“Vodokhod” and “Russia – a country of peculiarities” a new type of cruises
Since the beginning of navigation in 2022, the more anticipated finalists and winners of the projects of the presidential platform “Russia – Lands of Opportunity” and the Russian society “Knowledge” have been on nine-day cruises of the Vodokhod company as part of the “More than Travel” program. In total, from May to September, 21 cruises are expected on seven motor ships, more than 1.4 thousand finalists go on river trips.
“Our incentive program involves not only travel, but also a rich educational part – master classes, workshops and trainings aimed at developing professional competencies. The contestants have the opportunity to exchange experiences and get an excellent communication experience,” said Ivan Shulyupin, head of development of the Russia – Land of Opportunity platform, at a meeting with journalists.
According to him, there is no ready-made scenario for such tours, they meet with tour operators for every occasion, including cruises. Programs gradually evolve, from environmental clean-ups to the planet, in which group of participants they participate, for example, with the region and the host country, observed projects or proposals. “Our partners say that they are changing their approach to the product, they are interested in creating complex non-standard tours. We are already discussing that operators offer to offer the products formed as part of our order on market conditions for wide advertising,” he specified.
The “More than Travel” program was launched in 2021, annually 50 thousand people are expected to go on tours, that is, 200 thousand people are planned to participate by 2024. This season, 28,000 finalists have already gone. “Together with the Vodokhod company, we managed to introduce the participants to a completely new cruise format that brought together the presidents-competitors from different platform projects. Many noted the great use of such routes,” said Mr. Shulyupin.
For example, on a cruise with the finalists of the second season of the all-Russian TopBlog competition, a forum was held with the participation of popular bloggers-mentors and researchers of domestic social networks. During the trip for the winners of the All-Russian professional competition “Flagships of Education” a session was held, in which knowledge in the field of education, representatives of higher and higher educational institutions took part. Participants in the Star Trek educational program of the Senezh master department as part of an experimental study of the cultural code of Russia, part of which was a cruise around the city of the Golden Ring.
As the director of the deputy general director for development of the company “Vodohod” Ilya Sukhovolsky, the operator For the first time this year, the “More than Travel” programs took part: “We highly appreciated the contribution of the project to the development of domestic transportation in general and cruise tourism in particular. This year we have already carried thousands of participants on our nine cruises.” The geography is extensive: project leaders will visit the cities of the Golden Ring, Karelia, Chuvashia. From Moscow the participants go to Tver, Uglich, Rybinsk, Myshkin by motor ships. From St. Petersburg, river travel meets on Valaam, in Mandrogi, Shlisselburg. From Nizhny Novgorod, the winners of the contests will visit Cheboksary and Yaroslavl.
Mr. Sukhovolsky also shared the interim results of the company’s activities in the navigation of the year. To date, 82% of the load of motor ships from the planned volumes for 2022 has been recorded, at the beginning of July, the load is 30% higher than the figures for the same period last year. The increase in expected cruises was 20% compared to about a year ago. Currently, 240 cruises out of 780 are completely sold out. And already sold for 2023,” Ilya Sukhovolsky specified.
He added that the company on this navigation as a whole keeps the prices of last year. At the start of sales for the 2023 season, the same price level is in demand, as is the discount for low prices.
Natalya Panferova, RATA–News