Gossip Opens In Sochi

Gossip, owned by Martial and Bastien Simonneau, has opened in Sochi at the Melodiya Shopping Center.  Gossip, which has great views of central Sochi and Kurortniy Prospekt, sports a cool and casual environment designed to appeal to the professional crowd in the heart of the city.  I tried sushi rolls (good) and the salad with Saint Marcellin cheese (excellent and the likes of which can not be found elsewhere in Sochi) and also their own mango and strawberry sorbet. Gossip has the right ambiance to draw a sophisticated foreign clientele as well as the hipster scene in Sochi.

Channel 5 Video In Sochi With Bruce Talley

Several weeks ago, I was featured in a video piece that Saint Petersburg's Channel 5 did on English langauge service in Sochi.  The video was shown nationwide in Russia.  Sochi has started a "word of the day" program to teach residents of Sochi basic English.  Each resident will be exposed to the word an average of 3 times per day.

Hotel, Restaurant and Cafe Expo

April 4- 7 saw an expo on the boardwalk at Lighthouse Beach.  About 100 exhibitors were there to sell products and services to the hotels, restaurants and cafes in Sochi.  We attended and took photos of the event. Sochi is adjusting to its changing market with new hotel providers such as Hyatt, Marriott and Hilton.  Radisson is adding another property.  New restuarants are opening to appeal to Sochi's increasingly international visitors. However, Sochi has a shortage of catering companies that can satisfy the demands of outside organizations for events. We are working with several companies that are expanding into Sochi and at least one restaurant with foreign ownership is planning to expand into catering to meet the demand.

Workforce Accommodation in Sochi

The situation for companies seeking workforce accommodation in Sochi is complicated by several factors.  One issue is that with traffic and construction workers will face commuting delays, even when living relatively close to their workplace.  Apartments in older buildings in Sochi are individually owned and new buildings are usually quickly sold out to indiivdual homeowners.  Sometimes the process is completed even before the building is finished.  So, there are no large apartment complexes that are owned and managed as rental properties. This means assembling a number of apartments in one location will be very difficult. 

We have a database of apartment owners and projects where rentals are available.  The objective is to identify properties with the standards that foreign companies and workers will expect.  Then we find individual owners who rent apartments in those projects.  Since there are very few owners with large inventories, it is complicated. We also anticipate the shopping and transportation needs of workers, so that when companies come here, they will have the information necessary to make the best selection possible.  We also provide help with negotiation and legal documentation and have several packages of services to meet the homefinding and eventual departure needs of executives and workers coming to Sochi. 

Please visit the site, DestinationSochi.com to learn more about our services and the ways in which we can offer expert help.   The site has contact information, also.  

We advise companies and organizations to contact us as quickly as possible to discuss planning.  Because of capacity issues, costs will rise and favorable locations will be unavailable for late entrants.

Aeroexpress

Last week, I rode the new Aeroexpress service from the airport in Sochi's Adler District to the central station in Sochi.  The ride was quiet, comfortable, very pleasant and at just 50 minutes from station to station, it is shorter than the usual automobile trip.  I think this is a godsend to travelers and will help to reduce traffic on Sochi's main road.  For those who use have used the Aeroexpress service in Moscow between the city center and Sheremetyevo, Domodedov and Vnukovo Airports, the comfort and convenience of the service will be familiar and the bright red wagons will be a welcome sight on arrival at the airport in Sochi.  The train has one stop at Adler, where a new station is being built and costs 200 rubles for standard class and 350 rubles for a business class ticket.

We made a video of the trip.  Please watch it: