“The president instructed to develop tourism in the Far East” — RealnoeVremya.com

Tourism is a priority for Russia

The first results of the national project “Tourism and hotel industry”, launched in the country a year ago, were presented on May 17 at the coordination center of the Russian government. A grand presentation was made immediately after the end of the May holiday, which is considered a kind of benchmark for the state of domestic tourism in the country. A detailed report was written by the chief curator of the project, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, the head of Rosturism Zarina Doguzova and the general director of tourism. The state company RF Sergey Sukhanov.

“The national project ‘Tourism and Hotel Industry’ was launched exactly one year ago on the instructions of President Vladimir Putin. We believe that it was in May 2021 that the era of reviving domestic tourism began in our country. Russia becomes a country where leisure becomes the most convenient and safe“, said Dmitry Chernyshenko in his opening speech.

According to him, the tourism cashback programs have helped the tourism industry recover, and the current geopolitical situation has created favorable opportunities for the development of tourism in the country.

It turned out that the May holiday results instilled confidence in the correctness of the route chosen to boost travel across the country. According to the head of Rosturism Zarina Doguzova, these days more than 4 million people traveled across the country, who used cashback, and for the marketing promotion of tourist activity in the country alone Rosturism received for the first time a record amount of 2 billion rubles. The main objective of the national project is to double the number of trips to 140 million by 2024 and to implement around 600 infrastructure projects.

Dmitry Chernyshenko reported that in the first year of the national project, 45.9 billion rubles were allocated to create infrastructure and increase the accessibility of recreation for Russians. This year it is planned to increase investments to 52.8 billion rubles. At the same time, it was possible to increase the flow of domestic tourists — from 56.5 to 61.2 million trips.

“We see that the number of internal displacements has already exceeded 11.6 million people in three months,” he said.

75 billion rubles for the ski resorts of Adygea, Krasnodar, the Far East

A promising task is to expand the construction of tourist infrastructure in the regions at the expense of private investment. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, it is planned to attract about 2 trillion rubles, and as support the federal budget is ready to allocate 0.5 trillion rubles, the regions — 72 billion more. In total, Chernyshenko estimates promising investments at 2.5-3 trillion rubles. Later, the head of the state corporation Tourism.RF, Sergey Sukhanov, presented specific projects of master plans for tourist areas, which will be financed with the participation of the corporation. Tatarstan was included in the 19 regions thanks to the project of a tourist area in Laishevo. However, investments will first go to the construction of the Lago-Naki ski resorts in Adygea for 650 places, the Three Volcanoes Park in Kamchatka for 2041 places, and the construction of the Vasta Valley, which was called a second Rosa Khutor station in Krasnodar. This year, 75 billion rubles have been allocated for their implementation, which will increase the number of hotels by 20,000 beds.

The main tool for boosting tourist flow remains the cashback program, which provides for a refund of 20% of the ticket price. This year, 12 billion rubles will be allocated to increase the availability of tourist services, which is 1.5 billion rubles more, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko said. Of these, 7.5 billion rubles were allocated for the cashback program. This summer, parents will have the opportunity to use cashback when organizing children’s hobbies. According to Chernyshenko, it can cover 1.7 million children. Last year they returned 5.3 billion rubles, said Zarina Doguzova.

New “sales window” to the Far East

Dmitry Chernyshenko promised to support the industry this fall. He announced the launch of a new “sale window” of vouchers with tourist cashback. Most likely, trips to the Far East will be subsidized.

“Cashback is a tool that supports demand under (seasonal) decline conditions. Another “sale window” of circuits is planned for the autumn-winter period. The president instructed to develop tourism in the Far East. We will announce later when we see the real state of things. The total volume of tourists, according to our calculations, this year will be 3.5 million people,” he said.

Federal Tourism Agency official Zarina Doguzova later clarified that sales would begin in the second half of the summer and trips under the program could be made from October 1.

“We plan to announce a government-instructed ‘sale window’ in the second half of the summer, the possibility of travel will be from October 1,” she said.

The program creates a huge economic effect for the regions, in total for two years the regions will receive about 200 billion rubles of direct and indirect multiplier effect in their economies, she added.

“We are seeing demand for new destinations increasing, for the ‘low’ season, a consistent trend is forming for travel not only during peak periods, we are also seeing the popularity of cruises, especially thanks to tourist cashback. In addition from the main traditional regions, new directions are emerging – Tatarstan, the Urals, Bashkiria, Perm and Altai Krai,” noted Doguzova.

Let’s go to the sea?

The speakers talked about the upcoming summer vacation later in a press conference. It turned out that it will only be possible to go to the sea this summer by train and by car: the airports in the south of the country are likely to remain closed in the first half of the summer. To avoid a drop in tourist flow in inland directions, Russian Railways, on behalf of the government, is launching additional pairs of trains in all directions.

“Restrictions on flights to the south of the country in the summer season are compensated by rail transport, in the direction of Crimea they will increase by 100%,” Chernyshenko said.

According to him, during the May holidays, the number of trains to Crimea was increased to 130 pairs.

“Thus, we make sure that there is no urgent demand when it is impossible to buy tickets,” Dmitry Chernyshenko said, adding that he was tracking demand for tickets to Krasnodar Krai and Rostov Oblast. In total, it is planned to transport about 50 million people across Russia on long-distance trains in all directions, which is 15% more than last year.

At the same time, the authorities are monitoring the situation on the highways so that there is no congestion and road repairs.

“Now the Federal Tourism Agency, the Ministry of Transport and Rosavtodor are monitoring the situation on the main federal highways to avoid traffic jams and road repairs planned for the period of increased demand, as well as to create places to intercept parking “, did he declare.

Prices are also not ignored. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the FAS controls prices in hotels.

“In general, the cost of rest in hotel rooms increased by 6%. In some areas there are peak values ​​on May Days of up to 23%, but this is in the elite, 5* accommodation categories, and we believe this is acceptable. But we continue to monitor this with local authorities,” said Dmitry Chernyshenko.

The head of the Federal Tourism Agency predicts that 30-31 million people will rest in the country in the upcoming summer season. Depending on the region, this is 5 to 30% more than last year. Of these, about 16 million people will go to the southern resorts.

Luiza Ignatieva

Sports Tatarstan