The Russian Convention Bureau with participation of the Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund and with the information support of the Roscongress Foundation held a press tour entitled “Open Russia with Three Cultures,” for representatives of leading international media of the event industry.

The guests of the RCB included representatives of leading industry publications and media holdings: Conference & Meetings World (CMW, UK), Headquarters magazine (Belgium), Conference & Incentive Travel (C&IT, UK), Kongres Magazine (Slovenia), Grupo eventoplus (Spain), Mice Affairs (India), and Event-live.ru (Russia). Over several days, the journalists studied the infrastructural capabilities of Russian cities for holding large international events, as well as cultural and historical peculiarities and national traditions.

The Moscow venues were represented by Skolkovo Technopark, VTB Arena Stadium, VDNH and Panorama 360 Viewing Platform. These venues allowed to demonstrate our guests the infrastructural diversity of the megalopolis for holding events in a great number of topic areas. Transfer services in Moscow for the participants of the press tour were provided by VGT (Very Good Transfer) Company.

Vice President of Skolkovo Foundation Alexandra Barschevskaya said: “We are always happy to see foreign journalists come to Skolkovo Innovation Center, because they are opinion leaders to a considerable extent, they help shape a certain attitude, impression and understanding - they form what we call Skolkovo’s image. We have things to show and something to be proud of. A total of 2000 innovative companies are ready to offer their products on the international market, and the innovation center, in turn, is ready to welcome international events of any level.”

The press tour in Kazan was implemented in partnership with the Convention Bureau of the Republic of Tatarstan. The participants of the press tour visited the Unified Presentation Center of Tatarstan, where they met with representatives of the Republic’s Investment Development Agency who answered questions about the capabilities of the region in terms of congress and tourism activities.
The event potential of the Republic was represented by several venues: Kazan Arena Stadium, Kazan Fair CEC, Kazan Expo International Exhibition Center (the venue of the recent WorldSkills Kazan - 2019 event) and Kazan Palace design hotel by Tasigo.

The guests studied the cultural and historic heritage of the Republic during the tour of the Kazan Kremlin, and the culinary tradition and diversity - during their visit to Tatarskaya Usadba restaurant of the traditional Tartar cuisine.  It was there that the participants of the press tour also had a meeting with representatives of the Association of Restaranteurs and Hoteliers of the Republic of Tatarstan. During the visit, the representatives of the press noted the high event potential of the region and the professionalism of the team working on promotion of the region.

“We are happy to see the high assessment of the MICE potential of the Republic of Tatarstan of leading mass media of the industry. Our key task for today is to become a leader in the European family of destinations. We have every requirement for this in Tatarstan,” said Guzal Burnaeva, head of the Convention Bureau of the Republic of Tatarstan.

“Today Tatarstan is becoming increasingly more popular in the world as a region of successful investment stories. This year the Republic remained the region with most stable investment conditions: for the fifth year in a row, we have been one of top three leading companies, and for three years we were on top of the national rating. We have 85 industrial parks, and the largest number of territories with federal tax break regimes: 2 special economic zones and 5 territories of advanced socio-economic development.

To attract investments into the economy of Tatarstan, we are working to improve the mechanism of public-private partnership and have been working actively on positioning Tatarstan as an advanced region for MICE. The Convention Bureau is an effective instrument for development of MICE industry and attracting investments into the format of rotating world events. The Convention Bureau of the Republic of Tatarstan has been functioning under the Investment Development Agency.  The Bureau has been working actively with the expert community to attract prestigious industry events to the area. For instance, we won the right to hold the First Central-Eastern Congress on Intellectual Modes of Transportation on September 21-24, and on October 14-16 we will host the TCI Network, 23rd World Conference on Cluster Development, - Talia Minullina, head of the Agency for Investment Development of the Republic of Tatarstan told the representatives of foreign mass media.

The Ufa press tour was held in partnership with the autonomous non-profit organization for preparing and holding events on development of cross-national and international cooperation - Office Group, the Bashkortostan Republic Convention Bureau. The guests studied the event industry as they visited TORATAU and VDNH-Expo sites of the Congress Hall, and the sectoral specializaiton of the region - at the Ufa State University of Oil Technologies and Burintech enterprise. The achievements of the Republic in traditional areas – bee farming and horse breeding were presented in the Bashkir Honey House and Akbuzat Horse-Racing Center.

“The Republic regularly becomes a congress venue for major federal and international events. International forums, sport events, cultural festivals, large-scale research conferences and many other types of events have become a familiar theme for the city, attracting thousands of participants from around the world,” said Evgeny Ponomarenko, director of the Autonomous Non-Profit Organization for Preparation and Implementation of Events for the Development of Interethnic and International Cooperation under the Congress Bureau of the Republic of Bashkortostan (Office Group).  “The results of the press tour show that when we draw up the business programs for MICE industry events, we must follow the new bleisure (business + leisure) trend. This trend is not only about combining work and business: it also reflects our conscious desire to turn ordinary business trips into something new and fascinating for every traveler. It is especially important because the Republic of Bashkortostan not only has the modern congress infrastructure for organizing industry and business events of international scale, but is ready to offer centuries of cultural traditions and heritage of the Bashkir people, unique nature, historic monuments, multiethnic population, and delicious cuisine that comes along with exclusive Bashkir hospitality!”

The cultural program of the press tour in the capital of Bashkiria included not only introduction to the national Bashkir folklore, which became one of the most vivid memories of the program, but also a visit to the Bashkir State Theatre of Opera and Ballet. The participants of the press tour noted that the congress sector in the Republic was developing in the right direction and that the destination had obvious potential, given its experience with large international events.

“Congresses and exhibitions held in Ufa, become effective tools for development of priority directions in the economy of the city and the Republic of Bashkortostan as a whole, a venue for joint actions of the scientific community, authorities, business and the general public. It is this interconnection that will allow us to determine the most useful topics of events that can help us develop our economy,” said Nikolay Fadeev, Vice Mayor of Ufa.

Alexey Kalachev, Director of the Russian Convention Bureau, said about the event: “I am sure that our guests appreciated not only the wealth of information that the program provided but also the sincere hospitality that is so characteristic for Russian regions. In Russia, we have quite a few destinations with fully formed infrastructure and the experience of holding major international events. Our goal is to share this information with the international professional community and help various regions to implement their competitive advantages in competing for new events that can help improve our event potential and tourist attractiveness, because after all visitors of various business events can be seen as business tourists.