AEB North-West Working Meeting with the government of St. Petersburg.
05 April, the Association or European Businesses had a working meeting with the Tourism Committee of the government of St. Petersburg together with the leading hotels of St. Petersburg.
The meeting was on future cooperation opportunities between the AEB and the city.
After an introduction by Frank Schauff of CEO of the AEB, and Evgeny Pankevich, Chairman of the Committee for Touristic Development, several issues were raised by the city on legislation and accessibility of the hotels for disabled people. Furthermore, there was a presentation on the many events to come in St. Petersburg through 2019 – not only in summer, when hotels are very well loaded – but also during the low season.
The moderator, Andreas Bitzi, chairman of the AEB in the Northwest and managing director of quality partners, pointed at the readiness of the hotels to host disabled people and the opportunities to use common marketing channels. He also mentioned that during winter season, it would be beneficial for tourism to have a cleaner city than during the winter season that has just ended.
From the hotels‘ side, Patrick Catania, general director of International Hotel Investment / Corinthia Hotel and member of the steering group of the AEB Northwest, expressed the wish by hotels to have a single contact point in the government for any issues that may come up, like a one-window-principle, just as the city has already in place for investors. The city agreed to be willing to offer such an approach the the AEB‘s members.
Thanks to Evgeny Pankevich and the city administration for hosting us at Nevskaia Ratusha and the cooperation.
