II Kazan International Tourist Forum «Benchmarks of the Future»: we choose advance focus!

From 17th till 19th of October, 2013 the II Kazan International Tourist Forum «Benchmarks of the Future» was held in the capital of Tatarstan with the support of the Federal Tourism Agency (Rosturizm) and the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan. The Russian Association of Business Travel was the informational partner of the event.

Deputy director of the Department of Tourism and Regional Policy of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation Nikolay Korolev, deputy director of the Federal Tourism Agency Dmitry Amunts and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan Ildar Khalikov took part in the opening ceremony.

The Forum gathered more than 550 participants from 20 regions of the country. State authorities, administration chiefs, the largest tour operators, analysts, industry experts, directors of the largest travel companies came to Kazan to exchange their experience and to discuss cooperation plans.

More than 20 speakers made their reports during two days. The outlook for travel industry development and its problems in Russia was presented by the representatives of companies including Digital Tourism Think Tank, Yandex.Maps, ZOLOTOgroup, Hospitality In.Comm, Museum Solutions, Tivaris Advisori Services, World Association of Culinary Chefs, Round the World project, Social Networks agency, RedKeds creative agency.

Forum organizers emphasized the important topic — the use of online technologies in tourism.

According to the Deputy Minister of Youth Affairs, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Tatarstan, Sergey Ivanov, the forum was a success: «We have invited experienced speakers whose presentations were very interesting. Two topics were of primary importance for us: creation of comfortable atmosphere for tourists and IT technologies in tourism. The halls were full during all the sessions, and it means that we have chosen burning issues for discussion».

On October 18th and 19th during the visiting session, the participants of the «Benchmarks of the Future» Forum could get acquainted with Tatarstan’s travel destinations — Sviyazhsk island and the Great city of Bolgar.