Dilbar Sadykova: "In 2017, the Tourism Development Center of the Republic of Tatarstan implemented more than 30 projects

At the last meeting the Director General of the ANO "Tourism Development Center of the Republic of Tatarstan" Dilbar Sadykova told about the implementation of special projects of the Tourism Development Center of the Republic of Tatarstan in 2017 and plans for 2018: " In 2017, the Tourism Development Center of the Republic of Tatarstan implemented more than 30 projects aimed at development of the tourism and hospitality industry in the country, as well as promotion of a local tourist product in promising markets.

In 2017, most of the work is devoted to the implementation of the "Program for the Development of the VT Brand Tour Destination" and the achievement of brand performance indicators: from nontypical promotions and advertising companies, work on information resources for tourists, creation of a new route, start for the accreditation of the brand, work with the souvenir market to the holding the international forum Guidelines for the Future.

The TDC as the organization, following the trends and new directions of development in territorial branding, gives serious attention to analytics in tourism, monitoring of the hotel market.

Such a project as the Portrait of a Tourist allows you to determine the socio-demographic characteristics of tourists, as well as to identify the channels for obtaining information about the republic and resources that influence the decision making and in the future helps us to form a communication strategy for the promotion of the tourism product of the Republic of Tatarstan and understand the target audience.

Let me share the changes that happened in 2017. We see that the share of individual tourists is growing (who travels with friends or family), which means there is a demand for a personal approach in the provision of services and selection of routes.

Among the main trends in 2017, one can note a decrease in the cost of tourists for accommodation, in connection with this, the number of tourists who stay on rented apartments has increased by 10%.
Most often, tourists travel by train. Tourists are mostly family people, most often traveling without children, and their purpose of the trip is "vacation/rest/leisure", most of the travelers came to Tatarstan for the first time for 2-3 days and ready to return to the republic again.

The study shows that the younger the tourist - the shorter his/her visit, and tourists aged 35 years and older come for a longer period. This is confirmed by the world trend - the youth began to travel more often, but the duration of stay in one place became shorter.

Today before the board we also conducted a survey among you. Each of us also happens to be a tourist, so here the survey showed the identical tendencies. Among those who will recommend Tatarstan to visit for others is 94%, with the number of satisfied guests steadily growing (in 2015 this figure was 88%, in 2016 - 90%), the especially high indicator is in spring and summer. When planning a trip, 80% of respondents use Internet sites, growth is fixed by 11% compared to 2016, and according to the survey, 32% of the respondents consult with friends and relatives.

It is important that when choosing a rest on the domestic market, tourists in 2017 more actively used the sources about the rest in Tatarstan on Internet portals and in social network services, which indicates the active work of Tatarstan in the Internet and the presence in the information field at a sufficiently high level.

The study of arriving tourists for the New Year holidays in the period from 30.12.2017 to 08.01.2018 showed that the number of tourists arriving in the Republic of Tatarstan by private car has increased. (from 9.4% to 22.8%). There is also a pattern: the older the tourists, the higher the estimate of the satisfaction of their stay. Men spent more money while staying in Tatarstan than women. (Expenses of men made 26,188.89 rubles, expenses of women – 23,188.54 rubles)

In 2017, within the FIFA Confederations Cup, the TDC compiled the Portrait of a fan for the first time. The fan who visited Kazan in the matches of the FIFA Confederations Cup 2017, is mostly a man aged from 26 to 35, who flew to the capital by plane or arrived by train (69.5 %) with a group of several or more people (83.3 %) and stayed at the hotel (38.4%) for 2-3 days (51.3%), slightly less than respondents (24.7%) stayed in the republic for almost a week. Besides Kazan, the fans during their stay in Tatarstan visited the island-city Sviyazhsk, Bolgar, Raifsky monastery.

The absolute majority of the fans surveyed were satisfied with their trip to Kazan and Tatarstan, are ready to return to the republic again and will recommend our region to visit to their friends and relatives. These indicators confirm that Tatarstan for fans both from other cities of Russia and foreign visitors, has left pleasant impressions about travel to region, a lot of respondents already have planned the next trip.

Besides, the fans were asked to evaluate the work of the infrastructure categories of Kazan on the 10-point scale (1-very bad, 10-very good). Thus, the level of service in the means of accommodation of Kazan was on average estimated at 8.47 points, work of the transport system at 8.20 points, establishments of public catering (restaurants, cafes) at 8.77 points, and comfortable environment of the capital of Tatarstan at 8.38 points.

