Tourist information Bureau of St. Petersburg summed up the results

St. Petersburg is becoming more and more popular with both foreign and Russian tourists from year to year. New achievements in the field of hospitality in recent years were told at the round table "Results of tourist tourism-2019". The event is held annually by the "City tourist information Bureau" Of the Committee for tourism development of St. Petersburg and gathers leading representatives of the tour industry of the Northern capital.

E-visas and EURO 2020 will attract new tourists

"St. Petersburg is actively developing the tourism sector as one of the main points of growth of economic development. Now the city on Neva is the leader of tourist branch in the Russian Federation. By the end of 2019, we expect about 9 million tourists, " Anna Zolotova, acting head of the Department of regional and international projects Of the Committee for tourism development of St. Petersburg, opened the round table.

Separately, the representative of the KRT noted the introduction of electronic visas in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, which can be issued by citizens of 53 countries.

The project is expected to gradually increase the foreign tourist flow. The introduction of electronic visas for foreign citizens can attract at least 2 million tourists to the city. 2020 will be indicative in this regard.

In addition, thanks to the introduction of electronic visas, it is expected to gradually increase the average duration of a visit to the city on the Neva river by tourists to 6-7 days. Now this figure is 3-5 days.

Speaking about plans for next year, Anna Zolotova reminded that in 2020 in St. Petersburg it is planned to hold large-scale international events, including the European football championship, SPIEF, BRICs and SCO summits.

Info-offices Visit-Petersburg becomes more

Nadezhda Petrova, acting Director General of the institution, told about the results of the activities of the SBU "City tourist information Bureau" subordinated to the Committee on tourism development of St. Petersburg for 2019:

"In our city there are information pavilions and offices, which for 11 months of 2019 appealed to about 180 thousand tourists, of which 95 thousand — Russian-speaking, and more than 86 thousand-foreigners."

According to these data, the number of Russian-speaking tourists who applied to information offices increased by 2% compared to 2018.

Nadezhda Petrova paid special attention to the promotion of St. Petersburg in the international and regional tourist markets. This year SPb GBU "GTIB" took part in 22 tourist exhibitions, of which 11 international and 11 regional.

In 2019, 104 events were held at the conference site of St. Petersburg state University "GTIB" at Sadovaya street, 37. These are all kinds of press conferences, events of regional and foreign organizations in the field of tourism, educational programs and projects aimed at promoting the city as a world tourist destination.

One of the main activities of GTIB is the opening of representative offices under the brand Visit Petersburg abroad, as well as maintaining their activities at a constantly high level. Currently, representative offices of the Northern capital of Russia operate in Paris, Hong Kong, Taipei, Tehran, new Delhi, Mumbai, Leipzig, Dubai, Rimini and Tokyo. They have established themselves as an effective tool to promote the Northern capital in the travel industry market. It should be noted that on November 29, an agreement was signed with the national marketing center for tourism Visit Russia in Madrid to open a new office of Visit Petersburg, which will be located in Barcelona.

Currently, St. Petersburg state University" GTIB " implements projects aimed at the development of off-season tourism, among which are the loyalty program "Winter days", event and business events, the project "St. Petersburg wedding" and the development of thematic areas of the tourism industry.

St. Petersburg and Finland strengthen tourist ties

One of the ongoing projects — "Tourist corridor St. Petersburg-Saimaa" in the framework of the cross — Border Cooperation Program "European neighborhood instrument (PPP EIS) "South-Eastern Finland — Russia" 2014 — 2020 told the Deputy Director General for project development St. PETERSBURG GBU "GTIB" Anna Nevinskaya.

Within the framework of the project, a single concept was built to promote the project, which is to position St. Petersburg and the Saimaa lake region as a single travel destination. "Two destinations — one trip-two different experiences. We decided to promote the project from this point of view."

Anna Nevinskaya also stressed that the result of the launch of the Corridor will be to attract tourists to St. Petersburg and Finland during the low season. Special emphasis will be placed on this. "St. Petersburg and Finland can be interesting not only during the traditional high tourist season, but also during the so-called "white days". The result will be the creation of tour packages, which will be implemented by partners of tourist companies, both direct participants of the project - in St. Petersburg, Leningrad region and Finland, and partners abroad.

According to Nevinskaya, there are still many interesting ideas in the plans, including the development of at least 60 new tourist routes.

The city is preparing for Euro 2020

As St. Petersburg is preparing for EURO 2020 and what awaits the tourist community of the city in connection with the upcoming European football championship told the head of the sector for the preparation of significant sporting events of the Committee for physical culture and sports of St. Petersburg Eugene Gagonin. Topics such as the timing of the championship and its combination with citywide celebrations, the preparation of fan zones, traffic restrictions, as well as the safety of citizens and tourists were raised.

Also at the round table spoke about the school-tour "Lessons gives Petersburg", which was presented Board member of the League of tour operators, head of the working group of the project and the Director of tour operator "Bureau "Petrograd" Pavel Lobanov. He told the audience about the opportunities for the development of off-season tourism in St. Petersburg on the example of a wide cooperation of the tourist business.

In addition, the round table discussed the development of St. Petersburg in the field of agricultural tourism together with the Leningrad, Novgorod regions and the Republic of Karelia, exchanged practices of its implementation and prospects for the development of interregional projects in this area.

At the end of the event, presentations of the tourist potential of recognizable and promising Museum sites of St. Petersburg were held.