From November 21 to 22, 2019, the resort city of Sochi hosted the IV International Tourism Forum SIFT, which became one of the most important business platforms for domestic and inbound tourism in Russia. This year, the event was held at the Rosa Khutor mountain resort.
November 16 The Forum program was opened by familiarization and educational tours from tour operators "Novy Sochi" and "Svoy TS" to the sites of the city of Sochi. Also this year, for the first time, a free one-day tour "Hospitable Abkhazia" from the Ministry of Resorts and Tourism of the Republic of Abkhazia will be held. In total, more than one hundred travel agents from all over the country took part in the tours.
On November 21, the opening ceremony of the fourth All-Russian Congress of Tour Operators and Travel Agents and the sixth international tourism forum in Sochi SIFT-2019 took place.
The following speakers delivered welcoming remarks:
- Governor of Krasnodar Krai - Veniamin Kondratyev;
- The head of the resort city of Sochi is Alexey Kopaigorodsky;
- Director of Corporate Business Development, Caucasus Branch of PJSC Megafon - Nikolay Valerievich Sitnikov;
- Deputy General Director for Marketing and Sales of the Rosa Khutor Mountain Resort - Anton Vitalievich Stavenko;
- General Director of the Krasnaya Polyana resort - Andrey Alekseevich Krukovsky;
- Minister for Resorts and Tourism of the Republic of Abkhazia - Gartskia Avtandil Zefikovich.
In his official Instagram account, the Governor of Krasnodar Krai V.I. Kondratyev noted after visiting the SIFT Forum that the forum today is one of the main platforms in the country for discussing issues of domestic and inbound tourism. The region is interested in this industry developing and being as profitable as possible for all participants. The main task is to make vacations in the region accessible and comfortable, and for residents of the country to choose, first of all, the resorts of Krasnodar Krai.
Following the opening ceremony, a plenary session was held, with speakers:
- Balaeva Svetlana Sergeevna, Minister of Resorts, Tourism and Olympic Heritage of the Krasnodar Region;
- Shpilko Sergey Pavlovich, President of the Russian Union of Travel Industry;
- Barzykin Yuri Alexandrovich, Vice-President of the Russian Union of Travel Industry, Chairman of the Committee of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation on Entrepreneurship in the Sphere of Tourism;
- Mokhov Georgy Avtandilovich, member of the Board of the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RST), public commissioner for the tourism business under the commissioner for the protection of entrepreneurs’ rights in Moscow;
- Maksimov Andrey Nikolaevich, Chairman of the Commission on Territorial Development and Local Self-Government of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation;
- Sirchenko Alexander Alexandrovich, Deputy General Director of TUI Russia and CIS;
- Evgeny Aleksandrovich Popov, General Director of the Center for Territorial Development
During the meeting, an exchange of cooperation agreements was made between the Russian Union of Travel Industry and the Republican Union of Travel Industry of the Republic of Belarus, as well as cooperation agreements between the Russian Union of Travel Industry and the DaDobro Charitable Foundation.
The main objective of the Forum is to promote and develop Russian resorts.
The geography of participants is expanding with new entities every year. Tourism industry enterprises came from different parts of the country and presented the whole variety of tourism products and services of our vast Motherland. More than 200 companies presented themselves at the exhibitions "Resorts and Tourism. Season 2019-2020" and "Hotel and Restaurant Business". Among them: the Southern Federal District - Sochi, Tuapse, Anapa, Gelendzhik, Goryachiy Klyuch, Temryuk, Novorossiysk, Volgograd; the Republics of Crimea, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, Tatarstan; Moscow, Leningrad, Samara, Voronezh, Tula, Kurgan, Krasnoyarsk, Chelyabinsk regions; Altai and Stavropol territories, as well as foreign participants from Japan and Abkhazia. Over 4,000 thousand people visited the exhibition in 2 days, 98% of which were industry specialists.
Business program of the Forum was traditionally rich and covered many diverse, pressing issues of the tourism industry. Speakers together with guests of the events looked for ways to promote tourism products, studied Internet marketing trends, got acquainted with innovations in electronic document management, learned how to properly organize the work of a call center and much more.
Participants and visitors were able to attend seminars, panel sessions, trainings, round tables, master classes and presentations. Representatives of federal and regional authorities, heads of leading business structures, authoritative industry experts and professional business trainers became speakers and moderators of the business program events.
The International Tourism Forum SIFT-2019 has once again confirmed its status as the main event on domestic and inbound tourism in Russia. We, as the organizers, will make every effort to bring the Forum to the highest possible level next year, to make it even more productive, larger-scale and interesting.
Forum Organizers — Administration of Krasnodar Krai, Ministry of Resorts, Tourism and Olympic Heritage of Krasnodar Krai, Administration of Sochi.
Exhibition exposition organizer — OOO SOUD — Sochi exhibitions.
Organizer IV All-Russian Congress of Tour Operators and Travel Agents — Russian Union of Travel Industry.
Coordinator for accommodation and transport logistics in Sochi — tour operator "Riviera Sochi".
Coordinator of the Forum's business program — tour operator "Alean".
The forum was held with the assistance of Federal Agency for Tourism, Russian Union of Travel Industry, Russian Hotel Association, Association "Tourpomoshch", Union of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Krasnodar Krai, Union of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Sochi.
General partner of the Forum: PJSC Megafon
Exclusive partner of the Forum: Rosa Khutor mountain resort
Official partner: Krasnaya Polyana Resort
General information partner: Travel Russian News
The VII International Tourism Forum SIFT will be held on November 19-20, 2020 in Sochi.
Detailed information about the upcoming event
on the official website https://tour-forum.com/
Source: trn-news.ru
