Anastasia (right) and team partner Anna Kirillina
In 2013 I had the chance to participate in the Global Travel and Tourism Partnership Research Conference in Monaco where, as a winning national team, we had the honor to represent my country on an international level.
There were a lot of participants from different parts of the world: Great Britain, Hungary, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, South Africa and Brazil.
The GTTP 2013 Russia team explored how enthusiasts in Kolumna, a city about 100 km (60 miles) from Moscow, are working to restore and re-introduce “Kolumna Pastilla,” a popular Russian delicacy invented in Kolumna in the 1700s that almost faded away in the 1900s.
Pastilla combines apples, honey or sugar, sometimes egg whites, and nuts and fruits.
The topic of the competition and of the conference was Culinary Tourism. We had to write a case, and that was not as easy as it seemed because we had studied the subject of our project in all aspects, had analyzed information and had prepared our presentation (see photos about Kolumna and Pastilla). We were extremely happy and proud to become the winning team.
Our award was participation in the amazing annual GTTP student/teacher conference, which lasted just 5 days but was enough to change me a lot. I made a lot of friends and still keep in touch with them. We were able to share the love of our countries with each other.
On the last day we had a gala dinner where we were able to meet Global Partners from the world’s leading corporations and to learn about their ways to success. Global Partners gladly communicated with us, answering our questions and showing interest in our projects. It was really great that they were sincerely interested in helping us expand our horizons and develop new skills.
The GTTP conference allowed me to understand the cultural values of different countries, and better understand mentality of other nations. This experience had a great influence on me because I was able to feel myself as part of the world. I understood that the interaction of different people and cultures is very important and necessary for our modern society. People should be tolerant with each other.
Every country, every nation has its own unique and unrepeatable history and it’s important that people from other countries respect it and wish to become closer. Travel and Tourism is an extremely effective way to achieve this goal, and governments have to interact and be in progress together, helping each other promote culture, ideals, and values and bring people together. And I understood that I wanted to contribute to it.
In meeting with Global Partners – successful and influential people, teachers and students from other countries, adopting their experience, discovering something new, I realized that it is possible to be a part of this system, and that is closely connected to my interest in politics and belief in its ability to use “soft power” and be a means of mutual understanding, so people could live in peace.
That was how my participation in the GTTP conference helped me make a choice of the next level of education and my professional career. So after graduating I entered the Department of World Politics at Moscow State University.
The Monaco Conference helped me understand what I really want to achieve in life. I have been enriched by new knowledge and learnt a lot about cultural heritage of different nations. GTTP helped me to find my way in life and I am really thankful to organizers and sponsors for this awesome opportunity.
