The training of tourist guides who help travellers visiting natural attractions is supported by the Project Office for the Development of the Arctic (PODA) and the Center for Tourism and Business Development of the city of Kirovsk.
On July 1, a law came into force obliging all tourist guides to be qualified by a special commission. Now, they are not allowed to work without a certificate of qualification. The Murmansk Region has been preparing for this regulation for a long time.
At the end of 2020, the Kola Science Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) and the Khibiny Association of Tourist Guides signed a cooperation agreement and started developing a programme for advanced training of tourist guides to work in the natural areas of the Kola Peninsula. The first students of the School of Tourist Guides completed their theoretical and practical training course in 2021. Some graduates have passed voluntary accreditation. The first season was unanimously recognized as successful by both students and teachers.
In March 2022, classes for a next enrollment to the school started. This time, the group was selected on a competitive basis. Lectures for students who came from Apatity, Kirovsk, Murmansk, Nikel, Kandalaksha, and Moscow were held on the online platform of the School khibinypark.ru. Some experienced tourist guides working in natural areas lectured at the School of Tourist Guides, as well as the employees of the Kola Science Center (RAS) and of the Moscow State University named after M. V. Lomonosov, of the Mineralogical Museum named after A. E. Fersman, and the Tourism Committee of the Murmansk Region. The teachers regularly met with students at the ZOOM-conferences.
The practical course lasted two weeks and was held at the end of June and beginning of July. In addition to practicing the skills in orientation in natural landscapes and moving along difficult routes as well as planning and conducting excursions in natural landscapes, the students learned how to administer first aid and use communication devices, they also gained psychological skills of working with demanding and fastidious sightseers. They took exams in the last two days. NIne people became ‘tourist guides’ for one day and demonstrated their skills and abilities they acquired and told interesting stories and information about hydrology, the geological structure of the Khibiny Mountains, the local vegetation, intricate Saami names of geographical objects, legends and the history of industrial development of the Arctic. The other 9 people, together with the examiners, were ‘fastidious tourists’.
“I am very glad that we have already held the second season of the School of Tourists Guides for Nature Tourism. Its methodology was improved. It was a pleasure to see how our tourist guides changed in the process of training. I am sure that all our graduates will apply their knowledge and skills while giving tours, organizing work in the tourism industry, creating excursion programmes, ecological trails and expositions,” said one of the organizers of the School, Deputy Director General of the Kola Science Center (RAS) for Research, Head of the PORA’s Laboratory for Sustainable Development Evgeniy Borovichev.