volgatravel.ru was the "Volga Tourist Server," a catalog of travel agencies and recreation sites across the Volga region. The nn.ru directory described it as "Nizhny Novgorod Tourist Server. Offers from travel agencies, sanatoriums, recreation centers, air tickets, countries, visas" and listed it under the "Projects: Tourism" category[1][3]; the directory's new-resources section already lists the site as of July 25, 2002[1]. Surviving snapshots of the home page span 2011–2013: by then the server maintained a directory covering sixteen cities of the Volga region — from Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, and Samara to Astrakhan, Kirov, and Izhevsk — though most of the regular participants on the home page remained based in the Nizhny Novgorod region[4].

A directory of four thousand organizations

The site was organized as a catalog. The left-hand column was divided into four major blocks: "Travel agencies of the Volga region," with a tour-selection request form and a list of tourism trade shows; "Tourism and recreation sites of the Volga region" — water parks, recreation centers, hotels, children's health camps, out-of-town hotels, nature reserves, cottage communities, museum-reserves, folk crafts, river cruises, sanatoriums, holy places and pilgrimage sites, rural tourism; "Active recreation and extreme sports of the Volga region" — from mountaineering, diving, and horseback tours to paintball, paragliding, fishing, and yacht clubs; and "Transport and travel services" — air ticket offices, bus stations, rail ticket offices, boat and motor-launch rental[4].

Besides the catalog, the site ran reviews of travel organizations, a "Fellow Travelers" board, a "Photo Album of the Volga Region," a video album, a guestbook, user registration, and a paid "Listings and advertising placement" section[4]. An organization counter sat in the header next to the date and grew slowly: as the home page reported, on October 19, 2011 the project had "4094 organizations"[4], on May 4, 2012 — 4156[5], on March 10, 2013 — 4184[6], meaning about ninety entries were added over a year and a half.

A Nizhny Novgorod core under a Volga-region sign

The declared coverage area was interregional — participants included the Kostroma eco-hotel "Romanov Les," the "Podozyorka" hotel-estate in Rostov Veliky, the Samara agency "Iyul-Tur," accommodations in Plyos, and a riding club in Mari El — yet most of the regular participants and "Events" featured on the home page belonged to the Nizhny Novgorod region: the out-of-town hotel "Chaika" on the Oka, the "Ildorf" club with its own brewery, the "Izumrudnoye" recreation center on the Gorky Sea in the Gorodets district, the fishing lodges "Barm Fishing" in Barmino and "Shchukino" near the village of Kamenka, the club-hotel "Uzola," the country club "Usadba," the travel company "Allyur," the agency "Planeta Puteshestviy," the Khokhloma-painting online store Matreshkina.ru, and the saunas "Klub Ledyannika-Bannika" and THERMAE on Delovaya Street[4][6]. A separate item in the transport-block menu listed "Moving, construction, and transport services in Nizhny Novgorod"[4].

The news feed was divided by Volga-region tags — "VOLGOGRAD," "TATARSTAN," "SAMARA," "YAROSLAVL," "ASTRAKHAN," "PERM," and "NNOV"; in October 2011 the Nizhny Novgorod line reported the celebration of the city's 790th anniversary on September 10–11 with the theatrical performance "Glory to Nizhny Novgorod!"[4]. The home page also carried a "Charity, dedicated volunteers" block featuring the project "Let's Give Children a Home" — spreading information about orphaned children of the Nizhny Novgorod region and collecting aid for children's homes[4]. In March 2013 an advertisement for a Disneyland tour invited bookings "by phone +7 831 213-72-27"[6].

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The site was connected to the Counter.nn.ru counter under number 10058, and the nn.ru directory displayed its ranking next to the name. On July 25, 2002 the server appeared in the directory's new-resources section with a rating of 320[1]. On August 27, 2002 it held 43rd place on the directory's popular-resources list: 246 referrals from the catalog with its own rating of 211[2]. By November 24, 2003, in the "Tourism" category sorted by rating, it held third place with a score of 177 — behind the "Voyage" information service (511) and the site "Active Recreation and Extreme Sports in Nizhny" (208), and ahead of the "Ultra Ex" club (176) and the "Grey Horse" riding club (119)[3]. By these snapshots the server held a place in the upper third of its category without ever reaching first place; on how the surviving counter samples are structured, see the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating.

In the surviving results record of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day for 2004, the domain does not appear[7], meaning this document shows no trace of the server's participation in the main public contest of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet; no votes for it are recorded in our data.

Fate of the address

Substantive copies of the home page in the available sample run through March 2013[6]. The last snapshot of the home page in the web archive is dated July 27, 2020[8]. When checked in August 2026, the site at this address responded; the content of the current page was not examined for this record.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, new resources, 2002 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, popular resources, 2002 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, "Tourism" category, 2003 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Home page, 2011 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Home page, 2012 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — Home page, 2013 (archive)
  7. web.archive.org — Voting results of the Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet, 2004 (archive)
  8. web.archive.org — Last home page snapshot, 2020 (archive)