Tag Archives: St. Petersburg

We are pleased to announce the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with the St. Petersburg Convention Bureau. This is a step forward after we had a similar agreement with the Moscow City Tourism Corporation, where we agreed to promote Russia as a MICE-friendly destination for all of the movement coming from India. This is a bilateral movement because this understanding will promote MICE both within and outside of India. And Russia is looking for increased participation from Indian stakeholders because, given the current geopolitical situation in the world, India is Russia’s preferred source market. Similarly, as inbound tourists to our country, Russians have always been preferred. 

‘Welcome to St. Petersburg!’ roadshow was held in Mumbai and Delhi. St. Petersburg is open and ready to welcome  Indian tourists, with direct flights to Russia and payment mechanisms both for travel professionals and tourists.

From December 7 to 11, Russian Expo Days (RED) online exhibition for travel professionals from India will take place at russiadays.travel. Eight exhibitors have already confirmed their participation: St. Petersburg, Kamchatka, Krasnodar, Murmansk, Vladimir, Tula, Samara and Amur regions. In the framework of the RED business programme, there will be live sessions on e-visa, tax-free shopping, industrial tourism, and online presentations with travel businesses of Russia’s regions. All webinars and materials are available for free for all registered users. The website is constantly updated with new information and virtual stands of the exhibiting regions are already open. Join the event here: russiadays.travel.

The Russian Information Center in India recently announced an ‘India Friendly’ program to provide features and services that are required by Indian tourists when they are travelling in India or internationally. The program strives to ensure that the Indian traveller feels at home in Russia. Paresh Navani, Head of Russian Information Center in India, reveals, “The program covers various needs of the Indian traveller like Indian food options in the menu and for breakfast, electric kettle or hot water service in the hotel, bottled water in the room, English signboards, English-speaking staff, special vegetarian meals, sanitary requirements like water in toilets and many others.” The program is voluntary and will be provided by hotels, restaurants, cruise liners, museums and any other enterprise that provides tourism services in Russia. Certification will be provided by Russian Information Center in India post a series of tests for staff and audits conducted on-site in Russia. Already 25 hotels in Russian regions Moscow, St.Petersburg, Kazan, Sochi and Crimea have joined the program with brands like Park Inn, Radisson and Marriott. Navani adds, “Tourism to Russia is poised for the leap forward noting the interest and enthusiasm the travel trade showed for initiatives like the ‘India Friendly’ program, the reduction in the cost of visa fees by almost 40 per cent for Indian tourists by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, coupled with destination presentations we conduct for the travel trade to promote Russian tourism options. We aim to increase tourist flow from India by 50 per cent in this coming year.” Tourists from India in the nine-month period of 2015 was 39,832 which jumped to 47,152 in 2016, indicating a growth of …

Russia Tourism has signed a five-party agreement to promote the destination for tourism more aggressively in India. The document was signed on 30 September 2016 in St. Petersburg between: Northwest Regional Office of the Russian Union of the Tourist Industry (RUTI); co-founders of Russian Information Center (RIC) in India – Ekaterina Beliakova and Paresh Navani; Adviser on development projects coordinator ‘Visit Russia’ (Federal State Unitary Enterprise National Centre for Marketing Tourism Rostourism); Director-General of the Union of national and international tourist information organizations (SONATO); and St. Petersburg State University of Economics. The agreement focuses on increasing outbound tourist traffic from India to Russia and creation of comfortable conditions of stay in the country of Indian tourists. Navani, Co-Principle, RIC, explains, “RUTI will help RIC in organising the ground services when we roll out the India-friendly policy later this year. The university on the other hand will offer the training and certification to all service providers in Russia once RIC draws up the framework of the India-friendly policies, which is in the process.” The India-friendly policy will involve the tourism and hospitality industry in Russia.