Dear collegues, my name is Debora and I’m one of the four italian master students which took part to the new double degree project organized by the Academy and the University Milano-Bicocca.

We are almost at the end of our stay in Russia, and I would take this opportunity to thank you all the persons who help us in this journey: the Rector, Professor Zorin I.V., our supervisors, Mr Sesyolkin and Ms Nadezda Laguseva, all our teachers and, of course, our new Russian friends.

I’m very glad to be involved in such program because it represents a great experience which help me to grow up in different senses, both professional and personal.

The beginning of this period was difficult, like all the novelties. All the details were not fixed and the detachment from Italy made my experience more difficult. I needed to get used to a new reality with a different culture, different behaviour and attitudes, different way to organize and work.

I was faced also with a different system of education and a different structure. In some way it was good, in some way strange. I appreciated a lot the approach, more direct and practical, of teaching. I got caught up in several conferences, meetings and forum, where sometimes we were involved in an active way with speeches. Furthermore we met important persons, which occupy a high-level position in the tourism sphere and we could speak with them and better understand the situation of the Russian tourism market. During our classes, also, we were motivated to taking part in the lessons thanks to the involvement of teachers, which were very good, available and understandable.

The strange thing, not negative, was the relation between us and all the people of the Academy involved in this project, which is closer. Everybody tried to help us in almost all our problems, the personal ones too.

Besides, the Academy gave us the opportunity to travel around the European part of Russia, which I found beautiful and interesting. We visited a lot of place like Kostroma, Karelia, Kaluga, Saint Petersburg, Vladimir, Suzdal, Pskov, Novgorod etc. It was very good for me, because I knew only the main cities and, after our travels, I understood how big is the Russian Federation and how many resources has Russia.

In addition I had the possibility to learn the Russian language. Even if I can’t speak or understand all, I like this new language because of its diversity and its originality. The Russian language is also important for us, Italian students, because it can give us an advantage when we will look for a job, because there are a lot of Russian tourists in Italy.

At the end, I can say that my experience in the Academy was and is a good period of my life, where I faced with some issues and with a different style in the education system. It was not a easy way, but a good way for growing up, opening my mind and being more tolerant. This project, according to me, represent an important step for people who wants to work in the tourism sphere, where there aren’t any limits or borders, both geographical and cultural and it is necessary to be broadminded and open to new cultures and to understand it.

Debora Murrone
Master student Riat-Bicocca 

 The objective of the Double Degree in Russia and the results reached in 8 months

"The Russian experience is an unique and incomparable experience" - this is what I think after 8 months of staying in Moscow. How can I support my statement? Well, I have a lot of reasons, such as:
- this project gave me the opportunity to access to a different university system that allows me to use the knowledge and skills gained during the faculty in Italy, on the structure of which to add, integrate, develop new skills in the field of tourism
- I improved my knowledge of the cultural heritage of Russia
- I started to study the Russian language which is fascinating to me because I discovered that my native language borrowed some words and grammar elements from the Russian language
- I had the possibility to know the daily life and peculiarities of spiritual, social, cultural heritage, both in order to identify what differentiates us and more than this, to discover what can unite us
- between the objectives of this exchange experience a very important objective is to get information on the way that there are organized and carried out the tourist services in Russia;

I confess that all the courses that we attended until now, had a great impact and contribution to our improvement of information on the Russian tourism.
- I established some cultural and scientific contacts with Russian students from the International Academy of Tourism as well as with the teachers of our lessons
- me and my group, had the opportunity to present some information about the culture, traditions, habits, tourism potential of Italy, in this way we realized an electronic presentation on the Conference organized in Kostroma
- The program Inter-regional Tourist Forum "History of Russia in small towns" allowed to us to get information on "the development of cultural tourism in small historical cities of Russia" which can be considered an important element of resurrection of Russia national traditions.

During the meetings I took notes of the Russian reality that was presented:
- for example, it was encouraged the partnership between the state and the private companies with the purpose to attract investors for the development of the infrastructures and the superstructures that can serve the tourism industry
- the diversification of the advertising means that will increase the interest of the tourists for the small historical destinations
- there were proposed solutions for the main issues that the tourism is confronting with, such as: the diversification of the labour force, the qualification of the staff, guides, interpreters, the universities will receive funds to support the education and training of the students to be better prepared to work in the tourism industry and also the need for innovative ideas necessary for the tourism improvement
- we also participated to forums and conferences connected to the Accessible Tourism, to the Unbalanced Global Economy and Rising Risks in the Lomonosov State University of Moscow
- the educational training included a lot of excursions to the most important cultural destinations from Russia such as: Kostroma, Kaluga, Vladimir, Sergierv Posad, Karelia, San Petersburg, Pskov and Novgorod and also many important touristic objectives from Moscow and his surroundings.

Least but not last I would like to mention that the Double Degree Programme to which we are taking part, mixed up the combination between theoretical elements and practical activities in order to understand better the process of development of the Tourism Industry. The educational activities organized by the Russian International Academy of Tourism are part from the professional training of its students, the future professional staff of the tourism industry.

Alina Melania Oita