Tourist information center (tourist information center) is usually created by the administration in the tourist center (resort area, historical place, places of recreation and entertainment) in order to provide information and other services to travelers, tourists, the local population.
TOURIST INFORMATION CENTER AS A TOOL FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE RECREATION INDUSTRY IN THE REGION
Tourist Information Centers (TICs) are one of the important elements of infrastructure in the tourism sector. They are created for promotion at various levels of their country, region, region, city. Provide services of information and service nature in the tourism sector and other related areas. The main global goal of the TIC is to create a comfortable environment for foreigners and nonresident tourists.
The tourist information centers of the world are widespread enough. This applies not only to traditional and popular tourist destinations, but also to those states that show interest in the development of tourism infrastructure and support it. Typically, TICs are created and operate within the boundaries of a particular region, district, city. Provide services to ensure arriving tourists. However, they perform other functions, including the sale of tours to other places outside the region of responsibility.
Tasks of the Tourist Information Center
As a rule, the main tasks of the TIC are:
- collecting, processing information on the attractiveness of the region in terms of tourism, posting it on tourist sites and other media;
- activities related to the development and publishing of various tourist-oriented materials, such as guides, landmark maps, booklets, etc .;
- selection of the most suitable places and recreation routes for tourists, providing them with assistance within the framework of available opportunities;
- implementation of work to promote the region, region, city in international and domestic tourism markets.
Services provided by TIC
The main services provided by TIC include:
- Bringing to the guests reference information about the city, town, country or region. Usually they talk about cultural traditions, historical data, provide information on hotel conditions and places of eating, report on available transport services, etc.
- Paid or free providing tourists with various information on media (audio and video materials, maps and schemes, guides, information and advertising guides).
- Assistance through communication services (telephony, video telephony, Internet, e-mail, etc.).
- Assisting in the purchase of transport tickets, their reservation.
- Purchasing tickets for guests for various events of an entertaining and cultural nature.
- Organization of excursions, including with the accompaniment of a guide and an interpreter.
- Reservation of hotel rooms and other tourist accommodation.
- Ordering, booking tables in restaurants and banquet halls.
- Assistance in car rental, transfer services.
- For those who wish to purchase tours in domestic destinations.
- The implementation of souvenirs and other tourist attributes.
Other areas of activity
In order to optimize the proper functioning of the tourism sector as a whole, the centers should perform other functions, namely:
- take part in the creation and sustainable functioning of the TIC common network;
- maintain Internet portals and sites of their region in a healthy condition, participate in their modernization in a timely manner and promote development in every way;
- participate in the creation, development, modernization and use of tourist information arrays and databases;
- carry out advertising and promotion on various platforms of the state, region, region, city;
- analyze information about tourist flows;
- participate in automation processes for managing the operation of TIC networks.
Features of the TIC
The centers under consideration are usually non-profit organizations. They assist the authorities in the creation and application of information bases on tourism resources of a particular region. These data are designed to attract tourist flow, which leads to an increase in the region’s income. As a result of this, the authorities provide TIC with significant material support. Thus, the tourism business and government in developed countries are partners. The authorities take care of solving the information and legal problems of the tourism sector, and the business, represented by the TIC, works to develop the infrastructure, providing its income and the receipt of funds in local budgets.
Placements
Tourist information centers and their branches, as well as their individual offices, are usually created and operate in hub centers for the intersection of tourist flows. Therefore, the task of the TIC in such conditions is to combine their potentials (intellectual, financial and organizational), as well as the efforts of all market participants. Tourist information centers are now actively developing in many cities of the Russian Federation. Their work as a whole is organized similarly to foreign structures.
TIC accommodation facilities are divided into:
- on regional and national, which are located in capitals and administrative-regional entities;
- TIC structures abroad (as a rule, these are offices);
- to centers in historical places of world tourism (Paris, Rome, Moscow, St. Petersburg, London);
- functioning in resort regions;
- created in large transport points, at railway stations, in airport buildings;
- in places of border crossings and checkpoints at the border;
- in locations of national and theme parks;
- at significant tourist sites, in museums;
- in places of public events and exhibitions.
Moscow Tourist Information Centers
Following the experience of foreign countries, for the comfort of guests visiting Moscow, there is a network structure of tourist information centers. In them, travelers receive help and information about the city.
9 TICs were created along the Moskomturizm line, including tourist information centers at railway stations: Belorussky, Leningradsky, Kievsky, Paveletsky, Kursk and Kazan. At the Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo airports, as well as at the State Historical Museum, in the immediate vicinity of Red Square. Tourist information centers at Moscow stations are a very important element, which is confirmed by the holding of the World Cup in 2018. It should be noted that all TIC employees are fluent in several foreign languages and possess psychology skills.
Contact information on tourist centers in Moscow and Russia
For tourists and travelers in Russia, it is recommended to receive information about Russian TICs by contacting the Federal Tourism Agency (“Tourism”).
In the Russian capital, for the convenience of citizens, the tourism committee has created a rather useful site. It contains voluminous information about the city, its attractions and other necessary information for tourists. Available in Russian and English. There is a mobile version for smartphones.
In St. Petersburg, all contact information on the TIC line can be found in the City Tourism and Information Bureau, which is a structure of a unified state, free, tourist information service.
Conclusion
Tourist information centers of Russia, if you study the situation throughout the country, have not yet occupied their niche in the Russian tourism market. These structures are mainly at the formation stage. Often these are processes of a spontaneous and unsystematic nature. This state of affairs leads to low efficiency in the use of regional tourism resources. To a low level of promotion in foreign and domestic tourism markets.