I. Metshin: "Kazan has a lot of new projects and growth points ahead"

(Kazan City KZN.RU, September 7, Albert Murtazin). XVI FINA World Championship in Water Sports has significantly raised awareness of the capital of Tatarstan in the world and strengthened the sports authority of the city. The results of the last World Cup in water sports in Kazan were summarized at today's session XLV of Kazan City Duma.

As the Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin noted, holding of international events such as the FIFA World Cup 2015 in the city plays a key role in the development of the tourism sector. According to the head of the city, not quantitative, but qualitative indicators are important here. "We believe that this direction has priority for urban policy", - said the head of the capital of Tatarstan.

General Director of Executive Directorate of sports projects Azat Kadyrov noted that to date Kazan is a sports capital with modern developed infrastructure. A. Kadyrov reminded that holding of the Universiade-2013 has greatly changed the capital of Tatarstan and helped to prepare for other international sporting events, especially for the World Cup in water sports. "If Universiade identified Kazan as a significant point on the world map of sports, the subsequent international sporting events strengthen and develop the image of Kazan as the sports capital", - said A.Kadyrov.

According to him, the World Championships in Aquatics has become one of the biggest events in our country, brought significant recognition to Kazan and strengthened the authority of the sporting capital of the Republic of Tatarstan. Azat Kadyrov recalled that last championship was unique in many terms, record both in the number of participating countries, and the number of sets of awards. "About 2.5 thousand of athletes from 190 countries of the world to visited our city. The participants of the championship played 75 sets of medals in six sports. The championship has become very "recordable" - we got 12 world, 12 youth, 32 continental records and 19 records of the championship, "- said Azat Kadyrov.

He also noted that the broadcast of this event was conducted in more than 100 countries. "Today we are expecting confirmation of facts - we expect coverage of the TV audience of 4.5 billion people. In total, television of the world has been shown more than 13,000 minutes of TV coverage of the championship, "- shared Kadyrov.

General Director of Executive Directorate of sports projects noted that the special feature of the World Cup 2015 was the extensive cultural program - in the days of the championship many different events were held throughout the city. "The main point of attraction has become the FINA Park, which was attended by more than 300 thousand people. Over the entire period of work about 4 thousand artists performed on the stage of the park. More than 300 bands and performers represented Kazan ", - informed A. Kadyrov.

"All the participants and guests of the championship left the warmest reviews of Kazan. Moreover, they expressed a desire to visit the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan again. According to the guests, they felt like at home in our hospitable Kazan,"- said Azat Kadyrov.

Chairman of the Development Assistance Committee of Tourism Eugeniya Lodvigova confirmed that hospitality of Kazan attracts more and more willing to visit our city. According to E.Lodvigova, in the past 5 years tourism in Kazan has reached unprecedented heights. "The legacy of the Universiade and the World Cup in 2015 is the base, which attracts more and more tourists to our city," - said E.Lodvigova. She noted that such events provide a powerful impetus to the development of infrastructure, service sector, and hospitality in the city.

"World Cup 2015 was really recordable, unusual championship. Kazan was visited by 120 thousand tourists during the main championships and by 50 thousand during the World Cup in the category "Masters", - said Eugeniya Lodvigova. In this period 6859 foreign visitors from different countries were registered in Kazan. Most tourists of the event of water tournament came from Germany, Ukraine, Turkey, USA, China, France, and Italy. There were also tourists from Japan, Korea, Canada and Australia and other countries.

"Today Kazan is known as an open and welcoming city. This openness, based on the friendliness of each Kazan resident, forms an image of the city, the republic and the country. We cannot imagine the development of the tourism industry without the support of people, their innate hospitality and cordiality. I am confident that Kazan is capable to take a leading position in the ranking of the friendliest cities in the world in 2020 and to earn the title of the most hospitable place in Russia "- shared E.Lodvigova.

Mayor Ilsur Metshin thanked the Executive Directorate of sports projects, as well as all those who took part in organizing of the XVI World FINA Championships in Kazan. He said that thanks to this major event the city itself and its inhabitants has changed a lot. "We passed a big way with the Acting President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov, the first President Mintimer Shaimiev, colleagues from the Government and with our friendly, hard-working citizens. Without these projects, such attention, friendly creative work, we could not have achieved these results. And the result is that the World Cup in 2015 was considered the best in history ", - said the Mayor and added that a lot of new projects and growth points  are ahead for Kazan.