Share the impressions of your trip
EcoTourism Expert asked Elena Pereskokova, the Head of the Russian Union of Tour Operators’ Project Office for Children’s Tourism and the initiator of this project, about the Schoolchild’s Tourist Passport (Certificate).
- Please tell us what was the starting point for the introduction of a Schoolchild’s Tourist Passport? Why is it required?
- The idea of introducing a Schoolchild’s Tourist Passport arose when I was working in the Vladimir Region and was the chairman of the tourism committee. At that time, I quite often encountered the problem of uneven development of children’s tourism in the region’s municipalities, and my ideas resulted in the project I initiated.
I realized that it is necessary to establish a certain system to determine a rating of the municipalities’ activities in the tourism sector. This was necessary to be able to see in which municipalities people travel actively and compare which municipality received more tourists during a year who wanted to go sightseeing, and from which municipalities, on the contrary, more people travelled to visit the attractions of their neighbours.
This work should result in developing a resource that could help the regional authorities responsible for the development of the tourism sector understand what tourism programmes are interesting, high-quality, getting good feedback from tourists, and which are not. This was required to be able to compare and plan specific targeted work.
That project was a kind of starting point and it expanded gradually to become an ‘ecosystem’ project. This ‘ecosystem’ embraces the authorities, children’s organizations, and travel companies.
- What is the goal of setting up this ‘ecosystem’?
- The goal is clear and understandable - the patriotic education, the widening of the horizons of the today’s schoolchildren. At the organizational level, the goal is, of course, the creation of an integrated system for monitoring the children’s tourist flow.
- What is a Schoolchild’s Tourist Passport?
- It looks like is a nice book with the logo of the project, and a child fills in his or her personal data into the Tourist Passport. Schoolchildren need to provide their photo and enter the first name and surname, region of residence, the number of their school.
Next, there is a section similar to an outline map where the children can mark the places they have visited. There is a section dedicated to their native region, in which they can indicate the main attractions of their native land.
There are also sections where schoolchildren enter the data about the tourism objects they visited. And it can be not only, for example, museums, they can also mention their participation in various events - Academic Olympics, competitions, contests, and quests. Thus, this Schoolchild’s Tourist Passport becomes a diary of the schoolchildren’s tourist activity.
- Today, in the age of information technology, is it planned to make a Schoolchild’s Tourist Passport electronic?
Of course, the Schoolchild’s Tourist Passport will also be in an electronic form. I would like to emphasize that Schoolchild’s Tourist Passports in a hard copy are not excluded from circulation, its electronic version will serve as a good addition to it at a new level. So, to attract children, the elements of games and some competition will be included. It is planned to give incentives to children for the best and most complete stories describing their travel experiencies.
- What incentives can be given?
- It is assumed that every region of the Russian Federation will independently determine the system to give incentives to the most active children. Active schoolchildren who leave interesting feedback can, for example, get an additional good mark in geography or history. At the same time, it is very important to make sure that the reviews are not only messages like “I bought a ticket to the museum, so I visited it.” An interesting review can be supplemented in the format of an electronic passport with both video and photographs. And this basis will make it easier to understand what exactly a schoolchild has learned from the trip.
- It is clear that this project is being implemented within the framework of the general concept for the development of children’s tourism in Russia. And how are things going with this segment today in general? What are the prospects?
- Unfortunately, not as many children travel around Russia today as we would like. At the same time, children should at least know their native land, know the place where they live and what sightseeing attractions and landmarks, man-made or created by nature, surround the children.
Children’s travels to other regions are the next step, this segment should also be developed because such journeys help them get to know their country, its places of interest, and its traditions better. At the same time, certainly, the situation is improving, various support measures are taken, for example, the “More than a Journey” programme will be expanded, more than 7 bn roubles will be allocated for its implementation in the next three years. The financing and geography of the programme to support children’s tourism within the framework of the social services have been increased. The question is being raised about the development of other measures to support children’s and schoolchildren’s tourism.
There is a very important task of establishing the interaction between educational institutions and travel companies, and we also need to work on it very seriously. We have about 17.5 mn children in our country, and we would like every child to travel to some destination to enjoy the attractions at least once a year.
