Features of the reception of Chinese tourists learned the volunteers of the Striped Navigator from young Chinese diplomats

What is a Chinese tourist? What should a volunteer pay attention to when working with a guest from China? Features of guests who came to Vladivostok as part of groups and as individual tourists? These and other issues were included in the training program of the fifth stream of the tourist and volunteer project Striped Navigator.In 2023, the flow of foreign guests in Primorye increased 10 times compared to the results of 2022. The region is interested in visiting tourists from abroad. And in past years, and now in the general tourist flow, the largest volume falls on guests from the PRC. With the resumption of passenger traffic between Russia and China in January 2023, about 100 thousand Chinese tourists entered the territory of Primorye for tourism, this year an even greater tourist flow is expected.

The main speakers of the seminar were invited representatives of the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Vladivostok. The meeting was attended by both representatives of the past flows of the project and new participants. Among the listeners were constant, active silver volunteers and students of VVSU, a permanent partner of the project. Vice-Rector for Youth Policy of VVSU Yulia Chebova expressed gratitude to the guests for their cooperation and stressed the productivity of such an international occupation and confidence in further cooperation. The five young consuls, emphasizing the high dynamics of the development of relations between China and the Russian Federation, active ties at all levels, discussed with the seminar participants many important issues of interaction with Chinese tourists. Separately dwelled on the trends of international cooperation between China and Russia and other countries, told about the traditions of Chinese residents, about the peculiarities of the mentality of Chinese citizens, about planning trips depending on the seasons and holidays, about their desires and preferences during foreign voyages, etc. I am glad that you are interested in communicating with Chinese tourists. The people of China are friendly, open and educated, cultured and educated. And now our people have more opportunity to organize cross-border tours for themselves. The city of Vladivostok has unique, tourist resources and is one of the worthy destinations when choosing our compatriots places of rest and destinations for trips, said during the speech one of the representatives of the Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Vladivostok, diplomat Shi Yuhan. 

Because the Chinese people themselves are open, then in communicating with tourists, as young consuls shared, it will be enough just to know the basic etiquette and treat guests well. And one of the topical topics for intensifying cooperation and creating new tourist products can be the Year of the Dragon, which is considered one of the bright and revered symbols of China. Here, Chinese diplomats stressed that the current year of the Dragon will be an important aspect of communication in 2024.

In December, the 78th session of the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring the Chinese New Year a United Nations holiday. Thus, many countries and regions have adopted the Spring Festival as a legal holiday of their event calendar. Chinese speakers also focused on the fact that Russia was among the 20 countries where a pilot project for the exchange of tourist flows was launched.From mid-September 2023, about 29 thousand citizens of the PRC visited Primorye without visas as part of groups under the Intergovernmental Agreement between the two countries. China plans to continue to internalize and strengthen international cooperation, in which Russia is one of the priorities.

Our task is to make training of volunteers of the Striped Navigator project informative and useful. We try to interact with all structures to cover all areas of communication of participants. We are glad that we managed to attract our honorable young diplomats to communicate with volunteers. Now communication with Chinese tourists they will be even more pleasant and productive, – said the representative of the Tourist Information Center of the Primorsky Territory (Visit Primorye) and the curator of the project, Anastasia Povetkina. We will remind that the “striped navigators” will advise guests of the city from July 2 to September 10. Particularly large tourist and, accordingly, volunteer activity will be on the dates of EEF-2024. The key task for Striped Navigators is to create an image of Vladivostok and Primorsky Krai as a hospitable and tourist-friendly region.