“The first problem of Russian tourism is personnel”

Of course, I want to start with a good start. Indeed, both 2022 and 2023 showed very good trends in increasing the tourist flow within our country.

We are all well aware that there are quite understandable objective reasons for this growth. Firstly, these are the more difficult conditions for traveling abroad, which millions of our citizens have faced. The second condition is the revenue of all our production facilities, which, in connection with the SVO and the sanctions regime, turned out to be focused on accumulation, use and further capitalization almost entirely in Russia. Let me remind you that statistics recently told us that 2022 was a record year in terms of the total revenue of our enterprises. Over the year (since 2021), the income of our production facilities has almost doubled and amounted to a record 1.2 quadrillion rubles.

The two conditions outlined above naturally gave rise to two significant consequences. First, as mentioned above, the flow of tourists within Russia has increased significantly. Secondly, temporarily free funds came to the tourism sector, which began to be mastered on a large scale.

You ask: why did they come to this area? I will answer! Of course, they work in other industries as well. But tourism and recreation as a business generate revenue quite quickly, which allows you to cover, say, operating costs and ensure the gradual capitalization of tourism infrastructure facilities, and hence the potential return on investment.

In fairness, it should be noted that in recent years the state has also stimulated the inflow of investments in infrastructure facilities in the field of tourism and hospitality throughout the country.

It would seem that all problems have been solved: there is money in the industry, a tourist travels around the country. But now it has become obvious what was clear to specialists before: the influx of money into the tourism sector and the development of the corresponding infrastructure are not the main problems of domestic tourism. Investments and infrastructure are solvable issues, while the fundamental contradictions lie elsewhere. I will outline three main aspects that you need to pay attention to.

So, the first problem is frames. You can build hotels and ski slopes as much as you like, but people always provide comfort and hospitality. The impression of the most luxurious, advanced or well-thought-out resort can be spoiled by insufficiently polite treatment or the formal attitude of the staff to their duties. The service sector, especially the tourism and hospitality industry, is always the fulfillment of not only what is required or prescribed, but a little more – by 10–20, and sometimes even 50 percent. Now we have a demanding tourist, and the approach “I don’t get paid for this” on the part of the staff is categorically impossible.

Here, each of us can give dozens of examples when the realities of tourist trips radically do not coincide with expectations. And it’s not just the line staff. A hotel clerk or resort employee may often not even know that “it could be different.” In the tourism and hospitality industry, we have serious problems with the management team. Managers and even top managers in the industry also often do not realize that some or other insufficiently attractive solutions kill the business they are supposed to manage.

Nobody says that our people are inhospitable. Rather the opposite. The desire to please the guest is definitely in our blood. It is another matter that at the moment when hospitality should turn from our personal desire or impulse into daily, scrupulous, intolerant of trifles and, alas, often monotonous work, difficulties begin for us. And this, too, apparently, is in our blood. Actually, there can be only one solution here: systemic permanent education.

As you know, learning is never too early for anyone and never too late. And you have to study all your life. And in the field of tourism and hospitality, this is manifested most clearly. Trends and fashions change, the tourist is constantly looking for new experiences, the competition for the attention and wallet of the traveler is frantic. This requires not only proven, but also the most innovative and even bold approaches to education and training, from educational workshops and basic departments to online education and on-the-job training.

All this is being implemented now, of course, but the scale and systemic state approach are important. There are dozens of universities in the country that train specialists in the field of tourism and hospitality. The base among them is the Russian State University of Tourism and Service (RGUTiS). Higher educational institutions are united in the Association of Higher Educational Institutions of Tourism and Service. And the state should now get involved by introducing, on the one hand, periodic mandatory retraining or advanced training of specialists in this area, and on the other hand, taking these costs (partially or completely) on itself.

Continuing the topic of state support, I would like to identify the second problem – the presence (or rather, the absence) of common standards for the provision of services and services in the field of tourism and hospitality. We have all experienced the mandatory certification of collective accommodation facilities – roughly speaking, the assignment of “stars” to hotels – but, as they say, it has not become easier. “Stars” have appeared, and the quality of services is often designed for a not very demanding client.

What does the standard say? And exactly about what a tourist can claim by checking into a hotel of one or another “star” or visiting one or another attraction or attraction. And this is especially true now, when the time has come for independent, that is, tourism not organized by the tour operator.

We have all learned how to use platforms and aggregators, but our rights to a quality service have actually become less protected from this. What can you, an ordinary tourist, present to an advanced, usually transnational, artificial intelligence and big data-enhanced soulless electronic machine? Will you write to support? Leave negative feedback? And this is also a big question for the state about the standards of service delivery.

There is definitely a place here for state regulation of the industry, determining what is possible and what is not. The standard is intended to determine everything: the quality of the product, and the necessary and sufficient set of services, and sanctions for its improper provision, and the obligations of the client (they also exist).

And full confidence that these problems will be promptly resolved, so far, alas, is somehow not observed. At the same time, the situation does not add optimism when the regulation of the tourism sector over the past 30 years has been constantly “transferred” from one state hands to others. It seems that at the state level there is a constant heated discussion about whether the tourism and hospitality industry is an independent industry or is a sub-sector of the economy, sports or culture.

I have my own special opinion on this matter, that tourism and hospitality is not an industry, but a way of life and worldview. But that’s not what we’re talking about right now… Practitioners are categorically not interested in this discussion. The result is important for them, and for this they need certainty, constancy and predictability, including at the level of the body regulating relations in this area. Now it is the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia. And if such a decision was made at the highest level, then let it stay that way, without administrative surprises, at least for the next ten or fifteen years.

Concluding the topic of the key problems of the development of tourism and hospitality in Russia, I would like to note the categorical difficulties with the promotion, advertising and propaganda of our regions and their attractions. This area is called territorial marketing, and here, as elsewhere in tourism, we also have problems with personnel, skills and competencies.

I’ll allow myself a little sarcasm… Each of our cities and each region is “the most beautiful, the most hospitable and unlike any other.” Each of our cities has a “unique history and unique culture”, and the cuisine of each of our destinations (a destination is a territory that offers a certain set of services that meet the needs of the tourist, satisfying his demand for transportation, accommodation, food, entertainment, etc. and became the goal of his journey) – “the most delicious and original”. I note that each of the above judgments is true without exaggeration. But this approach has nothing to do with success in attracting tourists. The tourist does not go to the city, not to the hotel, and not even to the sights. A tourist goes for an impression – in fact, for an image or an idea. And the task of promoting the region is to hint at the attractiveness of this potential impression.

Marketing is not only an economic activity, but also a science. And here we also remember about standards, education and the role of the state in the development of tourism. Regions should be helped to find their place on the tourist map of the country. Business cannot do this. Fashion for a region, city or landmark is formed at a higher level. And here we also have to rely only on the state, which, it seems to me, is not doing everything that could for the rapid development of tourism and hospitality in our country.

It turns out a paradoxical situation when, on the one hand, people want to travel, business is ready to invest in infrastructure and attractions, and the state not only does not manage this situation, but simply does not keep up with it.

Here, Ashby’s law, well-known from systems theory, is clearly manifested, which states that a control system cannot be simpler than a controlled one. And there can be only one conclusion from this: the state needs to solve more complex problems in tourism and hospitality than it is used to doing. It is necessary to return to the complexity of the state and systematically address the contradictions identified above, for example, in education and training.

All this is really important, because the opened window of opportunity in tourism will not work forever. Either we will take advantage of it, or our citizens will begin to actively invest in the development of tourism and hospitality in friendly foreign countries, which, in general, we have in abundance.