This paper entitled “A Proposal on How to Make Irkutsk City More Attractive as a Touristic City” is made by three students of Baikal International Business School, Tatiana Peskova, Snezhana Polozova and Maria Selezneva. It examines the problem of the poorly developed system of acceptance and supporting Russian and foreign tourists in Irkutsk; presents research and recommended course of actions on how to solve this problem. This proposal is made to the Irkutsk department of tourism to grant permission on working on one of the projects that can help to develop tourism in Irkutsk.The actuality of this paper is confirmed by the fact that during the last six years the touristic flow has increased in 2.5 times.
The government of Irkutsk region has conducted several actions to improve the touristic service, however, that is still cannot be considered to be at international level, and does not provide the complex solution for this issue. In the connection with all written above, we proposed in this paper proposed two alternative solutions: an audio guide and a bicycle tour. The need of such proposal we justified in this paper by the research and analysis conducted.Irkutsk is the main city of Irkutsk region and East Siberia. The city lies on both banks of the Angara River and just 68 kilometers from Lake Baikal. More and more tourists are coming to Irkutsk each year.
Irkutsk attracts travelers from all over the world: Chinese, German, French, Japanese, and so on. (General information about Irkutsk – Irkutsk as touristic city. Anonymous, 2011). Old wooden houses, stone architectural masterpieces, and the former home of merchants and stores make Irkutsk unique Russian city.In 1970 Irkutsk was included in the list of protected Russian cities for its old buildings, and in 1997 the World Monuments Fund included Irkutsk in the list of the hundred cities that have the priority of restoring their historical centers (Numerous Irkutsk old buildings.
Anonymous, 2011). For the last several years a lot of projects have been implemented to make Irkutsk a better tourist destination. However, there is still plenty of room for new ideas. Therefore, three students of Baikal International Business School, Tatiana Peskova, Snezhana Polozova and Maria Selezneva, made a proposal to the Irkutsk department of tourism to grant permission on working on one of the projects that can help to develop tourism in Irkutsk. So, the purpose of this report is to come up with some ideas of new projects that will help Irkutsk to become more convenient for tourists.
During the preparation of the report, external and internal information were analyzed. In addition, brainstorming session was held to find solutions to the problem identified.Today a lot of international tourists as well as tourists from all over the Russia are coming to Irkutsk. One of the biggest problems for international tourists is language.
They have to find a tourist group with guide to travel around the city. For them it is not only the problem to move from one place to another, but also the problem to learn some information about sights. Another problem that is crucial for both international and Russian travelers is to find the way of transportation that will be convenient for traveling. Travelling on foot is too slow and exhausting, but at the same time it allows getting close to the sights. Travelling by bus is faster than on foot, but it does not allow seeing everything. Thus, it is a problem to find the way of transportation that is not expensive and allows getting to the right place as close as possible.
The tourists flow is increasing during the last few years. An exception occurred just in 2009 when the number of tourists came to Irkutsk region decreased. This decrease can be explained by the world crisis when a tourist industry like a lot of other industries suffered losses. According to Figure 1, it can be noticed that the most tourists came from the other Russian regions; however, number of international tourists increased as well.
Since 2004 to 2010 number of Russian tourists increased almost 2.5 times, while number of international tourists increased just 1.25 times for the same period. Figure 1. Dynamic of tourist flow in the Irkutsk region during 2004-2010Besides, from the graphs presented on Figure 2 it can be concluded that despite the fact that the number of international tourists was growing more slowly, in 2010 the number of international tourists increased on 20 percent, while the number of Russian tourists increased only on 2 percent.
Figure 2. Changes in tourist flowAs the number of tourists is increasing each year, the government decided to implement a new project named “Green Line”, a kind of "Ariadne's thread." The most remarkable Irkutsk places will be connected with the green line. It will help tourists to see all desirable places without losing any of them. The total length of the green line for tourists will be 5 kilometers.
The project has already designed and will have been completed by October 2012 (The green line for Irkutsk tourists. Anonymous, 2011).To make Irkutsk a better tourist destination, the two problems should be eliminated. Our projects will be a supplement to the “Green Line” project that will have been implemented by October 2012.
A lot of tourists like to travel in a small group or even without a group at all. So for this kind of tourists, a new device can be implemented. It is an audio guide device that can help visitors to travel without a group and learn interesting features about our famous places. This device and a “Green Line” map can be taken from any of Irkutsk museums.
Then, tourists can follow the drawn line and learn information about any place on the map by just clicking on the corresponding number on the device.This audio guide device can eliminate the problem of lack of specialists of different languages. Another project that can be implemented is a bicycle tour. In different areas of Irkutsk, mostly along the “Green Line,” the bicycle stations will be organized. The tourists will be able to take a bicycle and travel around famous places of Irkutsk.
It will be easy to get as close as possible to a desirable place and at the same time allow planning an individual tour. In case of to be stolen, all bicycles should be insured and will require collateral in the form of fixed amount of money on the card.
