TIC-Moscow

This year we made a number of promised, and sometimes return, visits to our partners. There were two goals: to see how colleagues in other regions work, because local specifics easily and naturally complement any GOST; and select a range of tourism products that can be sold in our new system. Well, and visit the Raphael exhibition...)
I’ll say right away: Raphael is like Raphael, I’ve seen all this since childhood - a copy of this particular painting hung at home.))

The first on our list was the Moscow TIC - we were going to meet Kolya Bragin, who is successfully promoting the City Expert brand. We met in the office on Mayakovsky Square; the guys opened a second location in GUM. By the way: almost all TICs in Russia (TIC is a tourist information center) are municipal, at different levels. And only two are private TICs. They are both in the photo.)

Nikolai’s experience is similar to ours: having a powerful and vibrant tourism product (more on the product a little later), he realized that “something was missing.” This is how the Moscow TIC appeared.) Nadyusha “tested” the TIC consultant for an hour - a smiling, talkative, friendly and informed girl Asya. After testing, I came to the conclusion that we, too, would be happy to employ Asya.)) By the way, Nick Bragin himself is in charge of personnel selection - he has an instinct for personnel.) City Expert has great prospects: the need for information offices is growing, and only they plow the Moscow field. It turned out that the problems of the TIC are the same: it is difficult to make the TIC break even, not to mention the profitability of its maintenance.) Booking excursions, selling tickets at an agent discount, souvenirs - all this will never pay for the mass of free things for tourists. In addition, the task of consultants is to tell where, where, how and, if possible, how much. And only then sell if the client wishes, because a TIC is not a store... Therefore, private TICs are actually maintained by the companies that opened them; and municipal ones - the state. Nikolay had an interesting experience: he actively uses volunteers, opening “summer” points, and learned to make money by organizing information services for large events - another useful example for all TICs in Russia... We talked about joint projects and opportunities, but I will leave them out of the story - these are the affairs of private companies.) And Kolya sent us for a ride, because their company transports 250 thousand tourists in red double-decker buses , which have already become a landmark of Moscow.

They run around the center of Moscow from 10 am and run every 20 minutes. There are two routes - a large one and a smaller one.) This fall, the second floor was almost free - besides us, there were a trio of Deutsche Germans and another silent one.

Each seat is equipped with headphones, which are given in a sealed bag by the steward upon entry.

I turned on the earphone and listened to the tour in, if I’m not mistaken, eight languages. The excursion deserves special thanks to its creators. It is devoid of the usual "look to the right, you see an architectural monument of the 18th century, built ...". You should listen to this excursion, there is a lot of humor and simple reality. Passing the Duma, I hear that “The Duma is not a place for discussion” and I laugh, imagining what three descendants of German soldiers are thinking at that moment...) But the main thing on this trip is the views. You can’t take such photos while sitting at the same level as traffic. And if this photo seems “the same”...

...then you can see absolutely fantastic landscapes over the fences of construction sites...

The flow, apparently, is dense... We are passing the House on the embankment...

But cars don't get in the way - a rare pleasure for a city photographer.)

And even this structure looks a little better than from the car window.

An hour later we were returned to where we were taken from. By the way, dear guests of the capital: I’ll tell you a little secret... A ticket for the “red” bus costs 1000 rubles. It goes all over the center, it has many stops, you can get off at any one, and then, having done your business, jump on the next bus and go to the next stop. And so on all day. By God, it's so much cheaper than using public transport...

Nikolay, thank you very much and - see you later - we have ways to help each other.)

Original