Feedback received from the fans was analyzed. According to the results of the survey, the question "What can be improved for the FIFA World Cup?", the list of popular issues was:

- the organization of fan-zone with the ability to view the matches.

- the information materials about the transport system: the fans noted the lack of information about the schedule/routes/bus stops. Some even offered to supplement the underground to Kazan-Arena.

- providing access to communal toilets in tourist places. So a tourist does not always quickly find public restrooms, there is a world practice, when the places of public catering allow guests to the restrooms of their establishment completely free of charge. This practice we propose to introduce for the period of the FIFA World Cup 2018. - the increase of the level of knowledge of foreign languages (mainly English) in the service of tourists, as well as an increase in the number of symbols and signs in the city, museums and tourist centers in English.

According to the received indicators, based on the results of surveys within the framework of the projects "Portrait of a Tourist" and "Portrait of a Fan" we form our strategy for promotion in social network services (Vkontakte, instagram, facebook), for each of the social network services we prepare our unique content that meets the ideology Visit Tatarstan. The VT accounts regularly display the interesting facts about the cities of Tatarstan, tourist places and compilations for visiting by the travelers, interesting contests and surveys that allow you to keep the visitor and answer their requests.

In 2017, the monitoring was conducted in the direction of ORM (Operating Reputation Management in the Internet space), so over the last year on various Internet resources there were more than 92 thousand refs about Tatarstan, of which slightly less than 2 thousand are negative, the rest ones - the positive or neutral ones. We have tracked every ref, which concerns tourist venues, hotels and places of rest, according to negative comments we carried out corresponding work on elimination of their reasons causing dissatisfaction of visitors of the republic directly with venues, the measures taken are up to the users. Negative comments of a general nature (for example, it was bad weather) were worked out by the spreads of positive comments (And I like Kazan in any weather), thus forming a general positive background on the Internet and a tourist quality system aimed at forming a reputation for Tatarstan as a comfortable region for the rest.

In the hall there is an exhibition of the VT souvenir products, the development of a product range, design and conformity to its brand - this is a separate direction that the TDC conducts with the support of the SC. Behind the VT brand, there is not only the visual range, but the rethinking of the tourist product, the transfer of the lifestyle of the local population, the high level of services and the most important thing is the sensations of pleasure and satisfaction!

In 2017, a lot of work was carried out to study the available souvenir base in Tatarstan, the design and presentation of souvenir products according to contemporary trends were worked out, the first sales places were determined, the first catalogue of souvenir products presented in several directions was prepared.  Today the VT has a registered trademark. Refs from city residents and tourists have shown that the VT products are in great demand, they like and are unique!

It is important that products appear in trade centers, were used by our ministries and institutions as presentation materials. For our part, in 2018 we will continue popularization of the VT souvenirs among the residents of the republic and guests, we will expand the range and conduct appropriate negotiations on localization of production in Tatarstan.

In connection with the gained experience and the accomplished tasks of 2017, in 2018 we will continue the chosen course. Thus, the activity on monitoring the quality system showed the need to organize and conduct the educational module "Hospitality. Reboot", which became the traditional eve of major sporting events and held in 2013 and 2015. Participants of the module will be representatives of hotels, restaurants, museums, security services, it is planned to cover about 5 thousand people. Within the framework of the training, it is planned to improve the skills of business communication, to study cultural and national peculiarities of communication with foreigners, management of expectations, contemporary methods of promotion for tourist products. The training will be held in the format of master classes from the leading trainers of the hospitality industry, each listener will be given the  educational benefit.

Also in 2018, in our plans, there is the launch of the "Visit Tatarstan Educational Academy" project aimed at immersing the main players in the tourism brand.

The course, which includes lectures and master classes for representatives of hotels, restaurants, tour operators, souvenir production and stores, museums, entertainment facilities and guides, will allow to develop and implement a unified quality system, explore new marketing opportunities for the industry, increase the attractiveness of services for tourists and to form new approaches to their promotion.

Hotels and restaurants, representatives of which will be trained, will get the statute accredited by the brand Visit Tatarstan places and enter the recommended routes to tourists. Thus, the project will increase loyalty to the brand and involve not only the staff, but also the infrastructure and related services in the process. "