Kazan Universiade project as vision for sustainable future. Part 8

The Kazan Universiade project, which was record-breaking in many terms, was again in the centre of attention 100 days after the end of the Games. This time it was one of the topics on the agenda of the 2nd edition of the Visions for Future International Tourism Forum. Universiade Village Mayor and Deputy Director General of the Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate, Farid Abdulganiev, presented a report on the delivery of major international events as an impetus for the development of tourism and hospitality in the region.

On behalf of the Kazan 2013 Organising Committee, Farid Abdulganiev greeted those present at the forum. "To date, the development of tourism in any region is directly linked to its economic development and position in the international arena. The Republic of Tatarstan has always boasted enormous potential in tourism. Preparation and staging of prestigious sporting events on our soil and the Republican Government's focus on sports and its development allowed to boost again the region's tourist appeal," he said.

As we reported earlier, dozens of major international sporting events were successfully held in Kazan in the past years: world and European championships, pre-Olympic qualifying tournaments and other competitions. All this boosted the influx of tourists and contributed to an active development of the so-called 'sports tourism' in the region. In 2012, the Republic of Tatarstan was visited by more than 1,000,000 800 people, with 85% of this number travelling to Kazan, which makes 1,000,000 200 people. And this figure is increasing by 12-14%.

The 27th Summer Universiade gave new impetus to the development of tourism in the Republic of Tatarstan. For two weeks, the Games have been in the focus of global media limelight. More than 150,000 tourists and fans from Russia and abroad visited Kazan and 60 tour guides (40 volunteer tour guides, 20 tour guides for VIP groups) conducted 380 tours for 14,348 people within this period. Foreign language tours (English, German, Spanish and French) were in high demand.

The Universiade events generated lots of excitement; a record number of tickets - about 800,000 - was sold. Overall, the TV audience of the Summer Universiade was 3 billion people. The sports competitions were held in modern, beautiful and unique facilities located throughout the city, with thousands of fans packing the stands. These are 36 brand-new sports facilities that are already part of the rich Universiade legacy for the residents of the republic, and a fraction of the history of the past Universiade.

Among the most important venues are the Volleyball Centre, Aquatics Palace, Tennis Academy, Ak Bars Wrestling Palace, Rowing Centre, Kazan Arena Stadium. As a result, a new tour, titled 'Kazan, the sports city', was offered to the guests to the city coming in Kazan for the Games.

"The development of this tourism trend in our republic will have a positive effect on its recognition in the international arena. High-quality, convenient and state-of-the-art sports facilities will become venues for prestigious championships and attract more fans," said Farid Abdulganiev.

Within five years of the preparations for the Games, the infrastructure of the city (sports venues, hotels, street and road networks, transport system, underground system, renewal of public transport) has been considerably modernised

Farid Abdulganiev also stressed that modern and comfortable terminals and the airport complex, which will allow to receive passengers from all over the world, are needed to ensure the development of tourism industry. By the Universiade held a full-scale modernisation of the Kazan International Airport was carried out ahead of the Universiade. A new passenger terminal, with a capacity of 1.2 million passengers per year, has been built. The total throughput of the airport is 2.4 million passengers a year.

For the convenience of residents and visitors to the city, an express train was launched to connect the Kazan International Airport with the train station. It is important that Kazan became the fourth Russian city after Moscow, Sochi and Vladivostok to organise an intermodular transport system. Also, it is expected that the road and transport networks of the city will undergo further developments in the future. These include the introduction of circular railway service, opening of new parking lots throughout the city, construction of the second line of the underground, and other large-scale transformations.

14 new hotels (the total number of rooms is 1,185, the total number of bed-places is 1,985) were erected in the build-up to the Games in addition to a little more than 100 hotels, motels and hostels, which are already in operation and whose accommodation capacity is 9,500 beds. "New projects (the largest of them are the FINA World Championships 2015 and the FIFA World Cup 2018) will help to ensure that Kazan has become one of the most popular tourist centres in Russia," Farid Abdulganiev concluded.