Investors did not stay away on Sakhalin – Newspaper Kommersant No. 231 (7432) dated 12/13/2022
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The absence of foreign tourists and the uncertainty with state funding have moderated the optimism of investors regarding tourism megaprojects in the Far East. So, Sergey Bachin’s Vasta Discovery probably refused to sell the Oriental Resort complex on Iturup Island, the cost of which exceeded 20 billion rubles. The parameters of the Three Volcanoes Park can also be adjusted. Construction costs in the Far East are twice as high as in the European part of the country, and the flow of visitors to the region remains modest.
The Oriental Resort LLC, controlled by Vasta Discovery by Sergey Bachin, is being liquidated, follows from the data of the Fedresurs portal. The company was established in December 2021, after in September, within the framework of the Eastern Economic Forum, the Governor of the Sakhalin Region Valery Limarenko, VEB Infrastructure and Vasta Discovery signed an agreement on the implementation of a project of the same name worth 21.5 billion rubles. It was planned that a hotel complex and tourist infrastructure, including eco-trails to hot springs and a ski complex, would appear on Iturup Island (Southern Kuriles) by 2025.
The interlocutor of Kommersant, who is familiar with the situation, explained that the Oriental Resort had not begun any work. The representative of Mr. Bachin specified that Vasta Discovery participated in the study of the tourism potential and investment opportunities of the Iturup project. This part of the work has been completed, and the fate of the project depends on the overall investment climate and priorities in the development of the territory, he explained. VEB.RF did not answer Kommersant’s question about the fate of the project, but explained that the state corporation is involved in the construction of another facility in the Kuril Islands – a hotel and restaurant complex with 121 rooms on Paramushir Island. It is scheduled to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2025.
The hotel on Paramushir is also being built by Sergey Bachin’s Vasta Discovery. This project is much more modest than the failed Oriental Resort: its cost was previously estimated at 2.2 billion rubles. This is a three-star hotel. The representative of Mr. Bachin added that the project on Paramushir will be the starting point for the start of tourist routes in the Northern Kuril Islands. In the future, Vasta Discovery plans to implement glamping networks in Paramushir, Onekotan and Shumshu.
Vice-President of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Russia Vadim Prasov states that the cost of building hotels in the Far East is twice as high as in the European part of the country, due to logistical difficulties and lack of staff. Another risk factor he calls the absence of foreign guests. The concept of “Oriental Resort” really provided that 10-50% of all guests of the resort would be foreign tourists. Although Mr. Prasov doubts that this moment was decisive. The expert does not exclude that the company revised its plans due to internal processes, the inability to agree on all the necessary construction parameters, so it decided to focus on one of the announced projects.
But “Oriental Resort” is not the only project in the Far East, the parameters of which had to be revised. The interlocutor of Kommersant at the tourist market indicates that Vasta Discovery also reduced the planned construction area of the Three Volcano resort in Kamchatka by one and a half times, thus hoping to reduce the cost of landscaping the territory. The representative of Mr. Bachin did not answer the question about the plans regarding this project. Deputy Chairman of the Union of Tourism and Hospitality Roman Yeremyan points out that many large hotel projects announced in the Far East assumed significant state participation in terms of concessional lending and investments in infrastructure. Now the investment priorities of the authorities have changed, and investors are adjusting their plans.
Independent expert Aleksey Kozhevnikov suggests that investors, amid general uncertainty, have become more cautious about plans to implement previously announced large projects in the field of tourism and hotel construction. In the case of the Far East, an additional problem, according to him, are concerns about the filling of numbers. “For this, planes with tourists must be sent to the region, but the possibilities of transport infrastructure are limited,” he warns. According to Rosstat, in January-September this year, 8.6 million overnight stays were registered in hotels in the Far East, which is 25.2% higher year-on-year, but still lower than the pre-crisis 2019 level. In addition, compared to other federal districts, the flow of tourists to the Far East remains small. For comparison: 53.51 million overnight stays were registered in hotels in the south of the country in January-September, which is more than six times higher than in the Far East.
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