Cluster development of business tourism in Saint Petersburg

According to statistics, by the end of 2015 the number of tourists arriving in Saint Petersburg for business events, ranged from 70,000 to 100,000 persons, and 31 Congress-events were hosted. The city got 79th place in the world by speci- fied indicator. According to the adopted Development Strategy the city should enter to the Top 10 European and Top 20 global Congress cities. It is expected that in the nearest future Saint Petersburg will be able to take around 60 major international rotating conferences and exhibitions of international level. Features of business tourism in the city are: cost recovery business tourists, off-season nature of the event and focus on achieving certain goals (profit). Weaknesses of development of business tourism are: the lack of professional standards in this sphere of services and reliable and complete statistics, as well as fragmentation of efforts of participants in this market. To address the threats and the organization of business tourism it is proposed to use the cluster approach. As a body of management of enterprises belonging to the cluster, it is proposed to create a Coordination center on the basis of already existing organizations. The main activities of the Сoordination center: the coordination of actions of all partici- pants of the cluster of business tourism, the collection of statistical reporting, investments, international and interre- gional cooperation, implementation of modern IT technologies, implementation of innovative information and method- ological educational programs for staffing cluster of business tourism.