ITB Berlin News 2020 #1

I REGION I EUROPE I
I REGION I EUROPE I
Giving a new perspective
on travel in Russia
© 2019 Volga Balt Tours
Winter tour in Karelia and Murmansk
Russian DMC Volga-Balt Tour is presenting an extraordinary range of
tour ideas, including several – highly popular – Northern Lights tours
planned for winter 20/21.
Volga-Balt Tour is a Moscow-based travel
company, created by the people passionate
about travel and eager to connect people
with the grandeur of Russian culture and
nature.
They offer river cruises along unique
itineraries aboard carefully selected
ships, classical group tours to must-see
destinations, expedition trips on lesstravelled
paths as well as travel programmes
in former USSR countries such as Belorus,
Georgia and Uzbekistan.
Volga-Balt Tour selects local partners
with great responsibility to ensure that
all ingredients of one’s tour are “perfect”.
Their vision: “to give our clients a whole
new perspective on travel in Russia and
maximise their chance to deeply connect
with the country of their destination”.
Tours include: Silk Road, gastronomic tours,
religious tours, historic tours, weekends
in St Petersburg, cruising on Baikal lake,
and “active winter” breaks in Karelia, just
to mention a few. Winter (January 2021)
highlights include spectacular Northern
Lights tours to Kizhi Island, Petrozavodsk
and Murmansk
2020: the year of business
tourism for St Petersburg
With even more major international events and more than a million
business tourists, Saint Petersburg is preparing to spend 2020 under
the banner of business tourism.
“Currently, business tourism is among the
priority areas for the development of the
tourism sector of St. Petersburg. At the
end of 2019, there was a 26% increase in
the number of congress and exhibition
events, compared to last year”, said
Yevgeny Pankevich, the Chairman of the
Saint Petersburg Committee for Tourism
Development. “This year, we expect the
number of business tourists and travellers
who come to St. Petersburg for various
congresses and business events to grow by
20%.”
The activation of business tourism is the
result of an increase in the number of events,
as well as a variety of Congress and exhibition
venues. Today, there are 199 venues in St.
Petersburg, including 110 congress hotels and
10 convention and exhibition complexes
© 2019 - Ninara
Alexandrinsky theatre, St Petersburg
ITB BERLIN NEWS 01 • WEDNESDAY 4 TH MARCH 2020 29