Applications for Masters of Hospitality contest continue

On November 13, a new project of the presidential platform “Russia is a Land of Opportunities”  the All-Russian contest “Masters of Hospitality” was launched. On the same day, the acceptance of applications for participation in the project began. The application campaign will last until December 29, 2019. The competition is co-organized by the National Hospitality Industry Union.

The goal of the new project is to unleash the potential of professionals, create new traditions, raise standards of service and prestige of professions in the fields of tourism and hospitality, staffing the tourism industry. Both successful professionals, managers, heads of tourism and related organizations, as well as novice hospitality industry experts and students can take part in the competition. 

“For the hospitality industry, it is important to develop tourism in each region of the country, to provide high-quality services for tourists on the spot, therefore the regional stage of the competition is of particular importance. The organizing committee of the project decided to announce a competition among the regions for hosting the semi-finals of “Masters of Hospitality” in the federal districts of the country,” said Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Coordinating Council for the Development of Tourism in the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the competition “Masters of Hospitality” Olga Golodets.

The competition “Masters of Hospitality” will be held in three stages: registration and qualifying stage, regional semi-finals and final. To become a participant, you need to register on the contest website, fill out a questionnaire before December 29, and then upload your video greeting with a story about your favourite city, region or other tourist attraction in Russia. The selection stage (online testing) of the competition will be held in January-February 2020. As part of it, competition experts will evaluate general and professional knowledge, intellectual abilities and managerial competencies. Regional semi-finals will be held from February to April in 9 regions of Russia. The final will take place in April 2020 and will bring together 200 industry experts.

In addition to the knowledge and competencies of the participants, their projects will be evaluated. Participants will be able to present their projects starting from the semi-finals. Based on the results of the assessment, 10 projects of the finalists will be selected for further acceleration and implementation in the regions. Partners will provide special grants.

In total it will be chosen 50 winners. All of them will be able to participate in a mentoring programme with industry leaders and government officials. Among the mentors: World Travel Awards founder Graham Cooke, Director of the Roscongress Foundation Alexander Stuglev, General Director of the Northern Caucasus Resorts Khasan Timizhev, restaurateur Alexander Rappoport, Head of the Federal Agency for Tourism Zarina Doguzova, president of Cosmos Hotel Group Alexander Schwein, General Director of Federal Passenger Company Petr Ivanov and many others.

25 winners will also receive a certificate for one of the MBA educational programmes in Skolkovo. At the same time, all finalists can receive invitations for internships in leading companies and organizations. Among them: Federal Passenger Company, Rosa Khutor, Altay Resort, Krasnaya Polyana, Mriya Resort, Radisson Flotilla, TuTu.Ru, Cosmos Group, Tauric Chersonese (Khersones Tavrichesky) Museum, Intourist, Sochi Park, and many others.

The autonomous non-profit organization “Russia is a Land of Opportunities” was created at the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Key goals of the organization: creating conditions for increasing social mobility, ensuring personal and professional self-realization of citizens, as well as creating effective social elevators in Russia. The Supervisory Board of “Russia is a Land of Opportunities” is chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

National Hospitality Industry Union is an all-Russian intersectoral association of professional communities, organizations, and specialists involved in tourism. The Union was created in the summer of 2019, over several months of work, it brought together more than a thousand professionals in the field of tourism and hospitality, and it already includes 12 large industry associations.