Content area
Purpose
This paper aims to review recent developments in the Russian tourism and hospitality market and to underline Russia’s strong tourism prospects – despite the challenges it has to face.
Design/methodology/approachThe study sets the scene for the theme issue (that draws from both academia and industry) by discussing the challenges facing the contemporary Russian tourism and hospitality market. It also profiles the efforts of the Russian Government to boost tourism development in different Russian regions that are potentially attractive tourist destinations due to their natural resources and cultural heritage.
FindingsThe paper sheds light on the major shift to domestic tourism that is partly due to the turbulent economic environment that is forcing Russia to search for internal sources of development. At the same time, the decision to rely on diversity of opportunities and sustainable regional tourism makes it possible to have a broad variety of tourist value propositions in almost all parts of Russia. This also makes Russia more attractive to foreign tourists. Still, to make Russia a popular destination internationally, improvement in almost all elements of the Russian tourist product is needed.
Originality/valueThis theme issue provides an analysis and evaluation of tourism development in Russia in the current decade and, in so doing, contributes to knowledge of the fast developing Russian tourism and hospitality market by unveiling a number of new tourist products and destinations in different Russian regions.
Introduction
Tourism increasingly constitutes a central component of the world economy, being one of the main income sources for developed and many developing countries (Inkson and Minnaert, 2012; Mason, 2015; Costa, 2017). The contemporary tourism and hospitality market offers a range of cultural, social, technological, natural experiences and products for leisure and business, being a solid base for sustainable development in many regions all over the world (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2016). However, to harvest these positive effects, “a lot of different resources and competencies are needed to provide tourists with a combination of experiences, and, thus, to make a destination attractive” (Sheresheva and Kopiski, 2016, p. 261).
The year 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, and it focused on the theme of “well-designed and well managed tourism” (UNWTO/WTCF, 2018, p. 11). It can be argued that any country that aims to gain and maintain competitiveness in the global tourism market should pay special attention to sustainability issues and management practices (Farmaki, 2015; Mowforth and Munt, 2015; Edgell, 2016). It is also important to take into account major global trends in tourism that are effecting both management and consumers. Governments and tourism business actors have to deal with digitalization, technology with a focus on robotics and artificial intelligence, big data analytics, the sharing economy, social media and online communities, and all other results of rapidly advancing technologies that impact on “how consumers evaluate, use and discuss hospitality and tourism products” (Bowen and Whalen, 2017, p. 592).
There is a major shift underway in consumer preferences, travel modes and choice of destinations. For example, the recent UNWTO Research (UNWTO/WTCF, 2018) indicates that the volume of tourism demand for city destinations has increased by approximately 50 per cent worldwide in the past decade. At the same time, due to the excessive number of tourists in most popular cities, travelers increasingly look for new destinations. There is growing interest among travelers in visiting “wild places” for ethical and authentic experiences in adventure tourism (Patterson, 2015; Gunter, 2017; Rickly and Vidon, 2017). Wellness tourism is also a steadily growing segment (Stará and Peterson, 2017), and gastronomic tourism is assuming more importance too (Björk and Kauppinen-Räisänen, 2014; Gheorghe et al., 2014). Every year more and more tourists plan their trip “around the meal” and choose locations based on their culinary preferences. People find it more interesting to visit local markets and to sit at the same table with local people (Jamal et al., 2011), which is now easy to implement with the help of sites like EatWith or Meal Sharing. Here, the focus is on the opportunity to immerse themselves in the local culture, to interact with locals and to try to understand their way of life and thoughts.
Taking into account the growth of travelers’ intentions to meet new people and engage with local people and fellow guests during the trip, many hotels try to create environments that better facilitate guest communication and interaction. Special dedicated zones for business tourists, lounge areas for sociable travelers who prefer to combine hotel comfort and privacy with new acquaintances and networking, become a must for hotels that aim to be competitive, just like advanced ICT use (Monge et al., 2015). All this means that cooperation between different stakeholders is needed to deliver more diverse and sophisticated experiences to people who come to visit tourism destinations (Baggio, 2011; Cabiddu et al., 2013; Della Corte and Aria, 2016).
