04.12.2017

Отчет нашей Ассоциации Европейской Федерации в 2017

RUSSIA  REPORT  2017


The Russian Tourist Guides Association registers 1300 guides with 24 foreign languages, and 700 guides, who provide services to Russian travelers.
All guides have accreditations as Professional Tourist Guides by The Expert Council of Moscow Government.

The RTGA is appointed by the Government of Moscow as the Organization, which is responsible for the Official Registry of the qualified accredited guides. All official guides refresh their qualification every five years according to  the Professional Standard of the Russian Federation Ministry of Labor. The Program duration is 78 hours and includes lectures, master classes, coach and pedestrian tours, new venues and museums, urban renovations.


The RTGA is constantly promoting the profession of a Tourist Guide among graduates and students of Humanitarian and Tourist Universities, as well as among professionals, who work in the field of Arts, History, Architecture.
In 2016-17 we have examined and tested 118 candidates for an Introduction Course , they have accomplished a 245 hours course and became professional guides with 12 languages, including Farsi, Vietnameese, Arabic, Chinese and Korean. This variety shows the new geographical trends in the Incoming International Tourism in the RF.

We have responded to the challenge of the growing Chinese tourist flows by training 18 guides, Russian Citizens at the Leading Moscow " Guides Educational Center" and 30 new Chinese speaking guides, sponsored by the RosTourism (State Tourism Agency) and completely accomplished with the State budget funds. The total amount of guides, who are professionally trained and ready to work with Chinese travelers is 130 in Moscow with a perspective to grow up to 150 in 2018. In St. Petersburg the needs in this language is totally satisfied and we communicate fruitfully with our colleagues in St. Petersburg.

Due to the current political and social development and international relations, we are witnessing restructuring on the Russian Tourist Market with an accent on Domestic travel progress. In 2016-2017 we have acknowledged the qualification of 270 Russian speaking Tourist Guides, trained by three major Guides Training Centers.

The current year was a very busy period for the RTGA in the Legislation issues activities and our efforts have resulted in a Draft of new definition of the Tourist Guide profession In the Law on Tourism of the Russian Federation. This work has been initiated by the Association and has been accomplished with a corresponding Department of the Ministry of Culture of the RF. The amendments include: the citizenship(RF) and obligatory professional attestation( assessment), the current law definition mentions only professional education. Though the amendments were supported by the President of the RF, there is a lot of lobbying against the citizenship element in which we can see the interests of those, interested in the uncotrolled chinese "grey business".

We are consistently following our policy in uniting Professional Guides Unions in the regions of the Russian Federation to be ready for new demands in Guides qualifications, training and assessments. New collective members have joined the RTGA — 9 Cities Association - and 50 individual members from different regions.

For the first time in the history of our professional work, we have achieved the recognition of our efforts and contribution in the development of Moscow as an attractive and safe international tourist destination, which has resulted in Moscow Guides Festival Day sponsored and supported by the Department of Sports and Tourism of the Government of Moscow. It took place on the 21 of February 2017. Now we are preparing the Guides Festival Day for the 21 of February 2018.

We are pleased to admit, that a great impact and effect in promoting our profession was due to 17 FEG Meeting in 2015, which took place in Moscow and we can still boast in receiving 250 participants, who helped us and shared our passion and love to our work!

We wish all our colleagues a perfect Guides Meeting in Ireland, health and success to everybody!