Russians more often began to travel to Italy at the end of 2018

On December 10, in the framework of the exhibition "Hello, Italy!" Organized by the National Tourism Agency of Italy (ENIT), representatives of the Italian lands of Lombardy and Apulia spent an evening at which they announced their intention to combine their efforts to promote the regions among Russian travelers. It is also worth noting that this year five Italian regions: Friuli - Venice - Giulia, Valle d'Aosta, Puglia, Lombardy and Tuscany for the first time took part in the exhibition.

December 11, Moscow. Just a stone's throw from the main square of Moscow, the Italian flag illuminates the facade of the Manege, the Central Exhibition Hall of the capital, inviting Muscovites and city guests to plunge into the hospitable atmosphere of one of the most attractive countries in the world to get to know it even better.

On December 11, a presentation of the tourist offer of Italian cities such as Pietrasanta and Forte dei Marmi was already held in the conference hall of the Manege for the Russian media.

The Executive Director of the Italian National Agency for Tourism (ENIT) Giovanni Bastianelli was pleased to welcome the guests of the exhibition, emphasizing the importance of Russian tourism for Italy, which showed a 16% increase over 9 months of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017 (according to the border service).

Mr. Bastianelli in his welcoming speech noted:

ENIT's task is to promote Italy as a single tourist destination in all its diversity, and it is a great honor for us to represent our country in the very center of Moscow, but more importantly, despite the difficulties of the previous two years, the Russians again had a desire to come to Italy as evidenced by statistics and the growth of air traffic between the two countries.

The key events of the exhibition were the meeting of tour operators with the Consul General of Italy Francesco Forte and the large-scale tourism Workshop, which ENIT organized, repeating the experience of the past year and inviting more than 90 representatives from the Italian side, including Italian host companies, hotels, ski and thermal resorts.

Both events aroused great interest and excitement among representatives of the Russian travel industry. Queues lined up at the tables of Workshop participants; really important issues were solved here. So we are waiting for new travel offers for traveling to Italy from representatives of the Russian tourism business!

The final chord of the 4-day “Italian symphony” was an amazing ice evening organized by ENIT for its guests at the GUM skating rink in the very heart of the capital - on Red Square, which opened with a scene from the Nutcracker ice performance performed by famous Russian figure skating masters, multiple European champions , world and Olympic games Alexei Yagudin, Alexei Tikhonov, Maria Petrova and the ice ballet group "Ice Symphony" led by Honored Master of Sports of Russia Ilya Averbukh.

And of course, a laser show deserves special attention, which during the four days of the exhibition "Hello, Italy!" It was her calling card, reflecting the beauty of this unique country and decorating the very heart of the Russian capital!