Learning new things about Moscow all the time and studying languages: female tourist industry professionals reveal details of their jobs

Oksana Maslyukova: I like challenging problems

Oksana Maslyukova, general manager of a 5-star hotel in downtown Moscow, tells us that tourism and hospitality businesses have always been integral parts of her life. Her family used to travel a lot: her father was a diplomat, and her mother managed a small hotel at Russia’s permanent mission to the U.N. Various delegations, famous politicians and artists used to stay there.

So when time came to choose her profession, Oksana did not hesitate. She got the Hotel Management and Tourism degree from a Russian university, and later an American diplomat in the Hotel Marketing and Management.

Ms. Maslyukova calls the hotel her second home, admitting that the hospitality work is full of everyday surprises and lessons in overcoming challenges.

“I like it when my work tests me: temperamental guest, major events, large groups with specific requirements. I have never backed away from challenges. Quite the opposite, crisis management is my element. Of course, projects like that take a lot from you, but the aftertaste after you finish them and think, “I did it!” outweigh the drawbacks,” Oksana says.

Ms. Maslyukova is a member of hotel industry association council, where representatives of the Moscow Tourism Committee and the industry go to discuss problems and find ways to solve them. One of them is the shortage of trained professionals in the hotel industry. Ms. Maslyukova believes that making jobs in the industry more prestigious will attract more young people. She hopes their joint effort will bear fruit in the near future.

Ekaterina Martyanova: You have to keep up to meet Moscow standards

Ekaterina Martyanova works at the tourist info center of the Southern River Station, opened a year ago. Right now, the team is busy getting everything ready for tourists: the navigation season is about to start. Before that, Ekaterina used to work at VDNKh, another tourist attraction point. She decided to switch to the info center to expand her knowledge. Now, she has to have a concept not only of the largest Russian exhibition space, but of the entire city as well.

According to Ms. Martyanova, guests most often ask her about places they can visit with kids. New electric-powered boats and the restored Southern River Station itself attract much attention. Major events in the city are also drawing interest from tourists.

“I like it that there are some major events in our city: Moscow Urban Forum, Flower Jam, Journey to Christmas. It is all done on an incredible scale, and that is what people come here for,” she emphasizes.

Working in Moscow, you have to keep up with the highest standard, says Ekaterina. You have to constantly improve your services and adjust to the visitors’ needs. She keeps getting familiar with the quickly changing city and developing her people skills.

Yulia Abramova: We have transformed the very guided tour format

Yulia Abramova, founder of a guided tour agency, came to the tourist industry 13 years ago. She used to handle promotion of fashionable restaurants before. Moscow was completely different back in those days, according to her: The Gorky Park renovation has barely started then, sidewalks along Tverskaya Street were narrow, façades of buildings were plastered with advertisements, and there were trading stalls by metro stations. Born in Moscow, Yulia dreamed of making the city beautiful, interesting, and lively, for Muscovites before everyone else.

After finding a like-minded person, she went on to open her guided tour agency with a focus on modern approaches to voyages around the city. In addition to Moscow past, their guides also talk about the present, and even the future of the city. The subjects of their tours are always fascinating: business, romance and entertainment, how it all used to be before, and how it is done now.

Ms. Abramova says that in 10 years, together with her teammates, she made an effort to transform the very format of a guided tour, to make it an exciting adventure, same as a cinema or a music show visit.

“It is the norm today to go on a walking tour around Moscow with someone who knows a lot about it. But it was not always like this: the weather here is fickle, plus the city itself used to be uninviting, and the tours themselves were boring and dry. We learned how to handle each of those issues: in winter, we invite our guests to visit old mansions, museums, galleries, take them on bar tours. We also figured out how to fight boredom: we share some of our tricks with our colleagues, bringing up new storytellers,” Yulia says.

She believes that the modern Moscow is more conductive to creating new tourist formats. There are new pedestrian and creative spaces, gastro clusters, headliner exhibitions. Among all that, Yulia keeps developing her project to satisfy both Muscovites and tourists.

Ekaterina Shasherina: The surprise vacancy

Ekaterina Shasherina works for the tourist police: a dedicated battalion of the 1st special police regiment. It was created in 2014, to prepare for the 2018 World Cup. The tourist police is not only about preserving law and order, but about helping foreigners who do not know Russian.

Their officers are multilingual: beside English, they speak Chinese, Spanish, French, and have multiple university degrees each.

Ekaterina has been in the tourist police since late 2022. After earning her bachelor degree in the South Ural State University in Chelyabinsk, she set about finding a job and found a surprising vacancy online.

“Initially, the “tourist police” seemed like an oxymoron to me, a mix of un-mixable things. How one could combine foreign language proficiency and law enforcement was a mystery to me. Hearing that I wanted to move to Moscow, my mother was worried, of course, like any loving parent, but she still did her best to motivate me. “Go on and try!” she said. I tried, and I cannot get enough of it now,” reminisces Ms. Shasherina.

There are very few women in the tourist police force. But it is not a problem, according to her, quite the opposite: their men care about them a lot, and are always there to help.

They improve their skills via specialized Moscow Government training programs. They helped Ekaterina adapt to the city quickly, get familiar with Moscow’s history, architecture and infrastructure. She studied topics for guided tours, pedestrian routes around Moscow sights and recreation areas. There were also some lessons in English, dedicated to the “Moscow Hospitality”. That newly acquired knowledge helps her be useful to Muscovites and tourists.

Ekaterina visits the city’s festivities not only when it is her job. She enjoyed going to the Russia exhibition at VDNKh, the Russian Achievements gallery and the Atom Pavilion. At the Chinese New Year celebrations in February, she took part in master classes and enjoyed tasting diverse Asian dishes. She could not resist helping people even on her days off, though: she explained how to find the festival spaces and talked to them about the national cuisine.