XXVI INWETEX – CIS Travel Market 2018 Opened in St. Petersburg

On October 11 and 12, St. Petersburg hosts the XXVI International Travel Exhibition INWETEX CIS Travel Market and the first travel forum SAINT PETERSBURG TRAVEL HUB.

October 11, the grand opening ceremony took place with participation of acting Governor of Saint Petersburg Alexander Beglov, Consul General of Greece Panos Beglitis, Chairman of the Expert Council on Tourism under the Federation Council Committee on Social Policy Igor Fomin, and Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Tourism of the Russian Federation Sergey Korneev.

The geography of the INWETEX exhibition constantly grows. This year, representatives of 24 Russian regions and 13 foreign countries, over 200 companies and organizations arrived in St. Petersburg.

‘St. Petersburg has the great potential in tourism. In recent years, the Northern capital has made the great success in strengthening its image’, commented Alexander Beglov. ‘The city is the proud holder of the title of three-time laureate of the World Travel Awards. Recently, St. Petersburg took the lead in two more nominations and became the leading cruise and heritage destination. Moreover, the city will host the main global tourism event – UNWTO General Assembly session next year’, he added.

Yevgeny Pankevich, the head of the St. Petersburg Committee for Tourism Development, said that the tourist traffic volume of the city is expected to exceed 8 million tourists by the end of the year. Experts predict that by 2025 more than 10 million tourists will visit the city per year.

SAINT PETERSBURG TRAVEL HUB was organized by St. Petersburg Committee for Tourism Development for the first time as the platform for discussion the main issues of the tourism and hospitality industries on the international level. Within the framework of the event, a broad business programme was presented to a wide audience, and the oldest tourism exhibition INWETEX – CIS TRAVEL MARKET, updated to meet current requirements of market, became its partner.