The Executive Director of the Volga Region Cities Association Mr. Vladimir Reprintsev assumed the moderator's duties for the occasion, the Chair of the Board of Directors of Sister Cities International Ms. Carol Robertson Lopez provided opening remarks, and Mr. Bill Boerum, Honorary Chair of the Board of Directors, invited experts from all along the Mississippi River.

Methods of supporting domestic tourism during the COVID-19 crisis were discussed and presented by experts from State of Illinois and separate cities: Minneapolis (Minnesota), Clinton (Mississippi), Muscatine (Iowa).

From the Russian side, the reports were presented by their colleagues along the Volga banks: from Astrakhan, Kazan, Saratov, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm, and Volgograd.

In an exciting additional touch, the round table featured the presentation of the book "Volga: the history of the greatest Russian river" written in 2021 by Dr. Janet Hartley, Professor at London School of Economics.

How is Mississippi River Parkway Commission involved in tourism promotion? What quote by Mark Twain brings together Muscatine and Nizhny Novgorod? Can tourism be preserved at all during the pandemic?

The answers to these questions and then some can be found in the recording of the round table, and the experts' presentations will soon be available at the Volga Region Cities Association official website.