By Evgeny Trofimov, 1st pro-rector of the Russian International Academy for Tourism (RIAT)
Today, Russia has the intention to transform tourism into one of the motive powers of economic growth and this is due to two primary factors: a change in the structure of the national economy and, as a consequence, a changed situation of employment. In this regard, the approach to tourism as a means of simultaneous solution of economic and social problems can be considered a component of the modernisation program of Russia.
At the same time, tourism serves as a means of changing the image of Russia in the world community, creating a positive perception in Europe and the American continent, and ensuring its adherence to the values of democracy and liberalism. Numerous political, social, cultural, sports and other events of various characters and scale related to reaching this goal actually predetermine the necessity to built in fact a new industry of tourism comprising hotel infrastructure, modern transport network, different types of services, entertainments and excursions. If we mention only sports competitions, the main ones will be, of course, the coming 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi and the 2018 World Football Cup. One can already see on the horizon the contours of EXPO-2020, and several Russian cities such as St.-Petersburg, Nizhni Novgorod and Krasnoyarsk have declared their interest to host this exhibition.
Undoubtedly, the MICE sector is a powerful locomotive in tourism development. However, the multidimensional and contradictory life of Russian tourism consists not only of cheerful and promising events. It also consists of every day affairs and experiences some disturbing phenomena.
Facts & Figures on Russian tourism
Let's begin, as is customary, with the place of tourism in the national economy. According to the Ministry of Sports, Tourism and the Youth Policy – the government body competent for tourism development in Russia via its Federal Agency on Tourism - the share of tourist branch in the Russian gross national product (taking into account the multiplicative effect) makes 6,5 %, and 3 % – net tourism.
• Volume of the internal tourism in 2010 was 32 million persons (1% growth in comparison with 2009).
• In 2010, Russia was visited by 2. 13 million foreign tourists (7% decrease compared to 2009).
• Out-bound tourism in 2010 represented 12 605 053 persons (32 % growth in comparison with 2009). Most popular destinations for the Russian tourists were Egypt and Turkey.
• Volume of the paid services rendered by hotels and tour operators – reached 203 billion Roubles (3, 1 % growth).
The most popular branches of internal tourism are beach and health tourism, the main destination being the Black Sea coast. Last year its share in the volume of the internal tourism accounted for 10,5 million persons (12 % higher than in 2009). At present time in Russia there are about 1000 hotels of different levels, which are capable to receive up to 1 million guests simultaneously.
There are 4,500 tour operators and about 10,000 tourist agencies working in Russia. The largest public organisations are the Russian Union of Tourist Industry (RST) and the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR). There is also the National Academy of Tourism.
Professional training for the tourism industry is provided by over 300 higher educational institutions, among them the Russian International Academy of Tourism (RIAT), which is the largest and the oldest one (it was founded in 1969).
The legislative base for tourism is made by a law called «On the bases of tourist activity in the Russian Federation», adopted by the State Duma in 1996. Moreover, the constitution of the Russian Federation declares for every Russian citizen the right to rest.
So what about its realisation? To understand the situation we need to consider some more figures:
• The population of Russia constitutes over 142 million persons.
• Number of fully able-bodied people (men of 16-59 years, women of 16-54 years) in Russia is about 90 million and the population working for hire makes about 50 million persons.
• Number of unemployed as a whole in the Russian Federation makes 7.5 %.
• Average salary is about 20 000 roubles (500 Euros); ratio of the average salary of 10 % of the most highly paid employees to 10 % of the most low-paid employees reaches approximately 25 times.
• Average life expectancy is 66 years, for men - 59 years, for women - 73 years (which is 133rd-134th place in the world in life expectancy for men and 90th- 100th place in the life expectancy for women),
• The living wage as a whole in the country is 5000 roubles (125 Euros) per capita per month.
The All-Russia Centre of Research of Public Opinion regularly collects the data on the way the Russians spend their summer or winter holidays, whether they are happy with it and how much money they spend.
In 2008, two thirds of Russians (62 %) did not leave their homes during holiday. In 2005, every fifth respondent (21%) could not afford any holiday outside home for financial reason, and in 3 years the number of such cases reached one third.
In 2008, average expenses of Russian citizens for holidays rose to 16 566 roubles per person. In 2007 they were a little less – 15 496 roubles.
On the eve of 2009, the Russian Center of Research of Public Opinion interrogated 1600 persons in 140 settlements in 42 Russian areas, regions and republics to find out how they planned to spend their New Year vacations.
It appeared that only 1% of those questioned intended to spend their holidays in boarding houses in Russia and 1% intended to travel abroad.
During recent years, only 14 % of the Russians visited sanatoria and other resort establishments.
More often our resorts and sanatoria are visited by well-to-do citizens (26 % of them visited such institutions recently) and by those who estimate condition of their health as good (14 % against 9 % among those who estimate it as bad).
Lack of financial means is the main reason for which the majority of Russians (69% cited the lack of financial means as the main obstacle) could not go to resorts or sanatoria.
Nevertheless, even with the above indicators Russia enters into the group of the most active tourist donor countries. By per cent correlation of tourists to the total population Russia considerably lags behind the developed countries; however, by absolute number of tourists in the outgoing stream, it is in the group of the world leaders.
New support for the Russian tourism industry
It is necessary to recognise that recently the state has been taking measures to correct this situation. Thus, in 2010, in Russia 344 million roubles (over 10 million US Dollars) were allocated to support the tourism industry. The Russian regions will receive new powers for more active tourism development this year:
• The Bill N° 282158-5 «On the modification of article 26.3 of the Federal law "On general principles of organisation of legislative (representative) and executive bodies of the state power of the subjects of the Russian Federation" provides that tourism shall become an issue of joint responsibility of the federal and regional bodies of the state power.
• The Concept of the Federal target program « Development of internal and incoming tourism in the Russian Federation (2011-2016) » was approved by the government order of the Russian Federation N° 1230-r on July 19, 2010.
Therefore this year Russian regions will receive more power for creating favorable conditions for tourism development, for forming their regional tourism development programs, for offering their own tourist projects for further inclusion into Federal target programs and for having them financed through regional and federal budgets.
However, for the time being progress is extremely slow. In 2010, Russian internal tourism only showed a growth of 1,6% in comparison to 2009. The fact that the Russian President - D. Medvedev - pays attention to the implementation and the organisation of the populations’ right to rest and relaxation, especially for children, inspires certain optimism.
He demanded, in particular, to stop the privatization of children's camps. The number of the country health improving establishments for children diminishes catastrophically, since 1992 their quantity has decreased by 78 % and the number of the sanatoria for children decreased by 46%. Nevertheless, this year about 70,000 health improving wellbeing camps for children will be opened; last year over 8,5 million children spent their holidays in such camps.
The issues related to organisation of the rest and relaxation for the Russian population and the revival of social tourism are among the most pressing ones, as they concern directly each Russian family and the whole nation.
The Russian International Academy of Tourism (RIAT), in cooperation with all interested State bodies and public organisations conducts a huge explanatory work, using the experience of their colleagues - members of the International Social Tourism Organisation. And this informative work is starting to show first, so far modest, results.
The questions of access to tourism for all, the creation of social tourism infrastructure, and the appropriate education and training of personnel are becoming central topics of discussion at various national and regional conferences and seminars.
One of the most important conferences to come will be the second Forum of Innovative Tourist Projects, organized by RIAT in cooperation with the Federation Council (Senate) of the Russian Federation, which will be held in Moscow on September 21st, 2011.
