“Tourism.RF” decided to improve his health – Newspaper Kommersant No. 62 (7507) dated 04/11/2023

State-controlled corporation “Tourism.RF” may be engaged in the implementation of new projects involving the creation of sanatoriums in the Altai Belokurikha, the Irkutsk region and Sakhalin. The construction costs of these three facilities may reach 8 billion rubles. But it will not be easy to attract corporate co-investors to projects: now the business is scared away by the low profitability of the hotel segment and possible difficulties with year-round occupancy of facilities.

Corporation “Tourism.RF” in March registered three new legal entities – LLC “Tourism.RF Sakhalin Region”, “Tourism.RF Altai Territory” and “Tourism.RF Irkutsk Region”, found “Kommersant” in Kartoteka.ru. The main activity of these organizations is sanatorium-and-spa. Tourism.RF explained to Kommersant that the corporation continues to implement investment projects in the field of tourism, create master plans for the development of territories, and provide services in the field of tourism. New companies in three regions have been created, among other things, for these purposes, Tourism.RF added.

The registration address of Tourism.RF Sakhalin Region coincides with the location of the Pacific Plaza Sakhalin hotel in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. This facility is on the balance sheet of Sakhalin Hotels LLC, which, according to SPARK-Interfax, is controlled by En+ Tourist Infrastructure LLC through Park Hotel Burduguz LLC. This company is engaged in tourism projects of En+ Group, founded by Oleg Deripaska. The representative of the businessman “Kommersant” did not promptly respond.

Tourism.RF Irkutsk Region is registered in Irkutsk, and Tourism.RF Altai Krai is registered in the resort town of Belokurikha, located in the region. Earlier, the corporation began work on the concept of the Belokurikha Gornaya tourist area, which includes, in particular, the construction of six hotels with more than 1,000 rooms.

The general director of the Dolphin tour operator Sergey Romashkin points out that the regions chosen by Tourism.RF are popular with tourists. Against the backdrop of a lack of quality accommodation there, the expert assumes that small objects will be in demand anyway, considering the potential risks for investors to be minimal. However, Aleksey Kozhevnikov, a member of the public expert council of the tourism national project, points out that business is now generally wary of participating in the implementation of hotel projects due to low profitability, which averages 5-6% per year, and logistical difficulties with the supply of part of the building materials . In remote regions, according to the expert, there may also be risks with the inability to ensure year-round occupancy of new hotels.

Stanislav Ivashkevich, managing partner of Ivashkevich Hospitality, believes that it is advisable to build hotels with 150–200 rooms in these locations. In the vicinity of Belokurikha and Irkutsk, such projects will cost about 2 billion rubles. each, in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the estimate will increase to 3.5-4 billion rubles. due to technical and logistical difficulties, he notes. The expert points out that the facility on Sakhalin will also require the creation of an all-season infrastructure, otherwise it may not be easy to load it.

Mr. Romashkin points out that the creation of a sanatorium infrastructure, as a rule, provides for an increase in the site of a familiar hotel by 25% and an increase in investment in the project by 15% due to the need to purchase equipment. But the main problem, according to the expert, will be the lack of qualified medical specialists in remote locations: “It is quite difficult to convince a person to move from Moscow to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.”

Projects in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Belokurikha and Irkutsk are not the first sanatorium facilities in the Tourism.RF portfolio. Earlier, the state corporation planned similar projects in Anapa and the Novgorod region (see Kommersant on February 17). According to the estimates of the Association of Health Tourism and Corporate Health, in general, holidays in health resorts are now in demand: the occupancy of facilities is at a high level of last year, the depth of bookings is growing.

Alexandra Mertsalova