The Shanghai tour operators were shown the “Red Route” and the Kazan program “China friendly”

Daria Sannikova told about the readiness of Kazan to receive Chinese tourists.

(KZN.RU, September 18, Regina Nurulina). The Kazan delegation went on a business trip in China to present the representatives of the leading tour operators of multi-million Shanghai the Kazan stage of the “Red Route” and told how the city prepared for the arrival of guests fr om China today.

Shanghai is China's largest economic and cultural center, home to some 35 million people. According to the statistics presented at the meeting, in 2016, more than 40000 Shanghai residents visited Russia, in 2018 this figure exceeded 85000 people. These figures are 30-40% of the total number of tourists.

“As we can see, the flow of our tourists has grown by 100%. Russia is a very attractive destination for us. We are very glad to see you here today. Kazan is an ancient city, and I hope our tourists will be happy to visit it”, Mr. Jian Qi, the deputy head of the Tourism Department of Shanghai, greeted the guests and noted the prospects for cooperation in tourism.

Daria Sannikova, the director of the Committee for the Tourism Promotion of Kazan, spoke about the tourism potential of the capital of Tatarstan, urban and transport infrastructure, presented the city's cultural heritage, achievements in the field of education, sports, and worldwide events.

During the presentation, she separately mentioned the program “China friendly”, which operates in the capital of Tatarstan. So, the city has hotels with navigation in Chinese, with the ability to pay with credit cards Union pay, watch Chinese TV channels and eat native cuisine. And Chinese-speaking guides are being trained in the Confucius Institute on the basis of the Kazan Federal University. “Kazan is ready for the reception of Chinese tourists. We have modern infrastructure, tour guides speaking Chinese, restaurants and hotels aimed at receiving tourists from the China”, she said.

The tour operators of Shanghai were presented a special tourist route “Time to visit Kazan”, which the Committee of Tourism Promotion developed for the residents of China. It includes visits to places associated with Vladimir Lenin, master classes in cooking traditional Tatar cuisine, walking along the Volga. And the route is offered to be completed, for example, in Ulyanovsk. All materials for the presentation were in Chinese.

According to Daria Sannikova, 8757 Chinese citizens visited Kazan in 2017, and tourist flows could increase two times with the strengthening of interaction between cities. The development of the “Red Route” impacts the increasing of the number of Chinese tourists in recent years. The “Red Route” is a cultural-cognitive eight-day grand tour with a visit to the “three capitals” of Russia and the homeland of V. Lenin along the route Moscow – Ulyanovsk – Kazan – St. Petersburg.

The program in the capital of Tatarstan includes a visit to the V. Lenin House-Museum, located in an old wooden mansion of the XIX century. In September 1888, the Ulyanov family settled in this house. Tatiana Basova, the director of the museum, said that they can offer a tourist from China an extensive program wh ere they learn about the exhibits by listening to audio tours in Chinese.

This route has attracted interest from tour operators. For example, the representative of the tourist company Cits group Shanghai considered the “Red Route” interesting, since the main share of their tourists visiting Russia is the older generation, who are fond of this topic.

Professor Maksim Andreev, the founder of the international tourism brand “Visit KAZAN”, in his speech raised the issue of the urgency of the strategic development of the historically established Great Volga routes. “Today, the need for international humanitarian cooperation in the configuration of the East-West through the great transcontinental arteries comes to the fore. The development of science, culture, education, and tourism is becoming a guarantee of stability of development, regional and global security of the peoples of Eurasia”.

After the presentation, representatives of tourist operators asked questions. Thus, the representative of the tour operator China ocean international travel service focused on sending tourists to Russia was interested in transport logistics and medical tourism in Kazan.

Specialist of Shanghai's largest online booking company Shanghai ctrip international travel service asked about the tourist routes and folklore programs that Kazan offers. Daria Sannikova noted that this is one of the distinctive features of the city: the presence of major cultural events, and the world should learn more about. The slogan of the city “Kazan is much more” means that every tourist who comes here will get more emotion than expected, she said. “I would recommend visiting the Fyodor Chaliapin International Opera Festival and the Rudolf Nureyev International Festival of Ballet Art. These are the biggest events in the cultural life of the city”.

At the end of the meeting, Daria Sannikova invited the tour operators to attend the informational tour of Kazan, so that they walked along the “Red Route”, saw everything with their own eyes and further advised customers to visit our city.