TravTalk Middle East Online Magazine
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.
TT Bureau
St. Petersburg
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 Arabic-speaking 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 find partners in this beautiful region, it is my first 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 orthopaedic 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 property 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 five-star luxury hotel located in the city centre of St. Petersburg Russia today at the roadshow for the GCC clients. It was the only five-star 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 Leader-Leisure Travel, Uranus Travel & Tours LLC, Dubai, said, “It was a wonderful evening. The 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 find that travellers from the UAE find 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.”
Abu Dhabi
The roadshow from St. Petersburg in Abu Dhabi, which commenced with feverish excitement, included one on one B2B sessions where the travel trade spent time and got to know the destination, followed by detailed presentations by partners. The roadshow concluded with a gala dinner to the accompaniment of authentic St. Petersburg entertainment, including a ballet performance.
Ksenia Narvatkina, Chief Specialist, Development Department, St. Petersburg City Tourist Information Bureau, and Committee for Tourism Development, Saint Petersburg, in her presentation, shared they were excited to showcase the offerings of St. Petersburg. She reiterated the goal was to promote the potential of St. Petersburg as a world tourist centre, and to develop partnerships between St. Petersburg tourism enterprises and representatives of tour operators and travel agencies in Dubai. She said entry into the destination is free with COVID-19 cases having subsided. Currently, only a negative PCR test 72-hour before flying into the country is required. A plus point for other nationals, especially UAE travellers, is they will get a visa on arrival. Formalities to enter the country as a tourist also not cumbersome; in face they are quite easy.
The videos and performances at the event took the audience back to St. Petersburg for a short while. Travel trade agents, present at the event, shared it was a great opportunity to meet with partners on one platform. Different DMCs made tailor-made programmes for the guests from the GCC region. It was a great initiative.
St. Petersburg is one of the most beautiful and largely populated cities in the world, which travelers from all over the world come to see. The list of attractions in St. Petersburg is so impressive that it is impossible to describe all of them in detail. According to statistics, in pre-pandemic times, the number of tourists in St. Petersburg reached 10 million people. And even more than 10 million!
Sergei Azarenkov, General Director, St. Petersburg Convention Bureau, Committee for Tourism Development of St. Petersburg, said, “COVID had a strong impact on tourism for us. We have collected at the roadshow to invite tourists to visit our beautiful city. We look forward to welcoming them. Our objective is to unite tour operators in our country with GCC travel agents so that we can recover faster in this sector and move forward.”
Natalia Savinova, COO, Grand Rus Tours, said, “For the past 16 years, I have been running my own company and we provide tailor-made services to Russia, including St. Petersburg and Moscow. A traveler can fly with Emirates, flydubai and Etihad Airways to St. Petersburg from Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Apart from five-star properties, there are many halal restaurants.”
Maria Ushakova, CEO, Art Travel, said, “It was an opportunity to introduce our company to the GCC clients. We connected with partners about different hotel accommodation facilities. Due to the Russia-Ukraine war, payments could be a challenge. But for this, we have set up a different gateway by way of establishing our own company away from Russia.”
Mingaleyeva Dinara – Senior Fleet Manager – from Astra Marine shipping shared, “We have been working in St.Petersburg since 1994, we provide tours in different areas in boats or small crafts within the city. We also cater to MICE and events as well. We have a variety of boats that can cater to seven people up to 140 plus people. Hydrofoil is a new type that is very cool, as you can pass under the draw bridge when it opens which is a very exciting experience.”
Mahesh Perera, Travel Consultant, BCD Travels, Abu Dhabi, said, “After COVID effect reduced, although we held a few events, but the roadshow in Abu Dhabi was a well organised one. It was interesting to meet many partners, including cruise partners, this evening at the St.Petersburg roadshow. For travel agents in Abu Dhabi, it was an interactive event, which enabled us to meet many partners.”
Kumar Jiandani, Business Development Manager, Over Seas Travel, Abu Dhabi, a travel agency which handles 28 corporates in GCC, shared, “This is the first time I saw St. Petersburg Tourism come to the UAE market. They provided us with the information relevant to the travelers, which we shared with our clients. We hope to build on the relationship with St. Petersburg Tourism. The city is a good destination for UAE travelers with so many interesting places to visit in St. Petersburg.”
Absar Ahmed Siddiqui, Senior Manager, Orient Travels, Abu Dhabi, said, “We are looking forward to their presentations and I must say they did a great job. The DMCs representing St. Petersburg showcased what they can offer, and I am sure it will create many opportunities for travelers to visit St. Petersburg.”
Maz Safi from Azar Tours and Travel, Abu Dhabi, said, “The arrangement is good at the St. Petersburg Tourism roadshow. We met many suppliers from DMCs to hotels and cruises, they shared with us so much information about the attractions. We came here as we conduct group activities for travelers, so we wanted to find out more information about hotels and sightseeing among others. It was a well organised event and was helpful for us.”
Ashish Paul, Travel Consultant, Mercator Travel and Tourism, said, “It was great that to connect with St. Petersburg Tourism during the roadshow, and we met a lot of different partners/suppliers from the destination.”
Noufal Charan, Operations Manager, International Vision Travel—an Abu Dhabi-based semi government travel company—shared, “We normally conduct many here in Abu Dhabi as well as abroad. I am happy to be part of this event. It has been quite a long time since we had a roadshow in Abu Dhabi. It was good to get to know what is happening in Russia and that places for tourism are now open. We also met many suppliers on one platform.”
Rashida Ginwala, Director of Holidays Bin Ham Travel Abu Dhabi, said, “It was a good move from St. Petersburg Tourism. It is time to create awareness send travelers from UAE to see the attractions of St. Petersburg. It was great to meet so many partners in person and to be able to see, first-hand, what new attractions or activities are taking place there. The event provided us an opportunity to regain the confidence that we can send UAE travelers to Russia. It was great to meet every partner from St. Petersburg, each of them had their own USPs. It was also great to meet the hoteliers as it is important to know where the UAE travelers will be able to stay once they go to St Petersburg to view the attractions.” with all offers and options.”
Dinesh Nair, Nirvana Travel Abu Dhabi, said, “It was an interesting and informative event as I was able to get contacts of many partners who attended the event. This was very important to meet them face to face in one platform. They provided us comprehensive product knowledge and shared about their new products and services on offer, especially to visitors from Abu Dhabi. As they get visa on arrival, the destination attracts the UAE nationals, the. There are many events coming up and it will be good to work together with St. Petersburg Tourism partners.”
