address of the last year travel exhibition. And we want to note that the expectations and wishes of the state leaders expressed in their welcome letters do not meet the current realities of business-practice of exhibition organizers. For example, what can foreign tour operators think if they are offered to pay several times more than in Europe? What kind of investment will come here with such prices?  About what kind of tourist attraction can we speak with such price policy?

It must be noted that at the same time in conditions of the second wave of crisis many exhibition organizers are trying to lure customers with the help of low prices and flexible terms of cooperation.

For example, at the biggest international exhibitions in Southeast Asia a square meter of leased space for the foreign participants in general can cost up to EUR 35.

Unfair and too high prices of Ukrainian exhibition organizers suggest an idea that businessmen are trying to use the chance before the European Football Championship not caring about the image of the country instead of to implement flexible schemes for of cooperation with travel industry representatives

Perhaps, such approach will provoke a further reduction in the number of willing to participate in such kind of exhibitions