St. Petersburg, 30 January 2007 — The Grand Hotel Europe, renowned for its support of charitable projects, has invited its regular clients to an annual reception to mark the final results of 2007 in the field of charity work.

The Grand Hotel Europe's charity projects, such as the annual Golden Autumn Pushkin Ball and children's winter ball at Tsarskoe Selo, are famous far beyond St. Petersburg and even Russia.

The Grand Hotel Europe's Charitable Fund was founded in 2006 with the main aim of helping socially deprived children.
The fund works with a host of children's homes with the aim of improving their living conditions and giving them the chance to have a successful future.  As part of this aim, the hotel also has a programme by which young people from children's homes are employed at the hotel.  As their first place of work, the hotel gives them the necessary training as well as social benefits such as work clothes, complimentary meals and medical insurance.  The young people start to work and as a result take control of their lives and develop a sense of responsibility for their actions.  There are currently four girls working in various departments of the hotel, and another five will join them this year.

In addition, the fund will cover in full the tuition costs for the first two participants of the programme to study at St. Petersburg Engineering and Economic University, and the hotel plans to continue this scheme.  The girls will receive a higher education in the sphere of tourism and the hospitality industry.

At the end of last year, the hotel also became the patron of the Nevsky Dubrovka Children's Home.  In addition to help on a daily basis, staff from the Grand Hotel Europe also took the children on an excursion around the hotel to show them how the various departments of a hotel work.  Young people from the children's home will also be offered work at the Grand Hotel Europe once they reach the working age.

One of the financial sources for the fund's activities is the loyalty programme for Grand Hotel Europe clients.  Regular hotel guests are given special cards, which entitle them to discounts on hotel services.  Part of the money spent by cardholders goes to the fund, so that guests know that every time they use the hotel services, they are also helping children.

In January, the Grand Hotel Europe holds an annual Gala reception for VIP-cardholders in order to thank clients for their loyalty.  Part of the evening's programme is the traditional charity auction, the proceeds of which go to the Grand Hotel Europe's Charitable Fund.  For the first year in the history of the Grand Hotel Europe, this year more than $30,000 was raised.

On 30 January 2008, the Gala reception for Grand Hotel Europe VIP-cardholders was held in the Krysha Ballroom.  The hotel's general manager, Thomas Noll, presented the results of the fund's activities in 2007 and announced its plans for 2008.

The hospitality industry can and should be socially responsible, looking beyond its internal affairs and the interests of the small circle of its visitors and guests.
The Grand Hotel Europe has always been and will remain the calling card of the city on the Neva, and an intrinsic part of city life.