On April 23 and 24, the AZIMUT Hotel Yoshkar-Ola 4* hosted the Mari Land Tourism Conference. The event was held in the republic for the first time and brought together about 70 experts from the tourism sector of three regions: Mari El, Tatarstan and Nizhny Novgorod. Representatives of all areas of hospitality gathered to share their experiences and discuss the development of tourism in the republic: hoteliers, restaurateurs, owners of eco-parks, tour operators, guides and guides, heads of national museums and Mari ethnic villages.

The promotion of the regional tourism brand was the main topic of the conference. Representatives of neighboring regions spoke about the possibilities of scaling the most successful practices and suggested cooperation options for local businesses. The conference participants from Tatarstan shared their experience of launching the Kazan tourist portal, installing convenient navigation and introducing urban style, which contributed to the growth of interest in the region. The participants emphasized how important it is to create vivid gastronomic performances and themed events for tourists, to use local flavor and historical roots to create unique routes for travelers.

Caring for the guests of the region became an important topic of the first Mari Land conference. Tatiana Klyushina, Senior Sales Manager at AZIMUT Hotel Nizhny Novgorod 4*, spoke about the AZIMUT Bonus loyalty program and the benefits that motivate guests to choose a hotel chain for their travels.

Tatiana Klyushina, Leading Sales Manager at AZIMUT Hotel Nizhny Novgorod 4*:

"The involvement of employees in the development of the company and their motivation remain one of the main priorities of AZIMUT Hotels. Since 2020, the company has been successfully implementing the AZIMUT Care project, which helps thousands of employees in different parts of the country to obtain all the necessary information on quality standards, as well as to master new knowledge in an understandable and interesting way."

An agreement on cooperation between the Agency for Tourism Development of the Republic of Mari was also signed during the conference. And the T. Evseev National Museum of the Republic of Mari El, which provides for the use of the creative industries of the region to promote the tourism potential of the republic.

Yulia Tumantseva, Director of the Agency for Tourism Development of the Republic of Mari El:

"Holding such events allows not only to form a professional tourism community in the region, but also to identify
those "pain points", which, unfortunately, are not always noticeable, but are quite sensitive for conducting a tourism business and must be eliminated."