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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Please, the floor is yours.

General Director of the Agency for Strategic Initiatives Svetlana Chupsheva: Mr President, you said today, and we all agree, that Russia is the best country in the world. I would like to talk about several tourism projects that we have implemented.

We launched a competition among entrepreneurs who deal with tourist routes for the most impressive routes. Here we were supported by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, who headed the organising committee of this project.

Surprisingly, we received about 190 entries from almost half of the regions of our country. Our experts were the best of those who deal with the tourism industry and destinations. There were tour operators and scientists. Together with the applicants, we upgraded these routes from the point of view of the target audience. These are routes about how to get to know your country, get to know a region, its culture and traditions.

I want to give you a guide. It includes the top 30 routes that have been selected. The routes are already included in the tourist routes of our country and supported by the Government of Russia. These are Karelia, Baikal, the Urals, and Dagestan. You can choose any of them. You will not regret it; you will be very impressed.

Vladimir Putin: I have been almost everywhere.

Svetlana Chupsheva: We learn about beautiful places, there are a lot of attractive sites.

And the most important thing is that these are young entrepreneurs, young teams. For example, the Baikalika team offers tours to Lake Baikal, rafting on an ice floe along the river – amazing experiences.

(Ms Chupsheva also spoke about the tourist route projects for schoolchildren and the project Tourist Passport for Schoolchildren.)

I would also like to talk about a very important project that we are implementing with the Ministry of Industry called Open Industry. For the first time, 400 enterprises opened tours for adult tourists, schoolchildren and students. They are quite popular.

Last year, the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station, the Vostochny Space Launch Centre, and the facilities of Gazprom, SIBUR, Nornickel, and the Chelyabinsk Pipe Rolling Plant for the first time opened their doors for tourists. About 900,000 people have already taken these routes and tours, including young professionals and students.

And it is very important that there is demand from consumers. The Ministry of Industry is our strong partner. This year we plan to get about 300 more enterprises involved in this project.

Vladimir Putin: Do you work together with the Government and the regions?

Svetlana Chupsheva: Of course, regions and governors are also involved.

Vladimir Putin: So, they help you.

Svetlana Chupsheva: They develop routes together with tour operators. Educational institutions, schools that conduct extracurricular tours along these routes are getting involved.

Vladimir Putin: I said that I have been everywhere, but now I am looking at this book and I see that I have not been everywhere yet.

Svetlana Chupsheva: There you are! We also discovered a lot of new places for ourselves. We had inspection tours, that is, our experts went to each route, advised entrepreneurs, and finalised these routes. It is very important that on these routes you definitely get very good service, make the best memories, and have a great time with those who visit these routes with you.

Vladimir Putin: I have no doubt. Thank you.

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