06 February ‘23

MMK Welcomed Record Number of Tourists at its Plant in 2022

Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) welcomed a record number of visitors – 11,320 – at its plant in Magnitogorsk in 2022, an increase of 50% over the pre-pandemic figure in 2019.

The increase in tourist visits to the site was driven not only by the lifting of pandemic-related restrictions (compared with the previous year, the number of visitors increased by 170%) but also by a significant expansion in MMK’s tourist programmes, which now cater to a wide variety of groups. MMK currently offers seven different excursions for tourists, including two for children and five for adults. One of these is the “Legends and True Stories of the Steel River” tour, which gives visitors an opportunity to visit the Magnitogorsk reservoir by boat and to learn about the city and the plant enjoying the views from the water. Another recently added tour, called “Open Metallurgy,” is designed specifically for visitors with disabilities.

Since MMK first opened its doors to tourists in 2018, plant specialists have conducted nearly 2,200 tours for approximately 30,000 people, including around 8,700 schoolchildren.

“We see a great deal of tourist interest in MMK, and our efforts in this area have exceeded all our expectations. We initially set out to provide vocational guidance for schoolchildren and to offer Magnitogorsk residents who do not work at the plant an opportunity to learn how the enterprise responsible for the prosperity of the city and beyond operates. This very day, visitors from Moscow, St Petersburg and other regions of the country are coming here specifically to see the power of this Southern Urals industrial giant with their own eyes,” said MMK CEO Pavel Shilyaev.

Within several years of launching its tourist programme, the Company has become the industrial tourism flagship of the Southern Urals and one of the leading centres of industrial tourism at the national level. Last year, MMK launched Russia’s first centre of excellence for the development of industrial tourism in partnership with the Agency for Strategic Initiatives and the Government of the Chelyabinsk region. The centre aims to train specialised tour guides and create a platform where companies can share experiences and best practices in industrial tourism.

In 2022, MMK began to take part in the youth employment project “More than Work,” carried out by the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs in partnership with the autonomous non-profit organisation “Russia – A Country of Opportunities.” The project’s main goal is to help young specialists find employment in their chosen profession: students can take part in internships, master the skills and knowledge necessary for their work and find a full-time job. Last year, more than 150 students from specialised universities completed short-term internships at MMK through the project.

In October 2022, MMK took part in the “Industrial Tourism: Leaders of Russia 2022” national rating, where it was included in six categories; the Company ranked first among metallurgical companies and third overall in terms of visitor traffic among Russian industrial enterprises that took part in the rating. The organisers noted that MMK had the most visits in 2021 in the categories “Tourism for Career Guidance” and “Tours for Specialists.” In addition, MMK participated in the Accelerator for the Development of Industrial Tourism last year, where it received a winner’s certificate from the Agency for Strategic Initiatives and the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade in the category “Best Platform for Exchanging Experiences in Industrial Tourism.”

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