Tourism is one of the largest and most dynamic industries of the economy. The high pace of its development and large amounts of financial earnings actively affect various sectors of the economy, which enables the formation of a separate tourism industry.
The development of the tourism industry is impossible to imagine without events related to demonstrating services and offers. The Institute of Sport, Tourism and Service of South Ural State University is the leader of the Chelyabinsk region in the field of educational services for this industry.
450 students study at the ISTS in programs of higher and middle professional education in tourism and hospitality. A unique quality of the ISTS academic programs is it’s practically-oriented approach to teaching: students participate in the organization and execution of many projects and events at the university level and at the city level. Olga Rovinskaya, Deputy Director of the Institute of Sport, Tourism and Service for extracurricular and instructional affairs, the executive secretary of the ISTS admissions campaign, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Honored Worker of the Russian Federation in Higher Education, told us about how ISTS’s students’ academic process is organized.
“Participation in all of the Departments’ projects is built in to the process of student education; this enables the broadening of their professional skills and personal growth. The disciplines in the professional block includes organization of museum and exhibit work, cultural and leisure activities, and celebrations at tourist and hotel complexes. They study the modern tendencies of development for cultural, health, ecological, and other forms of tourism. Throughout their education, the students design and become participants of tours and excursions with various themes, develop advertising and informational materials, and take part in exhibitions related to promoting the developed touristic product,” says Olga Valerievna.
Beginning from the first year of education, students of the Institute of Sport, Tourism and Service are immersed in active practical work.
“Our students are focused and active people. The goal of the teaching collective, from the first year of education, is to get them acquainted with professional culture, show them all of the possibilities of their field, and show them success,” continues Olga Rovinskaya.
For these tasks to be realized, it is necessary to create projects in which students can show themselves. One of the ISTS traditions is organizing special events for Tourism Day, which is on September 27th this year.
Tourism Day is an international holiday which was founded by the General Assembly of the International Tourism Organization in 1979. The goal of the holiday is to propagandize tourism, show its contribution to the international economy, and develop ties between people of various countries.
“Traditionally, ISTS holds celebrations, quizzes, and themed competitions at the university, which very successfully blend in with city-wide events. Our students act as the organizers, curators, and those who realize these events,” says Olga Rovinskaya.
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This year, the Institute of Sport, Tourism and Service is preparing an exhibition entitled “Sustainable tourism – an instrument for developing the region.” The goal of the exhibition is to create conditions for the most effective communication between participants, getting to know the possibilities and traditions of the Department, and the students’ achievements.
Within this exhibition, visits by university partners have been planned – representatives of the Ministry of Culture of the Chelyabinsk Region and the Center of Developing Tourism for the Chelyabinsk Region.
In addition, ISTS representatives will tell the event’s guests about the results of their work, share their plans for the future, and present their vision for the development of the industry of tourism.
“Realization of such projects is always a collective effort. A team of professors and professionals from the Department of Tourism and Socio-Cultural Service is working on the exhibition with students under the guidance of professor Tatyana Tretyakova,” comments Olga Valerievna.
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The Department of Tourism and Socio-Cultural Service was founded as the Department of Pedagogics and Social Work in March 1997. On November 1st, 2006, it was renamed to the Department of Tourism and Socio-Cultural Service.
The first graduating class of specialists in tourism from the specialty Tourism was held June 2009. Specialists in service and tourism have been matriculated since 2000.
The department has modern equipment which allows training specialists at a high level.
Conducting student exhibitions, on-site practical training, and the Russian Student Olympiad Tourist Mecca are important for specialist training.
Since 2004, the Department holds the annual student exhibition Tourism of the Region thanks to students of the tourism specialties at the SUSU exhibition center. The exhibition presents the best student work completed within the pre-diploma practical projects. This includes programs for tourism services, multimedia presentations and videos, posters, sheets and booklets for paths that students recommend, and technological projects by students.
“The Department has colossal experience in exhibitions and festivals. For many years now, the department has organized an April exhibition of student projects, “Tourism of the Region,”, and conferences for employers (curator – Associate Professor Tatyana Bay.) Annually, they organize a large festival with help from universities from various cities across Russia, “Carnivals of the World” in December (curator – Associate Professor Yulia Syromyatnikova),” concludes the Deputy Director of the ISTS.
The Department of Tourism and Socio-Cultural Service is the first classical school of tourism in the Ural region. Over 20 years they have gained a lot of experience, many students have been trained, and they have gained authority in the professional society and in the labor market.
This year, Department Head professor Tretyakova was one of the developers for a tentative basic educational program for bachelors’ students in specialty 43.03.02 Tourism. A work meeting was held at the university in December on improving the academic process in training staff for the integrated specialties group 43.00.00 Service and Tourism with the help of colleagues across Russia.
South Ural State University’s Institute of Sport, Tourism, and Service actively participates in the development of the tourism industry across the region: from specialist training to the creation of tourism product.
“Over the last three years, the Department has registered 4 inventions: Project Management in Tourism; Means of Housing Tourists in the Zlatoust City Okrug of the Chelyabinsk Region; and Caves of the Chelyabinsk Region,” says Olga Rovinskaya, “The ISTS-Tour small innovative business has been operating at the institute since 2014. The originator and organizer of this was the Director of the Institute, Vadim Erlich, and the first tourism products were developed by our teachers and master’s students. Today, ISTS-Tour is operating successfully and more than 4000 clients have been serviced. About 4 people a day go on business trips or vacations each day.”
The Institute of Sport, Tourism and Service is well known for organizing a large number of cultural, creative, and design events in the region. ISTS is also a forge of champions. An infrastructure as strong as that of the SUSU Institute of Sport, Tourism and Service cannot be claimed by every Russian university. At students’ disposal are eight academic buildings, a large sports science research center, an indoor athletics stadium, and twenty gyms for various other sports. The academic process is organized such that students have a right to choose. The students are not forced to train any sports, but are told to find the most interesting area for them and develop their skills depending on their personal preferences.
The Institute offers academic programs for bachelor’s, master’s, and post-graduate students. Graduates of the Institute of Sport, Tourism and Service are valued on the labor market by large employers of the Ural Federal District, Russia, and abroad.
Among the graduates of the Institute of Sport, Tourism and Service are also some famous personalities: Honored Master of Sport of Russia, silver and bronze medalist in judo World Championships, Kirill Denisov, and silver medalist of the summer Paralympic Games and European champion, Oksana Guseva. There are also champions in HoReCa. Among them: director of the Center of Tourism Developing in the Chelyabinsk Region, Tatyana Bay, and titled pastry chef of the Penka café, Igor Tumarkin, and many more.
Active academic, training, and contest work allows the students, once they graduate, to successfully enter the professional world. The Institute actively works with employers and adjusts to their staff demands. Representatives of the Ministry of Sport (federal and regional), the Ministry of Culture, and the Russian National Teams in skiing, orienteering, kickboxing, swimming, and Olympic weightlifting actively participate in student education. More than 200 organizations partner with the ISTS, and the loyalty index for employers for the institute’s graduates is 100%. The main goal of the pedagogues is that all graduates of the SUSU ISTS become harmonious, physically strong, intellectually developed, and successful, and become high-class professionals.
