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Creation of new tourist route 'Estonia - Russia' by developing Virtual World of Russian Museum with participation of Estonian and Russian young people (Virtual Tourism)

One of the positive examples of business partnership between Estonia and Russia is development of cross-border tourism, including that using modern computer technology, which is spreading rapidly as a tool of both presenting and transferring information. In this context, of special interest is cross-border cooperation between the North-East (Ida-Viru) region of Estonia with the Russian-speaking majority inhabiting its area and the North-West region of Russia with the nearby city of St. Petersburg and its vast cultural, historical, and tourist potential. The present-day realities in Estonia and Russia demand that special attention should be drawn to the need of establishing and improving relationships and practical actions which would, on one hand, assist preservation and development of ethnic cultural identity among Estonia's Russian-speaking population, and, on the other hand, facilitate an easier introduction into the values of Russian culture for people of both Estonia and other European countries. One example of such an action was the agreement signed by the municipality of Kohtla-Jarve (the industrial centre of Ida-Viru county of Estonia) and State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, which allowed Kohtla-Jarve in 2005 to open the first cross-border information and education centre 'Russian Museum: virtual branch.' When visiting the centre, people of Kohtla-Jarve and its visitors become active participants in the virtual world of the Russian Museum. Through virtual tours, lectures, and talks, they obtain and broaden their knowledge of the Museum, its art collections, and the history of Russian culture. The first results of the centre's work demonstrated great interest on behalf of the visitors and also a distinct opportunity of transforming the centre into the main link of a new cross-border tourist route, which would be of interest to the people of Kohtla-Jarve and its visitors. An important factor and potential for centre's development is young people's interest in its work. It would be worthwhile to consolidate this interest by involving students of information technology in Estonian and Russian universities in the practical creation of new computer software modules enhancing centre's visual and interactive capabilities. Planned project activities include expanding the media collection of the information and education centre by way of conducting a series of educational sessions for students followed by creation of multimedia software and its introduction into the Virtual World of Russian Museum as part of its exhibit.
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