Only certified guides to be able to conduct excursions in Russia

Is the freedom over?

Amendments to the federal law On the Fundamentals of Tourist Activity in the Russian Federation came into force on 1 July 2022: the provision of tour guide (guide) and guide-interpreter services is carried out in person on the basis of a contract. It can be concluded after the contractor is included in a unified federal register. However, tour guides were given a deferment, and during this time they were not required to be certified. Now, guides whose information is not in the register can tell groups about their favourite city only until 1 March 2025.

The fact that the period of freedom is over is indicated by letters that aggregator sites have begun to send to guides. In Russia, more than 10,000 tour guides and guide-interpreters have been certified, in Tatarstan — 440. To become one of them, you need to undergo training. The process is described in detail on the website of the State Committee of the Republic of Tatarstan for Tourism, five training options are offered.

The first is the School of Tour Guides of the Kazan Kremlin Museum-Reserve in cooperation with the Volga Region State University of Physical Education, Sports and Tourism. There are two programmes here — Methodology for Preparing and Conducting a Walking Tour (using the Kazan Kremlin as an example) — after which the guide receives accreditation and can lead groups inside the fortress. After that, you can take the programme Methodology for Preparing and Conducting a Bus Sightseeing Tour. Both courses last 2.5-3 months, with evening classes. As reported by the museum, 68 people have registered so far, but usually half of the group stays for training.

One needs to study for four months on advanced training courses under the Tour Guide programme at the UNIVERSUM + IIMOV KFU Competence Development Centre. Here you can also take the Kremlin, a bus tour of cities and the Republic of Tatarstan. Guide advanced training course is available at the Kazan branch of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, and it was possible to study earlier and for free — under Demography national project. The duration is 1.5-2 months, and in person/part-time. Another option is the Kazan Innovation University named after V.G. Timiryasov (also using remote technologies, 4 months) and the private FestCom (7 months, with a break for summer and winter holidays).

Tests and oral exam

In order to apply for certification, additional education is not enough — a potential guide must already have any secondary vocational or higher education. You can register for the exam through Gosuslugi, but when you submit an application to the State Committee for Tourism, a payment order for 2,000 rubles is not generated.

In Moscow, certification can be taken online, but here everything is done in person in the presence of the commission. The first part is a two-hour test, answers to questions like “Continue the definition of “A tour guide's portfolio is ...” or “Where in Kazan were world records set in the 100 and 1500 m swims during the World Swimming Championships?” People with three years of experience as a guide skip this part. You need to answer at least 23 out of 30 questions.

The second part is oral: the applicant pulls out a ticket with a topic and tells the excursion material on it.

Instead of documents on special education, you can provide a certificate of five years of experience. These are either copies of contracts, work books; information on the applicant’s registration as an individual entrepreneur with the implementation of economic activity 79.11, 79.12 and (or) 79.90. And also, curiously, “information on the applicant’s registration as a payer of tax on professional income with attached copies of checks generated when making payments when providing services as a tour guide (guide) or guide-interpreter.” Do you conduct excursions as a self-employed person and pay taxes? It’s good for you.

Certification must be passed once every five years.

Testing the knowledge of tour guides is certainly necessary, but in this form, says Enzhe Dusayeva, the author of many Kazan excursions within the framework of the World of Tatar Women project.

2I do not understand what will happen if we do not remember the length of a specific street or at the moment make a mistake with a specific year (I, as a historian, realize the full responsibility of the moment), but let's say how the emergence of the Tatar theatre affects the formation of Tatar and local identity and in this context about the priorities for the construction of the new building of the Kamal Theatre. I am sure that in any presentation of the material, conceptualisation is important, a basis on which you can string many facts, a professional can refresh them in the moment.”

How will they monitor guides? “I couldn’t pass several times, now I’m preparing again, I hope to pass,” says one of the Kazan guides. “It’s arranged like this. There’s a test, there’s practice, when you’re listened to by a committee of more than 10 people, you’re filmed, you pull out a ticket and answer right away, without preparation, as if introducing tourists to Bauman Street or Zelenodolsk District. Then you choose one object and tell them about it. You’re also asked questions. It seems to me that guides who don’t work on tourist routes, creating original excursions for the committee, are not the right format. At the same time, it includes officials and experienced guides, representatives of travel agencies. But the questions I hear are ones that tourists have never asked me in my life.”

As Rezeda Yamleyeva, leading adviser to the tourism industry development department of the tourism committee, explained, the flow of people applying for certification has increased.

“Previously, we had to conduct it once a quarter. Now, in February, March, April, we will conduct it twice, and then as the situation dictates.”

The committee also reported that supervision will apparently be carried out by their employees (for example, there are information tents of the Hospitable Kazan project), who, upon seeing a guide without a badge, will report it to law enforcement agencies. Off-site events are also possible. Badges, by the way, can be white and green, as well as white and red (but their expiration date is 1 March 2025).

Fines not defined

Yes, an administrative fine is imposed for violating the law, but its amount has not yet been determined. The bill was submitted to the State Duma for consideration at the end of the year.

It is strictly proposed to fine instructors-guides (citizens — 20-40,000 , officials — 70-10,000, legal entities — 100-150,000 rubles). For guides-interpreters and tour guides, the amounts are smaller — 7-10,000. The amounts of monetary sanctions increase for repeated violations. It is assumed that the document will be adopted in the first quarter, probably just by March 1. The inspector can issue violators an order to eliminate the identified violations.

“Grey” guides will now definitely not be able to work in the Kremlin, Sviyazhsk and Bolgar — in order to conduct excursions to these sites, separate accreditation is needed, because these are UNESCO sites. Agencies and aggregator sites are out of the question for them. In general, it is already clear that the law will primarily affect organisations.

But you can call an excursion a one-man show or a walk and promote it through social networks? For example, as explained by Farolero company, their theatrical tours with headphones are classified as performances, but not excursions.

As the head of the educational company Through the Eyes of an Engineer Airat Bagautdinov says, his organization will also start working on city routes only with certified guides from 1 March.

“For now, we are helping the guys with certification as much as possible. We have answers to test questions, answers to tickets for practical assignments.”

The bill itself appeared at the end of 2019, Bagautdinov recalls. Then the guides, having united, tried to demolish the necessary amendments, simplify the procedure or cancel it altogether. Later, the deadlines for the entry into force of the document were postponed.

But certification can change the situation with the use of excursions for other purposes, for example, popularisation of heritage, which are used by urban conservationists to draw attention to objects under threat of demolition, Bagautdinov notes.

“For many years, we organized the Days of the Avant-Garde festival with the architect Sasha Selivanova, where there were excursions that were one-time conducted by historians and cultural experts. And they, naturally, were not professional tour guides,” Bagautdinov notes the problem. Formally, such people are outside law.

“I think that after 1 March, the adjustment period will continue, because some inconveniences of this law in relation to the realities of our lives will arise,” Bagautdinov notes: for example, museums assume that they will position excursions as educational.

It should be noted that the law does not apply to guides working with religious organisations or those involved in pilgrimage activities. You can lead without certification inside buildings if there is an agreement with the owners. And also to “persons familiarising tourists (excursionists) with the objects of display as part of the implementation of educational activities).”

Head of the guild of tour guides of the Republic of Tatarstan Igor Voronov notes that the last clarification will help with the situation when the excursion is one-time:

“If you do not just lead people around the city, but give some in-depth topic, I think everything is fine. As for working with religious organizations, there are, of course, questions — after all, you still drive from building to building. I work in the certification commission, I can say that February is already full, apparently people go to take the exam on old questions.”