A meeting of the jury of the contest "The Best Guide of Russia" will be held at the Moscow Headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society on September 5. Professionals in the field of tourism and travel journalism will choose the winners of the project - the most enthusiastic and talented guides who can rise genuine interest to their region of the whole country. Among the jury members are well-known TV presenters John Warren and Valdis Pelsh, President of the Association of Guide-Translators Alexander Osipov, President of the Nizhny Novgorod Guild of Guides Ekaterina Leshkanova, Editor-in-Chief of Vokrug Sveta magazine Sergey Apresov and other eminent experts.
Nominations of the contest "The Best Guide of Russia" this year:
- “The Best Guide. Museum". This is about the history of museum collections and their collectors, amazing facts about the exhibits and buildings in which they are stored, legends of the great patrons of art and creators of museums in Russia.
- “The Best Guide. City". The nomination is for those who prefers the streets of his/her native city, town or village, full of sounds and images of the past, to museum storerooms. Not only stories are important, but the author's approach to the presentation, the ability to tell about a street, a house or a monument in his or her place of birth in unusual and fascinating way.
- “The Best Guide. Conductor". This nomination is for people who can conduct an excursion along ecological paths, specially protected natural territories, extreme, mountain and natural routes, find a path to rare flowers, tell where it is better to listen to an oriole, where the largest porcini grow and where the most picturesque view of the valley opens.
- "The Best Guide. Up to 18 years old". This is for young lovers of their native land who are able to make an interesting video tour of their favorite places (from 12 to 18 years old inclusive).
The special prize "Moscow Guide" from the TV channel "Moscow 24" will be awarded to the best story about the Russian capital.
Any person over 12 years old could take part in the competition - both a professional guide and an amateur guide. To participate, it was necessary to shoot a two-minute video - a bright, informative, reliable mini-tour of the city, museum, natural route. Ready-made stories were taken on the website of the project лучшийгид.рф.
In total, more than 1000 commercials were received for the competition. Preliminary selection was 646 works that comply with the rules of the competition.
Video tours came from all over the country - from Sevastopol and Nakhodka, Yoshkar-Ola and Magadan, Kaliningrad and Zheleznovodsk, Moscow and St. Petersburg. Famous sights of Russia received a completely new coverage, and also viewers learned about unknown places such facts that surprised even experienced local historians.
Guides approached the task creatively. Contestants' stories contain rare facts, amazing stories, poetry and lyrics, fun and drive, and always love and pride for their small homeland. Interestingly, this year the guides loaded dozens of bike tours. Volunteers - participants of expeditions of the Russian Geographical Society, also tried their strength. So, the videos came from Tuva, where the Complex Archaeological and Geographical Expedition of the Russian Geographical Society for the Study of the Tunnug Kurgan is carrying out, as well as from the Crimean Comprehensive Archaeological and Geographic Expedition " Akra - the Ancient City of Bosporus ".
You can watch the videos of the contestants here.