Kazan is going to conclude agreements in the field of tourism to Barcelona, Paris and Milan

(KZN.RU, November 1, Alsu Safina). Tourism acts as a catalyst for socio-economic development of the city, and thus improves the quality of citizens’ life. Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, expressed this opinion at today's XI extraordinary session of the Kazan State Duma, one of the topics of which was discussion of the development of a tourism industry.

“The main task is the development of an effective competitive city tourism infrastructure, integration of Kazan into the world travel information area”, said Ilsur Metshin. “These are the questions of creation of tourist programs in the field of educational, medical, sports, business and pilgrimage tourism”. As the Mayor noted, it is necessary to develop other areas, by identifying the tourist flow preferences.

Daria Sannikova, the director of Committee for the development of tourism, reported that more than 2 million tourists visited Kazan from January to September 2016. “And by the end of the year we can predict the flow of tourists for 2016 about 2.5 million. According to the Federal Migration Service, 107 thousand 995 foreigners visited the city from January to September 2016. Most foreign tourists arrived from China, Germany, France, Italy and the US”, she said.

Speaking about the achievements in the field of tourism and the challenges that are before the committee, D. Sannikova reminded that this year the tourism potential of Kazan was presented during a tour in Russian cities: Ulyanovsk, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, Volgograd, Ufa, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Perm. This work will continue next year, including in small towns of the country. In addition, it is planned to conclude agreements in the field of tourism with such world tourist capitals as Barcelona, Paris, and Milan. It should be noted that Kazan is among the three most popular cities of Russia for domestic tourism.

Daria Sannikova put the need for new facilities to show and tourist programs among the priorities, especially since Kazan became a year-round attraction point for tourists. Now the Kazan Kremlin, the Staro-Tatarskaya Sloboda, and the water park “Riviera” are among the major tourist magnets, the family center “Kazan” is gaining popularity.

“Tourism plays an important role in solving social problems: it is the creation of additional jobs, employment growth, the development of small and medium-sized businesses in the field of communication, trade, transport, production of souvenirs, food and construction”, marked Ilsur Metshin.

According to Ilsur Metshin, the development of the tourism industry is one of the most important issues of social and economic development of the city. “We need to create the conditions for sustained development”, said the Mayor, adding that not all resources have been used by the city for today.