MOSCOW – Evgeny Kozlov, First Deputy Head of Moscow Mayor and Government Building and Chairman of the Moscow City Tourism Committee, said that the sister city agreement between Tehran and Moscow can significantly boost cooperation between the two countries in the tourism sector.
“This is a two-stage strategy. First, we need partnerships at the official level. The next step is partnerships with tourism companies. So the two-stage strategy is a winning strategy,” Kozlov said at the first BRICS Tourism Forum in the Russian capital on Friday, June 21.
When asked by Tehran Times if the Moscow Tourism Committee had signed any kind of agreement, such as a sister city agreement, to strengthen tourism ties between Moscow and Iranian cities, or if there were plans for the future, he replied that his first business trip was to Tehran. It was a business forum, a business meeting in Tehran. It was an official sister city arrangement. [meeting].
Moscow is a sister city with Tehran, and as you know, being a sister city is not enough, because tourism is a partnership between tourism operators, and it needs to be supported at the federal or official level.
So it is very important to have sister city partnerships between local governments, but in addition to that, it is also necessary to have business partnerships between Moscow and, say, Tehran.
To that end, last year we sent a business mission to Tehran, with 19 Russian commercial and tourism enterprises and 37 domestic commercial and tourism enterprises from Tehran participating.
After that we will take our tours from cities all over Iran to Moscow and they will not stop at Moscow only, they will travel to the city of Kazan, one of the largest cities in Russia, to explore Kazan and join the complete tour of “Moscow + Kazan”.
As I said before, tourism is teamwork. We have strong partnerships with the largest cities in Russia and we have the Moscow+Tourism Forum. Come to Moscow and St. Petersburg. Come to Moscow and Kazan. Come to Moscow, and then come here to one of the largest industrial cities.
So we have a connection with Isfahan. We were really struck by the nature of Isfahan. It was really lovely, there were a lot of really impressive caravanserais. And, you know, this is a two-step strategy.
First, you need to have partnerships at an official level, and in the next step, you need to have partnerships with tourism companies, so the two-step strategy is a winning strategy.
About the Forum
The first BRICS Tourism Forum was held on June 20-21. Delegations from all nine member states, including Russia, Brazil, Egypt, India, Iran, China, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and South Africa, attended the forum.
The event brought together 300 participants including representatives of business and related institutions, corporate leaders and industry experts.
This included expert sessions involving key market players and a meeting of Tourism Ministers of the BRICS countries.
Main themes
The first day of the forum saw a closed-door meeting of industry representatives from different countries, travel services and other projects.
The second day was devoted to public events, where speakers discussed the prospects for international cooperation among BRICS countries.
“Today, more than half of foreign tourists visiting Moscow come from BRICS countries,” said Moscow Deputy Mayor Natalia Sergunina.
Furthermore, Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov said: “This year Russia is the chair of the expanded BRICS. This forum will allow tourism operators from BRICS countries to form strong alliances, sign mutually beneficial agreements and demonstrate the tourism potential of our countries. This will help our countries develop supply-side economies.”
