About the event

The IV International Forum «Sea Tourism» was held on 5-7th of July 2012 in Saint-Petersburg in the framework of the “UNITED RUSSIA” Party Project “Saint-Petersburg – the Sea Capital of Russia». The Forum «Sea Tourism» was supported and participated by the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, the State Duma, the Transport Ministry, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Federal Tourism Agency, the Federal Marine and River Transport Agency, the Federal Agency for State Border Infrastructure Development. Letters of support for the Forum were directed from Saint-Petersburg, Moscow and Moscow Region, Irkutsk, Nizhny Novgorod and Murmansk Regions, Krasnodar Krai and many other regions. The event was participated by more than 350 representatives of executive and legislative power branches, as well as by business companies from 38 subjects of the Russian Federation, embassies and consulates of the former Soviet republics and countries outside the CIS, by ship-owners, shipbuilders, the major Russian tour operators, yacht-clubs, investment and insurance companies, banks, marine and river passenger ports, building companies, design institutes, navigation equipment developers and manufacturers, communications providers for marine and river crafts. The Forum was opened by Vadim Tulpanov, the Head of the «UNITED RUSSIA» Party Project «St. Petersburg — the Sea Capital of Russia», Member of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. He started with welcome speech on behalf of the Chairman of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko. Among the speakers one may mention the Deputy Coordinator of the Project «Saint-Petersburg - the Sea Capital of Russia», Deputy of the State Duma of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation – V. Potsyapun; the Deputy Head of the Federal Tourism Agency – D. Mikheev; the Head of the State Policy Department for Marine and River Transport of the Transport Ministry of the Russian Federation – K. Palnikov; the Deputy Head of the Federal Border Services Agency of the Russian Federation – Yu. Borodin; the Head of the State Marine and River Supervision Department of the Federal Agency for Transport Supervision of the Russian Federation – P. Ermolaev; the Head of the Frontier Service of the Federal Security Service of Russia for Saint-Petersburg and the Leningrad Region – A. Zabrodin, and many others. In the course of the event the Project’s administration made a range of statements and initiatives. Deputy of the State Duma of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation V. Potsyapun in his report made an analysis of several federal target programs which may help to attract financial resources to the sphere of water tourism and particularly to construction of infrastructure for this segment. He proposed to establish a working group of representatives from interested federal ministries and agencies, as well as from governments of Saint-Petersburg and the Leningrad region in order to organize a dialog for yacht infrastructure development in regions. He stated that such group will permit consolidating efforts for development of efficient solutions to promote realization of specific building projects. Beside that representatives of regional authorities reported the state and prospects of water tourism development in their subjects. Among others the Murmansk and Arkhangelsk regions pay special attention to the Arctic tourism development. The First Deputy Governor of the Murmansk region A. Tyukavin noted in his report the «Arctic Harbor» project and the important role of its realization for regular ferry connection with Norway and growth of cruise vessels entering into the port of Murmansk from 11 to 70 times a year. At the Forum there also were presented reports by the profile agencies’ representatives of the KhMAO-Yugra, the Altay Region and others. The Business part of the Forum included two plenary sessions in parallel with three working sessions. The working sessions were devoted to different constituents of the water tourism industry: development of this segment in regions and service quality improvement; formation of the Russian passenger fleet; modernization and construction of the infrastructure. All these topics were discussed by the representatives of such companies as United Shipbuilding Corporation OJSC, St.Peter Line, STX Europe Finland, Meyer Werft, Gama, Krylov Shipbuilding Research Institute FSUE, Morska Stocznia Remontowa S.A, Nordic Yards, North-West Invest Ltd, Commercial Sea Port of Sochi OJSC, Morsvyazsputnik FSUE, Black Sea Speed Lines, Moscow River Shipping OJSC and others. At the second day of the Forum one of the round tables was dedicated to water transport security assuring, what has got particular topicality after the serious vessel accidents in Russia and in other countries in 2011-2012. Participants of the other round table considered different aspects of water tourism development in Russia. The importance of this direction is connected with new traffic rules for foreign leisure and sport vessels on inland water ways of Russia, which were developed by the Transport Ministry of the Russian Federation and brought into operation this year. In order to attract foreign yachtsmen it’s obligatory to solve several problems: create infrastructure for yacht tourists, assure their security, implement modern navigation and cartographic systems, work out service standards, etc. Representatives of yacht business nonprofit organizations and enterprises took part in the discussion. The final Resolution with Participants’ proposals and initiatives will be send to the profile Ministries and Agencies in order to improve the legislative base in the sphere of sea tourism. More information: Tel. +7 (812) 327-93-70 E-mail: contact@confspb.ru Web-site: www.global-port.ru All past events