Siberia is not only frost"
Victor Dann, the General Director of "Olympia-Reisen-Sibir", told about creating a unified tourist map of Siberia and shared his mind on the fact, that a foreign tourist is more interested in visiting not just a single region – Altai or Novosibirsk region – but Siberia in general. For this reason it makes sense to increase attractiveness of the Siberian territory as a whole.
The main problem of the inbound tourism development, according to the expert opinion, is the lacking unified info-centre, an understandable and user-friendly website for foreigners demonstrating accessible ways and directions for travelling in Siberia. In addition, it is necessary to streamline city navigation for foreign tourists – translate into English the names of the main streets, underground stations, tourist objects.
Further Victor Dann drew attention to the possibilities of the international exhibition centre "Novosibirsk Expo Centre" for development of business tourism:
"It is a special place significant for Novosibirsk. The number of events taking place at this spot is unique! Together with the complex, Novosibirsk gained absolutely enormous resources which can be simply called – events".
Sergey Sannikov, Chair of the International Cooperation and External Economic Relations Committee of the Novosibirsk Mayor's Office, reminded of the draft law recently prepared by the RF Government, which states that foreign citizens who arrive in our airport, will be allowed to stay 72 hours at the Russian territory without entry visa.
"No doubt, it will increase the attendance of the tourist sites in the Novosibirsk region. And tourist industry is one of the growth points, which will support the development of the whole national economy".
These words are backed by the experience of Singapore, Frankfurt, Dubai, which airports serve scores of passengers exceeding the population of these cities by many times.
Grigoriy Pomerantsev, Financial Director of the International Airport Novosibirsk (Tolmachevo), told about the development of international and regional aviation as oppotunity for expanding the business and development of new tourist products.
"It is necessary to change the vision of Siberia as a severe, cold territory. Siberia is not only frost. We boast of an increadibly rich climatic diversity. It is also a territory of high temperatures. Also, it's a territory with developed transport infrastructure. Is is easy to travel in Siberia. And it makes sense to do it through Siberia's main gates – Novosibirsk. Originally people chose places for their dwelling by water. If the XIX century was the age of quays and piers, the XX century – the age of railway stations, then XXI is the age of airports".
