The majestic Russian metropolis of St Petersburg is a magnet for enterprise and cultural tourism. Olga Rendino, deputy basic director of the St Petersburg Conference Bureau, right here shares town’s pragmatic options to tackling the challenges set by Covid-19, and its roadmap to restoration, together with staging UEFA Euro Cup matches this summer season.
Breaking Journey Information: What’s the standing of enterprise journey to St Petersburg? And what adjustments did you implement so as to proceed working in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic?
Olga Rendino: The beginning of 2020, like the beginning of any new yr, was stuffed with formidable plans and initiatives.
St Petersburg’s MICE business was gearing up for what would undoubtedly be a thriving yr with main occasions, key exhibitions and commerce reveals.
Nevertheless, enterprise journey got here to a halt in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic.
As a result of closure of borders quarantine measures and the cancellation of occasions in 2020, the circulation of enterprise vacationers to St Petersburg went down considerably.
In consequence, stay-at-home restrictions have required many people to undertake new methods and codecs of communication.
In addition to thousands and thousands across the globe, we started to carry digital conferences utilizing hybrid and digital options to host conferences and be sure that St Petersburg stays a number one vacation spot for vacationers after the pandemic.
The town’s profitable efforts to increase its hospitality business gained broad acclaim and it was named as World’s Leading Cultural City Destination by the World Travel Awards.
Presently town is getting the coronavirus outbreak underneath management and our hospitality business is slowly getting again onto its ft.
With that main occasions step by step start to start out up once more: the 24th St Petersburg Worldwide Financial Discussion board is about to happen on June 2nd–fifth; the UEFA Euro Cup matches to be held between June 11th and July 11th; the International Area Exploration Convention (GLEX), dropped at town by a member of distinctive ‘Ambassadors’ programme led by the bureau, is to happen from June 14th–18th.
BTN: Describe how the lockdown expertise was in St. Petersburg, and the way did this examine to the bustle of regular occasions.
OR: When the pandemic got here alongside, no one anticipated to see cities locked down longer than a number of weeks, or individuals advised to remain house for months at a time.
Regardless of the coronavirus outbreak St Petersburg didn’t turn into a much less well-liked vacationer vacation spot and managed to consolidate its positions as an influential vacationer market participant and a number one vacationer attraction all through 2020.
The town began to increase its assist of the tourism market and launched a number of progressive initiatives to assist the sector reopen tourism-related companies and handle their restoration in a manner that’s protected, enticing for vacationers, and economically viable.
The measures drafted to assist the business – the whole quantity of economic assist offered by town authorities equals to 4 billion roubles, which point out the significance of tourism and the potential it has in serving to the financial system within the post-pandemic occasions.
Moreover, St Petersburg turned the primary metropolis in Russia to hitch Secure Travels, the worldwide WTTC programme for protected tourism.
As a part of this initiative key gamers of town tourism business obtain a particular Secure Travels SPB signal as a recognition of well being and hygiene protocols applied by these organisations and aligned with WTTC’s International Secure Travels Protocols.
For vacationers, this signal is a assure that the companies offered by town tourism organisations meet the mandatory sanitary and security requirements.
BTN: With the resumption of worldwide journey fortunately again on the horizon, how do you see the following yr mapping out for enterprise journey to St Petersburg?
OR: In fact, we’re nonetheless struggling to grasp how shortly each enterprise and leisure journey can recuperate, however we’re assured that there’s a rising deferred demand in tourism and offline conferences.
Whereas Zoom can actually be a handy communication instrument, it’s onerous to overestimate the effectiveness of in-person conferences particularly when constructing enterprise relationships.
They’re targeted on human connections, require all members to be absolutely current, and perceive the tradition and traditions.
As for the bureau, this yr we’re planning to organise St Petersburg Journey Hub, a significant journey discussion board which was efficiently held in 2019 as a part of the 23rd Normal Meeting of the World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), bringing collectively greater than 30 areas of the Russian Federation and receiving excessive reward from the worldwide and regional skilled neighborhood.
Sadly, as a result of security measures we needed to cancel the occasion in 2020.
Additionally with the assist of the St Petersburg Committee for Tourism Growth, the bureau is actively working to draw vital worldwide enterprise occasions to town.
In consequence, within the close to future St Petersburg is internet hosting such large-scale world congresses and conventions as Worldwide Congress of Mathematicians ICM, World Power Council WEC, Worldchefs Congress & Expo, Worldwide Geological Congress (IGC) and others.
BTN: What makes St Petersburg such a great vacation spot for enterprise journey?
OR: St Petersburg is a contemporary metropolis and a welcoming vacation spot, which provides an enormous vary of alternatives for enterprise and cultural occasions organisation.
Handy transport infrastructure, developed journey and hospitality companies, and extraordinary vary of itineraries assist to draw increasingly more world-class occasions to town.
There are at the moment over 200 MICE venues in St Petersburg: from actually fashionable services with a spread of capacities to historic venues such because the Nationwide Congress Palace state complicated, and the previous residence of the Grand Dukes of the home of Romanovs.
The town’s luxurious accommodations are additionally courting enterprise travellers with new assembly areas and ballrooms.
St Petersburg Conference Bureau’s actions are aligned with the practices and requirements of sustainable improvement.
Our companions, metropolis’s main venues and conference accommodations additionally assist this pattern and maintain the recognised sustainability certificates equivalent to ISO, Inexperienced Key, Vitality Leaf, and so forth.
BTN: Why is collaboration throughout the worldwide journey business important to navigating the post-pandemic panorama?
OR: Collaboration is the best way forward and can stay so sooner or later if we’re to construct a greater business and traveller expertise for all.
In an effort to proceed worldwide cooperation in the course of the pandemic, the bureau held a sequence of occasions geared toward discussing the precedence instructions of the business
improvement between regional and worldwide business representatives.
For instance, we organised a web based seminar which introduced collectively business alliance, heads of Conference Bureaus and international associations executives: AIPC (The Worldwide Affiliation of Conference Centres), ICCA (The Worldwide Congress and Conference Affiliation), UFI (The International Affiliation of the Exhibition Business).
The main target was made on broadening the horizons of collaboration, transformation within the context of the disaster and the worth of business revitalisation.
Collaboration can be one of many explanation why the bureau has initiated St Petersburg ambassadors’ program.
It’s value mentioning that the Northern Capital turned the primary metropolis in Russia to launch this strategically vital program in 2018.
Ambassadors are professionals who’re famend of their discipline (larger schooling, science, medication or economics) and are lively members of nationwide or worldwide associations, establishments and our bodies.
There are at the moment 24 ambassadors, who work intently with us and St Petersburg Committee for tourism improvement to draw nationwide and worldwide conferences and occasions within the metropolis, and likewise play a elementary function in including to the vacation spot’s status and excessive rating.
Breaking Journey Information: Have you ever had any optimistic adjustments in your individual outlook in response to the disaster?
OR: I consider that this reset may really enhance enterprise journey from each a well being and security perspective, and when it comes to the precise mechanisms which we’ve all the time wished to check however by no means had the prospect to.
Concurrently, the home tourism market has elevated.
Russia is a large nation full of wonderful locations and nice alternatives.
The pandemic has as soon as once more reminded us of this, giving us a risk to discover and promote our homeland.
Extra Data
Discover out extra concerning the St Petersburg Conference Bureau on the official website.
