Ms Alina Arutyunova, Deputy Chairperson, Moscow City Tourism Committee, addresses the media durng the press conference on the inaugural day of OTM 2022 Mumbai Booster Edition held at JIO World Convention Centre, BKC, Mumbai from 13th to 15th September 2022.

MUMBAI, 13 SEPTEMBER, 2022 (GPN): At the ongoing OTM Mumbai 2022 trade exhibition Sanction-hit Russia is making an aggressive bid to woo Indian travellers to visit its key cities namely Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The Moscow City Tourism Committee and Saint Petersburg Convention Bureau (The Committee for Tourism Development of Saint Petersburg) has sent it’s delegations to the ongoing Outbound Travel Mart (OTM) trade event in Mumbai to onboard a large number of travel agents to sell it’s tour packages and woo Indians.

With attractive pavilion and tempting marketing strategies like live cultural shows, music, dance, entertainment, audio visuals, F&B, Curated Cuisine, gift hampers, lucky draw and much more throughout the 3-day event, this delegation is confident in unleashing it’s hospitality to onboard B2B, B2C,Trade partners, tourists and vacationers.

The 3-day event is bringing together international and national destinations including international tourism boards, national, and state tourism boards, hotels & resorts, airlines, destination management companies, MICE, wedding planners and film producers under one roof, with interesting ideas, strategies and the vision to revive travel and tourism around the globe.

Over 50,000 Indian tourists had visited Moscow in 2021 and This year during the first six months with the restrictions lifted post pandemic Moscow hosted over 13.3 thousand Indians. With the efforts of the committee it is expected that the pre-pandemic figures will be reached by the end of 2023 despite of the ongoing war in the region, Moscow City Tourism Committee said in the press meet held at JIO World Convention Centre on Tuesday.

Now, we can see the urge of Indians to visit our destinations, We are doing a lot of research on India to unlock the full potential for increasing tourist footfalls with our main focus on B2B, Group Tourism and MICE Events” said Kuzenskaya Julia, Deputy Chairperson, Committee for Tourism Development, St. Petersburg.

Alina Arutyunova, Deputy Chairman of Moscow City Tourism Committee, further enlightened those present at the press conference on the sidelines of the tourism exhibition Outbound Travel Mart (OTM) at Jio World Centre.

In 2021, when the borders opened after the pandemic, it was noted that 48 per cent of Indian travellers visited Moscow.

According to the Federal Agency for Tourism, in 2021, the tourist flow from India to Moscow has recovered by 40 per cent compared to the pre-pandemic 2019.

The main driver for this growth in Indian footfalls to Moscow is the visa policy of Russia.

In September, President Vladimir Putin supported the initiative to introduce a visa-free regime for groups of foreign tourists. She said, “The President of the Russian Federation has supported an initiative to introduce a visa-free regime for group tourists. Such an order has already been received for Iran on Tuesday. It’s possible that the same assignment will soon be for India’ Besides that, the e-visa application will be launched for 52 countries, India is enlisted too. It is a simplified procedure for submitting documents online.”

When asked about the impact of Pandemic and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine affecting tourism, Moscow City Tourism, Deputy Chairperson of Committee, Alina Arutyunova said, “During pandemic the tourist flow had dropped significantly. For St Petersburg, it dropped 72%. In that period, internal tourism witnessed a significant growth.She said Indians can have hassle-free trip to St. Petersburg and the transaction [payment] issues were being resolved and “discussed at the highest level.”

Despite the war, she said, “absolutely there is no threat to tourists and everything is very peaceful.Everything is smooth in spite of the war. In fact the traveller footfalls have increased.There are professional police officials, who can speak 9 different languages alongside English to assist to the tourist needs and safety.The capital is considered one of the safest and clean cities, you can easily walk here in the evening, And the special tourist police, whose employees know several foreign languages, is always ready to help out.

In fact we also have developed technology and are digitalised with state of art Apps in English so that the Tourist can get for themselves hassel free services and it minimises language barrier and constraints.The young population of Russia can speak English.”

She added,”We are here to say that Moscow is safe for tourists. In fact, it is safe to travel to Russia. There are three flights a week from Delhi and the government may work on increasing the frequency. Those three flights are enough, but also not enough. In Moscow, things are normal and citizens are enjoying their lives.”

When asked about the best season to visit Moscow and Saint Petersburg, She said,”it’s all time best to visit the city As it is alive and happening throughout the year. In fact, they say that Moscow never sleeps! The Spring and Summer is the best and in winter there is Christmas Celebration which cannot be missed for it’s decor and lighting in the streets.We have emerged as a fully digitalized and cleanest country.”

She also plans to hold talks with representatives of the India tourism industry to further strengthen Moscow’s relationship with India.

She said, “We are trying a lot to attract people from Asian destinations and we have seen more and more people have started coming in from India. We know that Asian markets have huge potential,” she added.

Moscow City Tourism Committee has put up a stall at OTM demonstrating its tourism and MICE potential. The Moscow delegation is holding talks with members of travel trade and showcasing destinations before Bollywood film fraternity.

Moscow offers holidays for all tastes. Fans of luxury holidays can stay in one of 40 luxury hotels and dine in 69 Michelin-starred restaurants. In the capital there is an opportunity to taste the cuisine of any direction and region of the world in more than 15,000 restaurants. And, if someone misses the cuisine of their native country, more than 20 Indian restaurants are at the guests’ service.

On the cultural scene, Moscow boasts of over 400 museums and exhibition halls, 250 theatres and concert halls, plus a large number of festival programs, Outdoor enthusiasts will also find places to their taste in the capital with many parks and cultural urban spaces.

According to the results of a sociological survey conducted by Moscow City Tourism Committee in 2021, 71 per cent of Indian tourists highly appreciate their satisfaction with the trip and are ready to recommend visiting Moscow to friends and relatives and 48 per cent visited Moscow twice last year.
So, what are we waiting for? Let’s all go to Moscow!

“We are focused on India, middle East and Saudi Arabia because of the ban on China. India has huge opportunity with it’s new travel policy underway in wooing us. But, it is the right time for us to woo them because our inbound should be very strong,” She spoke.

Overall Moscow and Saint Petersburg of Russia are in the center stage of attractions at the ongoing OTM Trade Event in Mumbai. Being presented as the digitalized, safest, cleanest and friendly destinations A visit to these magnificent, mystical, magical cities of Russia is a must in your itinerary if you are planning to travel this year.