Sverdlovsk Region Ministry for Physical Education, Sports and Tourism and Ural State University are holding an interregional conference known as The Greater Urals Tourist Forum on May 24-25, 2007. The event is supported by the regional government and Rostourism.

‘The agenda of the conference covers issues of foreign travelers coming to the Urals and creating and promoting the Greater Urals brand in Russia and abroad,’ Ural Airlines’ press officer says. The carrier has already come up with a few new offers to make foreigners’ visits more comfortable. The company’s English and German corporate websites, for example, have been around for three years now. What is more, e-booking services were introduced for English- and German-speaking tourists in December 2006, so they are now able to select the routes, tariffs, and any of the carrier’s flights on their own.

Then, all the planes are being fitted with automatic translators to render the general flight information in a number of languages; so far, Russian, English, German, and Czech software has been finished. The airline is also planning to be able to provide this information in the language of the countries the plane is flying from and to. If you fly, let’s say, from Mauritius to Yekaterinburg, you’ll be provided with announcement in Russian, English, and Bhojpuri.

Finally, Wings travel club (Ural Airlines’ branch) is offering special travel programs for those coming to Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, and Tyumen.