I recently returned from an International Economic Conference which was held a Ulan-Ude, Buryatia, Russia between the 9th and 11th July 2009. The invitation to participate in this conference came following communication with the Buryat State Academy of Agriculture, Ulan-Ude over the last year. Following on from our communication and in partnership with a number of third level institutes in Europe a project application has been submitted to Tempus Tacis for tourism training project (more details to follow in next blog) .
The conference provided me with a unique insight in to the ecomonic and tourism development strategies of Buryatia and Siberia. Tourism in Buryatia is restricted by seasonality and in some areas poor road infrastructure. In terms of tourism assets it does have Lake Baikal, hospitable people, a well developed ethnic/cultural tourism product, good rail infrastructure and a developing activity based tourism product.
During this conference, I presented a paper on ‘Rural development in Ireland and the importance of rural tourism training to the economic development of rural communities’. My presentation highlighted our experience in delivering the LEADER programme in our region, which is credited as being a successful approach to rural development throughout Europe. In addition, I highlighted the work of Rural Tourism International Training Network and our approach in developing and delivering tourism training appropriate to the needs of the people and the industry.
Rural Development and the LEADER 'bottom-up approach' from an Irish perspective
The conference was well organised with a number of related events running simultaneously. As part of the conference, I was invited to deliver two separate workshops entitled ‘Rural tourism: from concept to business’ in two different locations. The first workshop was based in a yurta in the grounds of the open-air Etnographic Museum in Ulan-Ude. This interactive workshop was delivered over two and half hours to an audience of just over thirty. The participants came from a number of backgrounds including bed and breakfast owners, tour operators, municipality representatives, some academic’s and others. There was a high level of participation between all the participants and they indicated an interest in participating in further networking style workshops. I was impressed by the bed and breakfast owners whom had a clear understanding of the needs of their clients and they were anxious to find ways of attracting greater visitor numbers.
Workshop participants continue discussions outside the yurt
The second workshop was delivered about 250 kilometres away from Ulan-Ude on the shores of Lake Baikal in an area known as ‘Enkhaluk-Sukhaya’ in the Kabansky region. It was a breath-taking location to deliver a workshop on rural tourism and we had an equally enthusiastic group of participants. There were more rural tourism providers present with the remainder including academics, tourism marketing representatives and activity tourism operators.
Lake Baikal rural tourism workshop participants
It was an enjoyable experience for me to deliver these workshops and to engage with the participants on issues effecting the development/marketing of tourism in their area. The workshops were delivered in English and translated in to Russian by Zoya Yampilova from the Buryat State Academy of Agriculture. All our workshop supporting material and workshop booklet were translated in to Russian in advance. The combination of translated materials, the high standard of translation and enthusiastic participants helped to ensure that the workshops ran smoothly and that nothing was lost in translation.
At the end of the second workshop we continued on afterwards with an impromptu study visit. We filled two cars and travelled ten kilometres along the shores of Lake Baikal to visit two local tourism accommodation providers whom participated in the workshop. Both accommodations were of a high standard and we were treated to excellent hospitality in each case. We engaged in a more indepth discussion about tourism and everyone shared ideas on how the accommodation providers could improve their marketing / develop their facilities.
Lake Baikal is a beautiful place, but the welcome people and their hospitality was second to none. From a Rural Tourism International perspective we are looking forward to developing further contacts with partners in Buryatia and indeed Russia. I will also keep you informed about our potential project which will provide further opportunities for RTITN members to become actively involved as trainers.
Duma, Ulan-Ude where Economic Investment projects were discussed
