The Youth and Tourism Committee of the Federation Council held its session in Tomsk Oblast
Tomsk hosted a field session of the Youth and Tourism Committee of the Russian Federation Council. The subject of the session was “Studying the Experience of Tomsk Oblast in Developing the Student Work Brigades and Volunteers Training Movement.”
The Youth and Tourism Committee of the Russian Federation Council chaired by
Vladimir Zhidkikh held a field session in Tomsk. The participants in the session discussed the future of student work brigades and volunteers training practices using the example of Tomsk Oblast.
In 2011, student brigades (over 10,000) in the third work term numbered over 235,000 people. There were construction, educational, agricultural, multidisciplinary, servicing, and train attendant brigades.
It was mentioned many times that student work brigades were directly involved in projects such as “Ural Industrial – Ural Polar”; construction of facilities for the XXII Olympic Winter Games and the XI Paralympic Games 2014 in Sochi, the XXVII Summer Universiade 2013 in Kazan, and the 2012 APEC summit in Vladivostok; construction work at the Boguchany Dam in Krasnoyarsk Territory, “Academichesky” residential district in Sverdlovsk Oblast, and many other facilities of critical importance for the national economy.
At the second part of the session which took place in the Tomsk Oblast Administration office building the subject of discussions was development of tourism in the region. Head of the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism Aleksander Radkov attended the session.
Chairman of the Youth and Tourism Committee Vladimir Zhidkikh delivered a review of global trends in tourism development. According to the UN World Tourism Organization, the number of international tourist arrivals in 2010 grew 6.7% over 2009 up to 935 million, twice the rate of global GDP growth. In the 2010 international tourism competition rating Russia ranks 59 out of 139. The World Economic Forum forecasts that in 2011-2020 the Russian tourism industry will grow at an annual rate of 6.7%.
Vladimir Zhidkikh expressed confidence that further simplification of visa and other formal procedures associated with international tourism will give an extra boost to the development of the Russian tourism industry.
On October 12, 2011 the State Duma considered a bill “On amending the Federal Law “On basic principles of tourism industry in the Russian Federation” which delineates tourism-related responsibilities between the federation center and the regions.
Implementation of the national policy in the development of domestic and inbound tourism in Russia and development of the hospitality industry in the innovative environment of Tomsk Oblast were discussed. While giving an evaluation of the experience of Tomsk Oblast, the Oblast representative in the Federation Council Vladimir Zhidkikh reminded that the Oblast contains 165 special protection areas, 145 monuments of nature, 217 monuments of architecture, 163 historical monuments, 160 museums, and 17 tourist travel routes. Therefore, the Senator said, priority types of tourism for the region are business, cultural, hunting and fishing, educational, health, pilgrimage, ethnographic, and environmental tourism. There is also potential to develop cruise, rail, rural, and event tourism.
At the end of the session the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism and the Tomsk Oblast Administration signed an agreement on cooperation in tourism.
Information taken from the website of the
Russian Federation Council.
