INWETEX-CIS Travel Market puts up grand show in St. Petersburg

INWETEX-CIS Travel Market 2018, an international travel trade fair, successfully concluded in St. Petersburg, the cultural capital of Russia. Also on the sidelines, Saint Petersburg Travel HUB Forum, organized by the Saint Petersburg Committee for Tourism Development, was held for the first time in partnership with the 26th INWETEX-CIS Travel Market 2018. The event proved itself a highly efficient site for the dialog and cooperation between the authorities, tourism and hotel business professionals, Russian and international industry experts.

INWETEX-CIS Travel Market 2018 along with ‘Saint Petersburg Travel HUB Forum’ were for the first time held at the site of EXPOFORUM Convention and Exhibition Centre, a state-of-the-art convention and exhibition facility. The two day event was attended by over 3,000 industry experts and professionals.

INWETEX – CIS TRAVEL MARKET 2018 International Travel Trade Fair opening ceremony was attended by the acting Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov, Member of the Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Review Board of the Federation Council Committee on Social Policy Igor Fomin, Deputy Head of the Russian Federation Federal Agency for Tourism Sergey Korneev, Consul General of Greece Panagiotis Beglitis. This year over 200 companies and organizations from 24 regions of Russia and 14 countries all over the world presented their business capabilities and new offers.

Saint Petersburg Travel HUB Forum’s busy agenda started with the plenary meeting “Tourism. Development trends, realities, experience. Focus on Saint Petersburg” moderated by Nika Strizhak, famous journalist and documentary filmmaker. Chairman of the Saint Petersburg Committee for Tourism Development Evgeny Pankevich spoke on the priorities and plans for the tourism development in the Northern capital. Positions of the legislative and executive authorities on current issues of the tourism industry were presented by Igor Fomin and Sergey Korneev.

Russia’s showcase window

Russia’s oldest travel mart, INWETEX – CIS Travel Market International recently concluded its successful 26th edition in the country’s cultural capital St. Petersburg. INWETEX was the first travel mart that opened door for tourism industry within and outside the country to grow Russia’s profile not only as a source market but also as a world-class destination waiting to be discovered by travellers from around the world.

According to Lyudmila Ivanova, General Director of Saint Petersburg Express (Organiser of the event), INWETEX role is key in promoting inbound, outbound as well as in the development of domestic tourism. “We would like to help develop those who is devoted to travel and tourism in Russia. You see there are not so many big stands about Russian destination. Our goal is to receive all such destinations. Russia is very big and we would like to get all these regions to show that the country is big and travel agencies can chose different regions for promotions,” she said.

Pointing that Russian destinations are waking up to the vast realities of tourism, its economic impact and other social benefits the sector brings in its wake, “We hope to receive all the regions at INWETEX – CIS Travel Market International showcasing themselves in full force. If a tour operators comes to our exhibition, they should receive all information about the different regions of Russia. That’s our goal and we are working closely with the Committee for Development of Tourism of St. Petersburg to make that happen.

Russia is also one of the key international tourism source markets. Besides, with more than US$ 30 billion in tourism spend, Russian Federation is ranked as one of the top tourism spenders in world, and therefore, INWETEX also presents opportunity for international tourism offices to grow their share of Russia’s outbound tourism pie.

Furthermore she also pointed that INWETEX would also look at creating new opportunities of education and learning in tourism by bringing in new ideas and innovations to the show. She said that technology is redefining the way travel is taking place today, and therefore, INWETEX is looking at introducing segments like ‘digitalisation in tourism.’

Discover Russia at INWETEX 

Quite frankly I found INWETEX – CIS Travel Market one of the best travel shopping places for trade buyers interested in Russia and the regions’ diverse tourism offerings. We specialize in Russia and have promoted the country in India for the last almost two decades. And with over 200 suppliers that also included companies and tourism offices from scores of Russian region, including St. Petersburg that we represent in India as their official tourism office, our destination knowledge and insights and new product offerings are far richer. There are many knew things that I found can be very successfully promoted in the Indian market. Besides the exhibition, I also found the business sessions programme very informative and extremely rich in content. Sessions like the one on “children tourism” were very insightful when it comes to developing new tourism products for a market like India from where huge outbound number comprise of families with children looking for the right destination to holiday. (Prashant Chaudhary, MD, Salvia Promoters on INWETEX)

Prashant Chaudhari and Harmeek Singh, Heads of Visit Russia offices, shared their view of St. Petersburg as an attractive tourist destination for tourists from India and the Middle East countries respectively. Christopher Hinteregger, General Director of PKF tourism experts, described how tourist destinations may succeed in the total digital transformation era. Head of LOC Russia 2018 Dmitry Schneider shared his experience of preparation and staging of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™ which laid the groundwork for even more successful staging of tourist attracting sports events in Russia. The World Cup as the country’s branding component case was analyzed by Pavel Rodkin, Assistant Professor at the NRU HSE School of Integrated Communications, destinations branding expert.

During the specialized round table the professionals from various regions of Russia discussed in detail the experience of the cooperation in the preparation of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™. The conferences on medical tourism and tourism diversity in Saint Petersburg were evaluated by the participants as efficient and eventful.

The decision to hold both international INWETEX-CIS TRAVEL MARKET International Travel Trade Fair and Saint Petersburg Travel HUB Forum was justified in full, says Lyudmila Ivanova, General Director of the SAINT PETERSBURG EXPRESS company – the trade fair organizer: Due to support of the Saint Petersburg Committee for Tourism Development both events created a powerful synergy and the tourism and hospitality professionals were able to obtain the maximum effect of the two days of communication with exhibitors and discussions with colleagues in the framework of the business program.