Russian-language course offered; tourism workers eyed
AS more Russian tourists visit the country with Cebu as its gateway, Russian officials in the country have partnered with the University of San Carlos to offer a Russian-language course starting middle of August this year.
Armi Lopez-Garcia, honorary consul of the Russian Federation in Central Visayas, said the course would be open to anybody who wants to learn the Russian language especially those working in tourism-related sectors like hotels and restaurants.
“We believe that we can better serve them if we can speak and understand their language. The course is about 54 hours and will be offered for three hours every Saturday from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.,” Consul Garcia said.
Russian Ambassador Nikolay Kudashev cited the increasing number of Russian tourists as the reason for the course offering.
Kudashev said the number of Russian tourists had been growing in the past years and this was expected to continue growing with the implementation of the open-skies policy.
“From what we know, we had about 50,000 tourists from Russia who come to the country on board chartered flights and it has been increasing at an average of about 36 percent or even more,” he said.
Article continues after this advertisementKudashev said the Philippines—especially destinations such as Boracay, Cebu and Palawan— is the among most preferred destinations of Russian tourists.
Article continues after this advertisementHe said talks were ongoing with airline companies in Russia—Aeroflot and Transaero—which could place direct flights to Cebu and other destinations in the country sometime next year once the open-skies policy would take off.
“They like the Filipino hospitality, our smiles, our weather, the food especially the seafood. So we think that we should prepare for them and enable especially our hotel frontliners and students who are taking up hotel and restaurant management courses to cater to the Russian tourists better by first learning their language,” Consul Garcia said.
Kudashev said the Philippines and Russian relationship had always been strong and could still be strengthened through industries like tourism and culture, energy and telecommunication.
“The tourism and culture can be our entry point for more trade developments in the future as most of the tourists that come here are young businessmen who are looking for leisure as well as opportunities for investments,” Garcia said.
Aside from tourists, Kudashev also cited Russian investors, who were looking for possible partnerships in the Philippines under the administration’s thrust of public-private partnership especially on the renewable energy sector.
He said Russia had the technology that the Philippines could use to address the power problem.
