Russian tourists in India

Kerala Tourism, along with Goa and Uttarakhand, are planning a formal association with the Russian Tourism and the Culture Ministry, in view of a gradual increase in tourist arrivals from that country.The decision follows the recent visit of Kerala Tourism Director to Russia where he and tourism representatives from Goa and Uttarakhand, held discussions with Russian officials.The Tourism Director said 35,010 Russian tourists visited the State in 2014, up by 10 per cent over the previous year.The first idea is to formulate a board which shall consist of the Centre, the Ministry of Tourism, the Indian Embassy in Russia and the tourism departments of Kerala, Goa and Uttarakhand. The proposal shall be put up to the Centre, a Kerala Tourism press release said here.The main areas under the intended board’s purview would include a marketing campaign to increase the flow of Russian tourists to India through many various cultural and tourism promotional programmes.

The meetings regarding the tourism were held between Olga Yarilova, the Head of Tourism and Regional Policy Department of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and Pareeth at the Ministry of Culture, Russian Federation.A team of major Russian tour operators and State tourism office representatives from Goa and Uttarakhand, India Tourism and Indian Embassy officials were also present at the meeting.The Russian official team raised the issues of reducing the visa fees and the airport fee incurred on chartered flights, which would be taken up for consideration to the concerned authorities, the release said.The Russian officials also expressed their concern about the lack of Russian guides in Kerala and may be taken a serious consideration.“Considering the concerned issues raised, we have agreed upon to publish a list of Russian guides in our Kerala Tourism’s Russian language version website,” said Pareeth.“We will also promote the cultural exchange between Kerala and Russia where art performers from Kerala will go and perform there and Russian artistes will come and perform in Kerala,” he added.