St Petersburg’s UAE roadshow a success...

St. Petersburg City Tourist Information Bureau and Committee for Tourism Development of St. Petersburg recently held a roadshow in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Leading travel trade agents from the cities participated in the roadshow with partners from DMCs, hoteliers, cruise and shipping companies and medical tourism experts.

The partners in the St. Petersburg roadshow held in Dubai was a rip-roaring success. DMCs, hoteliers, cruise and shipping companies, and medical tourism specialists attended the roadshow. It kicked-off with B2B sessions where the travel agents spent time and got to know the destination. The event concluded with an authentic St. Petersburg entertainment, which included a ballet performance as well.

Addressing the gathering, Ksenia Narvatkina, Chief Specialist, Development Department, St. Petersburg City Tourist Information Bureau, and Committee, Tourism Development, Saint Petersburg, opening the presentation, said, “We would like to share with you the tourism potential of St. Petersburg and hope that today’s presentation will allow you to know more about our unique city and its many charms. In 2018, the committee for tourism development and city tourism bureau organised a roadshow to the cities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The presentation was held with great success and the event aroused great interest among people of the UAE.”

Andrei Dmitrievskii, CEO, Northern Empire Travel Agency, St. Petersburg, said, “We have collected here today as Dubai is an important market for us. We want to connect with new partners and know the preference of Arabicspeaking tourists. For them, we have tailor-made programmes that will interest them.”

Valeria Globina, General Manager, Russian Empire Destination Management Company, said, “We are a decade-year-old agency. Over the past years, we had a good footfall from visitors from the Middle East. Before the pandemic it was a different ball game. We used to get several travellers, including from the UAE, along with families, to Moscow and St. Petersburg. We love to work with clients from the GCC nations and we are looking forward to welcoming them.”

Evgenia Kondratieva, General Director Rossi Tour Business, said, “Our company is established in St. Petersburg Russia. We have been operating as an inbound tour operator for Russia for more than 18 years. It is important to Ànd partners in this beautiful region, it is my Àrst time here, it’s a beautiful country and we would like to make connections with more partners from here as our town is so nice, the beaches, the boat rides and the classical tours.”

Natalia Yudina, CEO, St. Petersburg Medical Tourism Agency of the Government of St. Petersburg, said, “We are looking at new destinations, and Dubai is an important market for us. We are presenting travellers different offerings such as hospitals, spas, and wellness centres. At present, we have medical tourists from the Middle East, mainly for or thopaedic issues. Our level of medicine is of the highest level. We also provide medical education for those who wish to engage in medical studies. St. Petersburg is a unique destination for wellness and spa tourism. The city has more than 40 different wellness and spa resorts.”

Nina Shitina, Director, Sales and Marketing, Novotel St. Petersburg, said, “It is the only four-star proper ty in St. Petersburg. I am delighted and excited to visit Dubai to represent our hotel, to explain more about our hotel, to impart knowledge to the travel trade and that we are open to all types of guests now. The countries that we are looking at are UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman. Visitors from these countries travelled to St. Petersburg in the later part of the pandemic. We are looking at resuming our partnerships in this region.”

Solovei Nina, General Manager Northern Pearl travel company, said, “We are here in Dubai for this roadshow to discuss and to share about St. Petersburg and Russia as a country and invite all travellers from GCC to travel and experience our beautiful city and country. We invite the guests to spend one day with a Russian family in a country house to see how Russian people live and it is a very interesting programme much loved by travellers. St. Petersburg is open now for travelling but you only need a 72-hour PCR test before arriving in Russia.”

Anton Bogorodov Resident Manager, Wawelberg Hotel, said, “We are introducing our premium Àve-star luxury hotel located in the city centre of St. Petersburg Russia today at the roadshow for the GCC clients. It was the only Àvestar property to open last year in 2021. We have 79 rooms with 28 suites and the rest are the deluxe rooms, all rooms equipped with high end technology. There are spacious terrace suites especially for big families, along with many facilities for the kids. There are also interconnecting rooms catering especially for GCC clients.”

Charmaine Coutinho, Emirates Holidays, said, “I think it’s a fantastic platform to have so many partners come down for the event, it is quite a mix batch of segmented partners coming down and it is lovely to see that travel is picking up including destinations like St.Petersburg which we will look forward to.”

Rajesh John James, Senior Key Account Manager, Sharaf Travel, said, “It was actually good because for the last two years it was held online and after the pandemic this is one of the main roadshows I’m attending and even after Expo this is the one for travel agents and there are more DMCs from St.Petersburg with more time to interact and they are explaining very well. Nobody was promoting Russia, so this is a good move that they are promoting St. Petersburg and we at Sharaf do represent some Russian carriers. So, we will be promoting St. Petersburg soon when everything is back to normal.”

Seema Baheti, Team LeaderLeisure Travel, Uranus Travel & Tours LLC, Dubai, said, “It was a wonderful evening. The

The roadshow held in Dubai concluded with an authentic St. Petersburg entertainment, which included a ballet performance as well

event was well organised. It included participation from the embassy itself, which was encouraging. Representatives of various DMCs, hotels, and medical tourism shared a lot of information. The information was so crisp and clear in terms of product knowledge and USP (unique selling points). I have warmed up to St. Petersburg and Ànd that travellers from the UAE Ànd the destination interesting and attractive.”

Walter Rodricks, Manager, Royal Turquoise Travel and Tourism, said, “It was an amazing event, showcasing the next best city to Moscow from Russia. I loved the cultural background of St.Petersburg, and looking forward to visiting this amazing place myself as well as promoting it with by my clients. The roadshow in Dubai was a great event. It was an opportunity for DMCs, hotels, and medical tourism from Russia, who had come to Dubai to enhance their business relationship with the UAE. After a long time, it was great to have such an event in this part of the country.”