The "League of Tour Guides" program was launched at the Exposition

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On May 17 at the RUSSIA EXPO the opening ceremony of the educational and competitive program of the final of the "League of Tour Guides" project, organized by the Russian Society "Knowledge", the presidential platform "Russia - Land of Opportunity" and the Rosmolodezh program "More than a Trip", was held. The names of more than 70 winners in 7 nominations will be announced on May 20 in the Pavilion No. 57 "Russia - My History", and the most interesting excursion routes and stories of 1000 participants of the program will be included in the book "The Best Tour Guides of Russia".

A rich educational program awaits the finalists of the "League of Tour Guides". From May 17 to May 20, experts of the tourism industry and related areas will share their experience with them. The participants will learn about such topics as working with historical data, creating unique tourist routes, methodical preparation of the excursion product, professional competencies of a tour guide, service in excursion activities. Experts will tell about current trends, give useful recommendations and answer questions from the audience. Along with lectures and masterclasses, the educational program will include demonstration tours and a quiz, where finalists will be able to get ideas for their professional development.

"The "League of Tour Guides" project was able to unite real connoisseurs of our big country, people who sincerely love their Motherland. We received almost 12 thousand applications from all regions of the country to participate in the contest. It is gratifying to know that there are so many guides in Russia! With their diverse projects for completely different audiences, the children were able to prove that studying one's Fatherland is an endless process full of constant and most surprising discoveries," said Irina Karikh, Deputy Director General of the Russian Society "Knowledge".

One of the first events for 210 participants from 59 regions was a lecture "Journey Through Time" by the great traveler, writer, artist and priest Fyodor Konyukhov.

During the educational program, the finalists also began to immerse themselves in the methodology of creating a tour product, learned about meta-skills, effective tools for implementing their projects in professional activities and studied 7 skills of public speaking to conduct their tour in one of the competitive stages.

"Tourist flow in Russian regions is increasing and, of course, interest in professions in tourism is growing. We decided to develop a special program uniting guides and tour guides from different regions. Thanks to the support of the initiative of the "Masters of Hospitality" contest winner by the President of Russia, the "League of Tour Guides" program was developed. Its participants are people who are in love with their profession, their regions, who want to unite and develop tourism together. It is important that the number of those who want to travel around Russia, but also those who want to work and develop in the field of tourism increases," noted Alexei Agafonov, First Deputy Director General of ANO "Russia - Land of Opportunity".

The Case Championship will end on May 20, on the same day more than 75 winners in 7 nominations will be announced and awarded. In addition, the most interesting excursion routes will be selected from those presented by the contestants, as well as 1000 of the most vivid stories of tour guides, which will be included in the book "The Best Tour Guides of Russia". This book will be useful for creating an ecosystem of tourism industry specialists in all regions of our country.

"Projects such as the "League of Tour Guides" help to raise the prestige and importance of this profession, rejuvenate it by attracting young people to the tourism and hospitality industry, and improve the qualifications of personnel. We see how much the image of the Russian tour guide has changed over the past year: the industry is replenished with creative tour products for different age audiences, specialists who tell about our country with heart. Such are our "guides of meanings", who today work at the RUSSIA EXPO and have already conducted over 45 thousand excursions for its guests," said the head of excursion projects of Rosmolodezh's program "More than a Trip" Olga Yurakova.

All finalists of the "League of Tour Guides" program will join the flagship project of the Russian Society "Knowledge" -Knowledge.Lecturer and the community of the "Masters of Hospitality" project of the platform "Russia - Land of Opportunity". They will also be able to present their tourist offers within the framework of the Rosmolodezh program "More than a Trip". Another award will be the opportunity to undergo a professional development program.

The winners of the finals will also receive valuable prizes from the partners of the "League of Tour Guides". Thus, the winners of the nomination "Industrial Excursion" will receive vouchers to a production plant in Bangladesh, instant print cameras from JSC "Orgenergostroy Institute" and the Foundation for the Development of Production Systems and Industrial Tourism. “Kavkaz.RF” will award the winners of the "Cultural and Educative Excursion" nomination with year-round ski passes, traveler's kits and blog tours. Sletat.ru Group of Companies will present the winners in the category "Volunteer Excursion Activities" with access to profile courses from "Sletat.ru Academy" and certificates for traveling around the country.

SberEducation will open access to the educational platform Edutoria the best of the best in the nomination "Digital Excursion". The Russian movement of children and youth "Movement of the First", "Soyuzmultclub", "Soyuzmultpark", "Tinkoff Travels" and the urban farm "Novo-Prostokvashino" have also prepared valuable prizes for the winners in various nominations.

The finalists of the all-Russian program-competition "League of Tour Guides" underwent a serious selection process. All of them overcame the qualification stage, for which more than 6.8 thousand young and adult guides from all over the country applied in December 2023. Next was the regional stage, in which more than 5 thousand contestants participated. "The League of Tour Guides" is designed to help experienced and novice tour guides to improve their competence and learn about new directions for self-realization. It also helps to unite professionals of the tourism industry in the industry community, the idea of its creation was approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin in the summer of 2023 as part of the national project "Tourism and Hospitality Industry", aimed at increasing the number of travels in our country and ensuring economic growth through the multiplicity of the tourism industry.