St. Petersburg presentations to be held in European cities ahead of 2018 World Cup

ST. PETERSBURG, November 9. /TASS/. The St. Petersburg tourism committee will launch presentations of Russia’s second largest city in Europe ahead of preparations for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the head of the local tourism bureau said on Thursday. "The purpose of this roadshow is to present St. Petersburg as the gate to the World Cup. We will be working with fans and everyone who wants to visit the city at stadiums and in the cities’ centers," Yevgeny Pankevich said. "Our purpose is to show St. Petersburg as a safe and comfortable place." The presentations will be held in the second half of November in Finland, Germany and Belgium. The mobile office of the St. Petersburg tourism bureau will travel to Helsinki, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Cologne and Brussels. The presentations are scheduled to coincide with the dates of important football matches of the UEFA Champions League and the German football championship. Pankevich said the project aims not only to attract more attention to the 2018 World Cup but also to tell Germans and Belgians about St. Petersburg’s tourist sites. "We are planning to give information about the city’s history and culture, winter vacations and white nights in St. Petersburg," he said. According to him, in the first half of 2018, such presentations will take place in most countries of Western Europe. The matches of the 2018 World Cup will be held between June 14 and July 15 at 12 stadiums located in the 11 Russian cities, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara. Read more