Tourism Cash Flows: Exporting Tourism
Key conclusions
Tourism is becoming a significant part of the Russian economy
"56 million of our citizens traveled around the Russian Federation last year, 24.4 million tourists came to our country; those are good numbers. The contribution of tourism to the Russian Federation’s economy is 3.47% of GDP, or 3 trillion roubles. <...> The share of tourism in GDP can grow to 5% and amount to over 5 trillion roubles," Oleg Safonov, Head of the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism.
"21.6 million people visited Moscow and spent 860 billion roubles in Russia’s capital. This is approximately 4% of Moscow’s GRP. The potential is not exhausted, but underestimated. Our task is to bring this figure to 8—10%," Sergei Cheryomin, Head of Department for Foreign Economic Activity and International Relations, Moscow City Government; Chairman of the Board, Business Council for Cooperation with the Republic of India.
Tourism industry development requires an integrated approach
"Tourism is a branch of economy. It is an industry of hospitality, which cannot develop on its own; we can create comfortable conditions for visiting only in symbiosis with all 53 industries. <...> To sum up the Development of Domestic and Incoming Tourism for 2011-2018 Federal Targeted Programme, I should say that during this time the infrastructure saw the following investments: more than 27 billion roubles of federal budget funds, more than 8 billion of regional funds and over 80 billion of extra-budgetary funds. More than 250,000 jobs were created. <...> We are preparing a new Federal Targeted Program for 2019-2025: we already have applications from 51 regions worth more than 80 billion roubles for financing from the federal budget, about 17 billion roubles from regional budget and more than 400 billion of extra-budgetary funds," Oleg Safonov.
Problems
Competition in the tourism sector is escalating
"Regional and global competition: companies fight for the same customers. People split their holidays because they want to increase the number of experiences," Marina Usenko, Cushman & Wakefield Partner.
The lack of professional competencies among representatives of the Russian tourism industry
"Tourism itself is the representatives of small and medium business. This is the only industry that finds it very difficult to form its needs. Tourism business should be viewed as a business. Many members of the industry cannot find a business approach to what they do," Olga Tkacheva, Deputy General Director for Strategic Development and Marketing, Flotiliya.
Solutions
Modernization of statistical accounting and performance criteria
"It is important to seriously upgrade statistical accounting. I suppose that the number of tourists is higher, but we cannot give a more accurate figure. It is necessary to use the advances of the digital economy and the possibilities of geolocation. <...> Based on that, we could also count the money flow of tourism industry. And if we do this, the direct contribution of tourism to GDP can be higher," Oleg Safonov.
“North Caucasus Development Corporation has a grand mission: to create a medical cluster. Each republic of the North Caucasus and Stavropol Krai will have a rehabilitation clinic. There is money to build them, but the question is: how do those clinics turn profit? All around the world, the efficiency of such facilities is not estimated incrementally, but by a set of effects. <...> The money invested in the balneological projects does not return directly," Sergey Kharitonov, General Director of North Caucasus Development Corporation.
Introducing a visa-free transit regime
"The experiment in China gave unique economic results within 5 days. Transit tourists would gladly spend a day here for the brightest of experiences. <...> All this would multiply the effect for Moscow budget," Sergey Cheryomin.
Improving the quality of service and transport accessibility
"Truly high requirements are imposed on the cars, because comfort is the most important criterion for a railway travel," Petr Ivanov, General Director of Federal Passenger Company.
"Finland offers a tour to Murmansk for those who love fishing. Tourists come to Helsinki and get a charter to Murmansk, but this involves three types of transportation. We create alliances with carriers, hotels and other participants of this process," Hanna Lauren, Director of Finnair Plc.
Information support
"There is a great number of global media holdings in our country. We create a huge amount of content about tourism, that just needs to be packaged. And then we are ready to share that content —translate it or do something with it. That is the content that will bring travelers back to us again. We need to invest in information," Ruslan Novikov, General Director of Argumenty I Facty Ltd.
Individual and special approach in tourism
"Over 4 years, the number of Chinese tourists taking a railway tour showed a 4-fold increase. Europe holds the first place today. We also focus on the Indian and Indonesian markets which show great interest in Russian tourism products," Petr Ivanov.
"We have unique places and facilities now — for example, the Vostochny Cosmodrome. The Russian Far East is a magnet for the Asian market. It takes two hours by plane to get to the airports of the Russian Far East from Japan, China or Korea. The economic effect that we can produce there is much greater than possibilities of the centre of Russia," Denis Tikhonov, General Director of Corporation for Far East Development.
"China’s Heihe and Blagoveshchensk are located opposite each other on the banks of the Amur River and are unique for the Asian region. Now our governments are discussing the creation of a cross-border zone for tourism and economic cooperation. In order to achieve maximum results, cities need to develop economic integration,” Qin Enting, Chairman of Heihe Municipal People's Congress.
"There is such a thing as sports tourism. It was well developed in the USSR, a huge number of employees from various enterprises traveled around the country. We are reviving that trend," Ilya Galaev, President of VFSO Trudovye Rezervy.
For more details go to the Roscongress Foundation Information and Analytical System’s website.
