Tiraspol, October 11. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. On the second day of the VII Pridnestrovian International Investment Economic Forum, the main topic was tourism in Pridnestrovie.
In July of this year, the state adopted a targeted tourism support and development program, carried out until 2026. It was briefly introduced at the forum by Deputy Minister of Economic Development Natalia Sitkina.
As the tourism expert from Belarus, journalist, publicist, member of the Russian Geographical Society Sergey Milyukhin noted in his speech, the development of the tourism industry in his country has begun with the adoption of a similar program. Another factor that contributed to the increase in tourist flow was developed training methodology.
By the way, Natalia Sitkina reminded that this year the first specialists of the tourism sphere graduated from Pridnestrovian State University (PSU). Sergey Milyukhin offered the idea of creating a guide site with an interactive map of Pridnestrovie under the working title “Planet Pridnestrovie”. It is the intention of the The conception of this project is simple – clicking on a particular locality a person can got full information about it, including all possible directions to the place.
Another advice, which the forum participant from Belarus gave, was to develop a tourism brand of Pridnestrovie. He gave the example of the Belarusian cornflower, which became recognizable around the world thanks to the developers of the very popular computer games from the War Games series.
As Natalia Sitkina, Deputy Director of Economic Development Ministry, noted, the development of the Pridnestrovian tourism brand has already been started and quite experienced marketers from abroad have been engaged in that.
Sergey Milyukhin has visited Pridnestrovie for the first time, although that he traveled to 72 countries before. During his speech, he remarked:
“When my friends want to visit this or that country, they always ask me whether it is worth going there and what they might face there. If I were asked about Pridnestrovie, I would not know what to say. Now I can say that if you want to have a full picture of the world, then you have to visit Pridnestrovie.”
According to him, the PMR has a huge tourism potential. In the meantime, in his opinion, the factor of “a country that is not on the map” and “the Soviet Union atmosphere” has been successfully used.
The point of view different from Sergey Milyukhin was announced on another section of the forum devoted to potential tourist routes in Pridnestrovie. Dean of the Faculty of Natural Geography of PSU Sergey Filippenko noted that historical tours in PMR were unchanged success, and among them. This was then confirmed by representatives of several Pridnestrovian travel agencies.
Among those tourist destinations that are quite promising for Pridnestrovie, he named, in particular, agrotourism, technological (visiting enterprises and getting to know technology, and sometimes participating in the production of something), ecological, ethnic, national (the difference from ethno tourism is the fact that the routes imply not so much acquaintance with the culture of a particular nation, as visiting places that are somehow connected with the homeland of foreign tourists). All this is already used by Pridnestrovian travel agencies. At least, the republic tours already offered to foreign tourists by the Pridnestrovian agencies cover the entire range of types of tourism provided by Sergey Filippenko. There were about 20 directions named in total.
Speaking about the tourism brand of Pridnestrovie, most of the participants in the discussions on the tourism industry development agreed that the river, which had given the name to the republic, should be at the basis of the brand.
Tomorrow, forum participants will be able to see for themselves tourism potential of Pridnestrovie. In the morning, they will make a ravel along the route Tiraspol - Dubossary, and then they will visit the Wine and Grapes Festival in Bendery Fortress.
