Sanction-hit Russia is making an aggressive bid to woo Indian travellers to visit its key cities.
Its top two cities, namely Moscow and St. Petersburg, have sent tourism delegations to an ongoing trade event called OTM to onboard a large number of travel agents to sell tour packages and woo Indians.
“During pandemic the tourist flow had dropped significantly. For St Petersburg, it dropped 72%. In that period, internal tourism witnessed a significant growth. Now, we can see the urge of Indians to visit our destinations,” said Kuzenskaya Julia, deputy chairman, Committee for Tourism Development, St. Petersburg. 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.”
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 Mumbai film producers.
Alina Arutyunova, Deputy Chairman, Moscow City Tourism Committee, said she had come to Mumbai to further strengthen the relationship with India.
“Now, more Indians are traveling to Moscow and there is no problem in payments. We are focused on India and Saudi Arabia to attract tourists,” she said.
One of the drivers for growth is the visa policy of Russia. In September President Vladimir Putin supported the initiative to introduce visa-free regime for groups of foreign tourists, she added.
Besides, the e-visa application will be made available for 52 countries and India is enlisted too. “It is a simplified procedure for submitting documents online,” she further added.
Sanjiv Agarwal, chairman & CEO, Fairfest Media Ltd., the organisers of OTM said several traditional outbound destinations like Europe and America were not doing well as they were unable to process the desired numbers of visa due to staff crunch at their Embassies.
“This has created unique opportunities for some of the non- traditional destinations like Russia to fill the gap. Very few Indians, about a lakh [as compared to 50 lakh to U.K. and 15 lakh to small European countries] were going to Russia in pre-pandemic time. Now, not many westerners are going to Russia, they are now needing Indians,” he said.
“So, they have come in full force and now Indians are getting Russian visa easily. Since Russians are not getting visa to the western world, they would now come to India,” he added.
Jyoti Mayal, president, Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) said platforms like OTM would make the business come back post pandemic.
“This is the need of the hour. It is time to reconnect with every one and also to re-collaborate with them. Right now India is a big source market because China is blocked. India has huge opportunity as all are wooing us. But, it is the right time for us to woo them because our inbound should be very strong,” she said.
“We had an opportunity many years ago to be largest hub of travel and tourism. But we lost to Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong. This is the right time for India to get back and become the largest travel hub,” she added.
Qatar Tourism is also attracting Indians. “We always believe that India is a key source market for Qatar. In the coming months, we will have the Football World Cup and will receive a large number of Indians. From 2023 Qatar will be ready with infrastructure for leisure point of view,” said Sandeep Shevale, Regional Manager, Qatar Tourism.
