In the field of domestic tourism, there is an active recovery growth

This was announced during a press conference at the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency by Vice-President of the Russian Union of the Tourism Industry, Chairman of the Committee on Tourism Entrepreneurship of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation Yuri Barzykin.

According to him, last year already showed that there is an active recovery of domestic tourism:

“62 million trips (compared to 65 million in pre-COVID 2019). In general, though small, there is still growth in the regions: for example, the Krasnodar Territory – plus 8%; St. Petersburg – plus 30%. Last year, 3.5 million of our fellow citizens used cashback. That is, there was an active recovery. This year, active development is already underway, as the national project in the field of tourism and hospitality is already bearing fruit. I mean grants, subsidies and direct investment. Hotels are being built with these funds, routes are being equipped. This year, we see that both bookings and sales are on a significant increase: for example, the increase in bookings is up 40%.”

As Yury Barzykin clarified, four- and five-star hotels or health resorts and sanatoriums became the most popular in Russian resorts for the upcoming May holidays, so the price increase there amounted to plus 20%, and three-star hotels cost as much as they cost.

Yuri Barzykin noted that now the tourism product in the domestic market is geographically diversified from the Kaliningrad region to Sakhalin and Kamchatka. For flights to these remote regions, 15 charter programs will be organized.

“That is, we do not have unpromising territories. Since the May holidays, 25 specialized tourist trains have been launched. River cruises are also becoming more and more popular. (…) Thus, I think that this year we will reach the dock-like 65 million trips per year,” Barzykin summed up.

At the same time, according to him, despite the observed growth, the marginality of the business is still low, and the risks are high. This is explained by the fact that prices increased on average by 10 – 15%, and costs – by 20 – 25%. So, as Yury Barzykin noted, one cannot do without state support for the domestic tourism industry.

In the market of external, outbound tourism, the situation, of course, is not so rosy: prices have become higher, and the choice of destinations is narrower … has direct flights to 33 countries:

“It is important to note that the most popular destinations for Russians (Turkey, Thailand, Egypt) still remain a priority. But during the post-pandemic period, we remembered that our neighbors live near us, who also have a good tourist infrastructure: these are Abkhazia, which is now the leader in the “international”, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Georgia.

As Alexander Osaulenko emphasized, despite the emphasis on the development of domestic tourism noted in recent years, the importance of outbound tourism should not be underestimated:

“Our in-house tour operators understand this. Last Thursday in the Federation Council, during a meeting to support the tourism business, they stated that the “international” should in no case leave the offers of Russian travel companies, since, according to them, “we are on them (i.e., on foreign colleagues – S.I.) are oriented. This allows us to maintain both the quality of services and, which is very important for tourists in the domestic market, a balanced price level.”

It is foreign trips that allow our tourists to compare the ratio of prices and quality with the proposed vacation in the Russian Federation and sound the alarm when prices for some popular domestic destinations periodically start to go off scale.

Sergei Ishkov.

Photo by Nina Donskikh