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Cooking up more UK Russian visitors

Russian and British want-to-be ‘chefs’ were brought together in Moscow as part of the latest Visit Britain drive to promote increased tourism to the UK.

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VisitBritain brought 47 British tourism businesses to Moscow this week for its latest Destination Britain Russia travel trade mission. The event is part of VisitBritain’s efforts to achieve a 75% increase in Russian visitors by 2020, worth £536 million in annual visitor spend.

The Ritz-Carlton hotel saw British travel operators, representatives of hotels and regional tourist boards meet with more than 120 Russian business partners interested in British tourist products. Among them there were such companies as British Airways, Fortnum and Mason department store, Oxfordshire Cotswolds regional tourist office, Blenheim Palace, The Goring hotels, The Savoy hotel, Historic Scotland (in charge of historical monuments in Scotland), and Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum & Tour.


Earlier representatives of British and Russian companies participated in a culinary master class hosted by John Warren which will feature in his programme on NTV channel in March 2014.

Participants vied for prizes having been asked to cook a Shepherd’s Pie, pelmeny (dumplings) and varenyky (curd-patties). Christopher Rodrigues, Chairman of VisitBritain, said that such events helped people to better understand the culture of both countries and promote friendly relations with business partners.

Mr Rodrigues also met with deputy Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Alla Manilova. They noted that the Cultural-Tourist Forum “Russia-Great Britain” in January had given a substantive lift to developing bilateral cultural and tourism relations, agreeing to draft a new cooperation agreement on culture and tourism.

Mr. Christopher Rodrigues said: “Britain is an inherently attractive and aspirational destination for Russian travellers. We hope to welcome 370,000 Russian visitors a year to Britain by 2020 and this mission will help generate that growth.”

Published 28 February 2014