Promising regional projects were presented at the RUSSIA EXPO

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Tourism and industry, education, urban environment. Achievements and prospects in these areas were discussed at the plenary session "Space of the Future: Northwestern Macroregion" at the RUSSIA EXPO.   

Russian President Vladimir Putin has set a goal to increase the number of trips within Russia to 140 million by 2030, and the regions of the Northwest are making every effort to help achieve these figures.

"Last year the growth of tourism in our country showed record figures: according to the results of statistical reporting it turned out 83.6 million tourist trips. And I want to point out that more than 11 million of them fall on the regions of the Northwest. This shows that the macroregion is developing very actively, and there is almost everything for tourism to continue moving forward with big and confident steps," said Director of the Tourism Development Department of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia Alimbek Khidzev. 

The head of state also set a task to bring the contribution of tourism to the country's GDP to at least 5% by 2030. Natalia Ishchenko, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Kaliningrad region, spoke about the development of tourism in the Kaliningrad region in terms of work in this direction. She also drew the attention of those present to the need to develop human resources in tourism and hospitality industry.

"New projects in the sphere of tourism and hospitality industry require qualified personnel, we are also engaged in this. There are nine educational institutions of higher and secondary education in the Kaliningrad region for training personnel in various directions in this sphere. About a thousand specialists graduate annually, and by 2030 we expect that the number of professionals in this industry will grow by six thousand people," said Natalia Ishchenko.

Inna Karpova, Development Director of the Glampoint eco-hotel, told how to increase the interest of business in restoration of architectural monuments with the help of state support measures, and at the same time to increase the tourist attractiveness of historical heritage sites. The speech, among other things, was about involving cultural heritage objects in economic turnover.

"One of our objects is located in the town of Bagrationovsk — it is the Preisisch-Eilau Castle, which has been in disrepair for almost 200 years. We opened this site in 2022 and have been actively developing it since 2023. Here we have attracted grant funds, and we also use another support measure, which is the involvement of cultural heritage objects in economic turnover. Yes, we have come a difficult way, but nevertheless, it is all real, and we are grateful to our colleagues for supporting us and allowing us to implement such large-scale projects aimed at the development of tourist infrastructure," said Inna Karpova.

The experts also discussed the industrial potential of the Northwestern macroregion. Evgeny Bogdanov, First Deputy Governor of the Novgorod region, and Sergei Zhestyannikov, Deputy Governor of the Vologda region, spoke about the development of mechanical engineering, chemical, radio-electronic and other industries — including through the formation of human resources potential, implementation of state support measures and development of investment projects.