Ilsur Metshin, "Universiade opens Kazan to the world"
(KZN.RU, February 1, Renat Shirmanov). The Universiade-2013 has to open Kazan to the world community. This has been discussed today on the board devoted to summarizing the work of the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Tourism in 2010.
Vitaliy Mutko, Minister of Sport, Tourism and Youth Policy, Rustam Minnikhanov, President of the Republic of Tatarstan, Ilsur Metshin, Kazan Mayor, Rafis Burganov, Minister of Youth, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Tatarstan take part in the board session.
"The Universiade-2013 has to open Kazan to the world and turn the city into a global tourist resort area. Over the past 5 years the number of tourists arriving in the capital of Tatarstan has doubled. Last year we took millions of tourists. However we set a higher bar", Ilsur Metshin noted.
The Mayor of Kazan offered to recall the experience of Barcelona who had been known little in tourist business before the Olympics in 1992. After the Olympic up to 20 million tourists a year began to visit Barcelona.
"Of course this was preceded by a lot of work, particularly the reconstruction of the face of historic buildings. There are also many monuments in Kazan that deserve attention. Due to the attention of Rustam Minnikhanov, the President of the Republic, as well as help the Government of RT and co-operation with business before the start of the Universiade we will solve all the issues in this regard", Ilsur Metshin assured.