The Russian Geographical Society, the TV channel “My Planet” and the radio station “Mayak” announced the launch of the third All-Russian contest “The Best Guide of Russia”. Acceptance of work began on April 29 and will last until July 31, inclusive.
Participants of the competition will make a two-minute video - a bright, informative, authentic mini-tour of a city, a museum, a nature trail - and upload it to the project website: лучшийгид.рф.
Both professional guides and amateurs will be able to take part in the contest. Participants competed in separate nominations in previous years, but this year the organizers decided to combine the nominations: the level of works sent by amateurs is so good that it allows them to fight with professionals on an equal footing.
Nominations of the contest "The Best Guide of Russia" in 2019:
- “The Best Guide. Museum". This is about the history of museum collections and their collectors, amazing facts about the exhibits and buildings in which they are stored, legends of the great patrons of art and creators of museums in Russia.
- “The Best Guide. City". The nomination is for those who prefers the streets of his/her native city, town or village, full of sounds and images of the past, to museum storerooms. Not only stories are important, but the author's approach to the presentation, the ability to tell about a street, a house or a monument in his or her place of birth in unusual and fascinating way.
- “The Best Guide. Conductor". This nomination is for people who can conduct an excursion along ecological paths, specially protected natural territories, extreme, mountain and natural routes, find a path to rare flowers, tell where it is better to listen to an oriole, where the largest porcini grow and where the most picturesque view of the valley opens.
- "The Best Guide. Up to 18 years old". This is for young lovers of their native land who are able to make an interesting video tour of their favorite places (from 12 to 18 years old inclusive).
- The special prize "Moscow Guide" from the TV channel "Moscow 24" will be awarded to the best story about the Russian capital.
The videos will be evaluated by a competent jury of the competition: professionals in the field of tourism and travel journalism. Among them are well-known TV hosts John Warren and Valdis Pelsh, President of the Russian Tourist Guides Association Alexander Osipov, President of the Nizhny Novgorod Guild of Guides Ekaterina Leschanova, Chief Editor of the Vokrug Sveta magazine Sergey Apresov and others.
The winners will be announced in September. They will be the heroes of the cycle of documentaries on the “My Planet” TV and all residents of Russia will see the author’s excursions.
The best guides of the “adult” nominations will receive a money prize of 100,000 rubles, and the winner of the “children's” nomination will become the owner of a video camera.
In the two previous years, the site лучшийгид.рф received more than 1,300 works - unique video tours of the most picturesque and interesting places in Russia. "The Best Guide Of Russia" is a competition that opens up talents and changes the lives of their heroes for the better.
Marina Nozhenko, the employee of the Kizhi Museum, the winner of the 2018 competition in the nomination “The Best Guide. Museum": "There is such a profession - to fall in love with Kizhi. Participation in the contest gave me the opportunity to tell a large audience about my favorite place on the Earth. I have been working as a guide for many years, but I never imagined that I could compete in the excursion business. It seems fair to say that the competition was for me a real course for raising qualifications. As a result, I made several thematic additions to my excursion story about the island of Kizhi. Much more tourists visit my excursions, and this, I believe, thanks to the competition”.
Dmitry Tikhomirov, the winner of the 2018 competition in the nomination “The Best Guide. Conductor": "Thanks to the competition, the number of subscribers to my YouTube channel "Mushrooms Hunter" has increased. My yellow mushroom-mobile even began to be recognisable on the roads of Moscow and skipped in traffic jams. Even my housemates make acquaintance with me personally, after having seen my videos and mushroom excursions”.
Nina Smelkova, the winner of the 2018 competition in the nomination “The Best Guide. Professional": "Participation in the competition is professional growth for me, and victory gave me confidence that such excursions that I drive are needed. These excursions are ironic, easy, without overloading with dates and styles, but with communication, questions, tea in a thermos. And the most important thing - Vologda residents became my frequent tourists after the contest. Try to make locals fall in love with their city - that’s the task!”