"The Museum and the Problems of Cultural Tourism" roundtable

The tenth roundtable on “The Museum and the Problems of Cultural Tourism,” which brought together representatives of cultural institutions, institutions of higher learning, and the tourism business, was held on April 12th and 13th, 2012.
This roundtable was dedicated to discussion of how cultural institutions, and museums first and foremost, should communication with a special category of visitors (i.e. tourists,) and with tourism companies.
The second day of the roundtable was held in the General Staff Building, which is intended to be fully restored in time for the State Hermitage Museum’s 250-year anniversary celebration in 2014. A new museum complex is meant to come into being here during the Hermitage’s anniversary year. The participants in the roundtable devoted attention to the following questions: improving the quality of the reception for tourists and forming a repertoire of the most diverse programs possible. The spectrum of ongoing museum programs available to foreign and domestic tourists is uncommonly broad, from archeological monuments to industrial landscapes, the museums of the Astrakhan Region to arctic tourism. They also discussed the problems of cultural tourism: methodology, information technology, museum service, and various aspects of cooperation between museums and tourism organizations.

Representatives from cultural institutions in Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Veliky Novgorod, Valmiera (Latvia), Vologda, Greenwich (USA), Kungur, London (UK), Minsk (Belarus), Moscow, Naberezhnye Chelny, Perm, Petrozavodsk, Salekhard, Saint Petersburg, Saratov, Staraya Ladoga, Ufa, Cēsis (Latvia), and Cherepovets participated in this year’s sessions.

In addition to the regular participants in the roundtable sessions, representatives from the P.M. Dogadin Astrakhan State Portrait Gallery, the Kungurian Historical/Architectural Museum and Conservation Area, the I.S. Shemanovsky Yamalo-Nenets District Museum/Exhibition Complex, and the St. Petersburg State Roerich Family Museum-Institute made presentations and reports for the first time. The presentation by the employees of the Battle of Borodino Museum/Panorama (Moscow) was particularly striking given that it was the 200-year anniversary of the Patriotic War of 1812.
Since this event fell on the threshold on the Year of Chinese Tourism in Russia, the chief correspondent of the Saint Petersburg bureau of the Chinese Xinhua information agency, Mr. Lu Tzingbo, also participated in the roundtable session.

An anthology of presentations, entitled “The Museum and the Problems of Cultural Tourism” was produced by the State Hermitage Museum’s publishing house based on the results of the Tenth Roundtable.

At the conference

The second day of the roundtable was held in the General Staff Building

Vladimir Matveev, Deputy Director of the State Hermitage Museum

Olga Archipova, Head of Department of Tourism in th  State Hermitage

Jānis Kalnačs, Latvia

Hollister Sturges, USA

At the State Hermitage’s Conference room

Anthology of presentations