calangute business delegations from commonwealth of independent states cis countries including kirgizstan and mongolia besides russia will be participating in the goa international travel mart gitm beginning on april 2 at taleigao russian information center ric in goa will set up a stall promoting russia as an emerging tourist destination for india at the gitm this is a promising event to promote russia its tourism opportunities and rich culture as this event brings together travel companies hoteliers tourism authorities and many other industry players our task is to introduce russia as a great historical and cultural hub as a new emerging tourism destination for guests from india and also as a place for developing tourismrelated business projects said ekaterina belyakova head of ric a special seminar on russia as a new destination for india outbound tourism will be held by ric during gitm experts will introduce tour package options to moscow and stpetersburg speakers will also shed some light on the plans of ric and goa tourism to organize indorussian cultural festivals both in russia and in india aimed at promoting closer relations between the two countries ric will bring business delegations from cis countries like mongolia kirgizstan and several other countries to gitm belyakova said as many of these countries were recently included in the list of countries eligible for simplified visa regime introduced by the indian government goa is likely to become a major destination in south asia for these countries many of which are currently not having any charter flights to goa unlike thailand and bali ric has also invited russian musicians and performers to the gitm and plans to serve guests traditional vodka with special russian snacks ric is launching russian language courses in goa designed to help indians working in the tourism industry learn industryspecific language skills within a short span of time an open russian language lesson will be conducted by ric teachers for all gitm participants we are planning on not only teaching russian here in goa but to take students to russia to meet russian students in moscow and st petersburg we hope even a short trip to russia will enrich indian students with knowledge of russia belyakova added