A round table meeting devoted to student tourism («Student tourism as a way to organize leisure and enlightenment of youth in Russia”) was held at the HQ of the Society in Moscow. Students from the Russian Presidential Academy of the National Economy and Public Service spoke about tourist routes of four Russian regions that they had designed for students in higher education.
The program of student tourist routes has been organized by the Russian Academy of Sciences and since 2017 it has been developed together with some Russian universities, industry associations and public authorities. The project, aimed at designing appropriate tourist routes for students, was launched with grants from the Russian Geographical Society.
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Anastasia Chernobrovina, Advisor to the President of the Russian Geographical Society on Information Policy,Vladimir Kotlyakov Honorary President of the Russian Geographical Society, Chairman of the Russian Geographical Society Commission for the Development of Tourism, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Alexei Konyushkov, Deputy Head of the Federal Agency for Tourism evaluated the reports.
"Unfortunately, those achievements that we have now in tourism are mostly based on the previous ones. Thus, such projects as this invigorate Russian tourism,” Alexei Konyushkov noted.
New tourist routes designed for university and college students were presented at the event, such as tours of the Caucasus region, of the Crimea and Tatarstan, of the Nizhny Novgorod region and the Chechen Republic.
To design competitive in price and quality programs the students have visited all the above-mentioned regions, established contacts with local universities and travel companies, studied prices of hotels and hostels, catering and restaurants, museums and sports entertainments.
When we interviewed students, we’ve learned that the average cost for a three-day trip expected by young people is 10,000 rubles (and for a 7-day one no more than 20,000 rubles). So we’ve tried to make interesting, full of attractions, but at the same time low-cost routes,” Maria Belyakova, head of the Management of sports and tourism industry department of the Russian Presidential Academy of the National Economy and Public Service, said.
The research conducted by young specialists showed that a “Greater Caucasus Trip” should take no less than seven days and include visits to such regions as Alania, Kabardino-Balkaria, Stavropol and North Ossetia. The program includes visits to major regional cities, museums, camping and even, if desired, extreme types of tourism. If we take into account transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment, this option will cost 19,500 rubles.
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Whereas a 3-day trip to Tatarstan with visiting major attractions will cost about 7,000 rubles. And a 3-day tour of the Chechen Republic will be more expensive- about 16,000 rubles.
"This project is an attempt to develop student tourism. It is a success, so we are trying to bring it to the official state level and make it known in the expert and industry community, Vladimir Sharov, a representative of the Association of Internal and Inbound Tourism, noted.
The round-table session was followed by experts’ comments and suggestions on the presented routes.
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