The city tourist information Bureau summed up the results of excursion

The round table "Results of 2019 on the problems of guides and guides-interpreters" was held on Friday, November 29.

"At present, St. Petersburg is the leader of the tourism industry in the Russian Federation, a world tourist destination that consistently attracts millions of guests from all over Russia and abroad," Anna Zolotova, acting head of the Department of regional and international projects of the city Committee for tourism development, opened the event. She noted the merits of the guests present, representatives of the tourist community and experts of the region, and told that by the end of 2019, the KRT expects more than 9 million tourist arrivals.

The increase in the number of guides and guides-interpreters was also mentioned: at the moment more than 6 thousand specialists are accredited, twice as many as in Moscow.

Svetlana Yurieva, Deputy Director of St. Petersburg state University "City tourist information Bureau" for excursion activities, highlighted the main and most interesting aspects of the work carried out. They have become closely associated with such areas as children's tourism, industrial tourism and pilgrimage tourism. "2019 was a difficult year, like the previous one. But there is still a lot of work ahead of us, " the Deputy Director of GTIB summed up the speech.

Chairman of the Commission on industry, economy and entrepreneurship Ksenia Terentyeva reminded the tourist community to fully support and promote the draft law on certification of guides and guides-interpreters. The bill is extremely important for the industry, as it helps to increase the level of quality of services provided to travelers.

Anton Gromov, head of the Department of excursion activities of the institution, dwelt on the results of the activities of the GTIB for 2019 in more detail. According to him, the offices and pavilions of GTIB this year appealed more than 160 thousand times. Of this number, almost 80 thousand are foreign tourists, more than 81 thousand are Russian — speaking. The mobile service "AskMe SPb/I know the city" was contacted more than 10 thousand times, of which 7 thousand appeals from Russian-speaking tourists and 3 thousand from foreign ones.

For 9 months of 2019, GTIB employees processed 1.2 thousand applications for accreditation of guides and guides translators. Accreditation received 1,1 thousand.

The excursion activity of the institution was awarded the VI all-Russian tourist award "Route of the year" 2019. So, developed by the Bureau together with partners routes " Fire Baltic squadron. January 44th" and "Bering in St. Petersburg" received the 2nd place in the nomination "the Best military-historical route" and a special diploma "for the preservation of historical memory", respectively. Children's guide "Walking in St. Petersburg with a cat Waffle" took 3rd place in the category "Best tourist guide".

Nikita Zhiltsov, Deputy Director General of GTIB for development and analytical activities, reminded about the introduction of the e-visa regime for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. According to his statistics, as of November 25, 2019, almost 50 thousand electronic visas were issued to citizens of 50 countries. 31.5 thousand foreigners used them for entry. The leaders in entry were citizens of Estonia (14.1 thousand received, 10.5 thousand entered), Latvia (5.3 thousand received, 4.1 thousand entered), Finland (4.3 thousand received, 2.7 thousand entered) and Germany (3.8 thousand received, 2.3 thousand entered). Citizens of only 2 countries — Andorra and the Vatican-did not apply for an e-visa.

Other important events for tourism in Russia were changes in the Federal laws "on the basics of tourist activity in the Russian Federation" and "on freedom of conscience and religious associations". The definition of a pilgrim and pilgrimage activity was given, and the exclusive right to organize such activities was granted to religious organizations. This was told by Mikhail Shastin, head of the cultural and pilgrimage center of the St. Petersburg diocese.

Also, representatives of two new, but already recognized by travelers and citizens, attractions — the regular route retrotramvaya with the number 1 and the Museum of bridges, as well as the State literary Museum "XX century" - had the opportunity to make presentations of the tourist potential within the round table.