Contemporary developments in the Russian tourism and hospitality market
Russia is an excellent choice for many different kinds of tourism. It offers a blend of Eastern and Western culture with a wide variety of historic places, diversity of climatic zones and beautiful scenery, outstanding cultural heritage and rich natural resources, including spa resources (Balaeva et al., 2012; Sheresheva et al., 2016). There are more than 1,000 cities in Russia, of which around 70 per cent are smaller cities, and many of them have their own peculiarities and unique historical value. Many authentic and beautiful villages are potentially of great interest to tourists, and they could become competitive destinations in the rural tourism market (Karpov and Merzlov, 2016). As to the big Russian cities, all of them can be a destination for business tourism and big events. Moscow is traditionally the top urban tourism destination in Russia (Table I), together with St. Petersburg, with its acclaimed masterpiece of world architecture and culture, earning it the 17th place in the Travellers’ Choice Award rating of the world’s best tourist destinations, 2015.
In recent decades, Russian tourism and hospitality has become a fast-growing market with impressive prospects for development (Sheresheva et al., 2016). In the WEF Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report, 2015 (World Economic Forum, 2015), Russia was ranked in 45th among 141 countries and improved its ranking by 13 positions in comparison with the previous WEF Report. In accordance with the WEF’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report, prioritization of travel and tourism has assumed even more importance. The business environment, tourist services and air transport infrastructure have strengthened. Another positive aspect is price competitiveness, which has increased since 2008, probably due to depreciation of the Ruble (Vespestad, 2010; Andrades and Dimanche, 2017).
In the WEF Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report, 2017 (World Economic Forum, 2015) Russia advanced by just two more positions to the 43rd place. Though the overall trend is positive, one must admit that this upward movement is quite modest, as compared to the actual tourism potential of Russia. Moreover, the position of Russia in the WEF rating is especially weak in the specific “tourist” indicators. As an example, Russia ranks 121st among 136 countries for its road quality, 118th for density of the road network, 116th for quality of tourist services and 107th in relation to the level of confidence in the police. In terms of tourism and travel development, these issues are a priority for government as currently Russia is modestly placed (89th position). As to tourism development costs, tourism marketing activity effectiveness and the cost of tickets and airport fees, the Russian Federation ranks 84th, 63rd and 61st, respectively (World Economic Forum, 2015).
The contemporary overall rating of Russia is quite good due to factors not directly related to tourism. Russia is in fourth place in the WEF rating on the attractiveness of cultural heritage for tourists, and 11th place by the number of World Heritage Sites, as 26 cultural and natural sites from different regions of Russia are included in the World Heritage List of UNESCO (World Heritage List, 2017). Russia has a large number of air routes (8th place in the WEF rating), a high number of ATMs and a large number of hospital beds (3rd place for both), and is ranked in the 4th place for the number of doctors per capita. This assessment is consistent with the basic requirements scores in the WEF Global Competitiveness Index (Table II).
In 2014-2016, the number of international tourist arrivals and the volume of International tourism receipts in Russia declined, though this is still at a higher level than in 2010, and higher than in other Central/Eastern Europe countries except Poland (Table III). According to the Border Guard Service of the Russian Federal Security Service, the number of foreign tourists entering Russia was 3.3 million, including 890,000 tourists from China, 389,200 from Germany, 178,000 from the USA, 149,000 from Israel and 143,700 from South Korea. The highest growth of tourist flow was recorded from Iran (+75 per cent as compared to 2015), India (+36.7 per cent), Belgium (+26.5 per cent) and Switzerland (+26.3 per cent). In the overall volume of trips served by travel agencies, group tours account for the majority and individual trips accounted for no more than 5-10 per cent (Rostourunion, 2017; Mertsalova, 2017).
Demand from Europe that declined dramatically in 2015 and was partly replaced by Asian demand, began to recover in 2016-2017. An important factor in this development relates to depreciation of the ruble: spending in Russia, including accommodation costs, is now much cheaper for clients from Europe due to the change in the currency exchange rate. The entry flow from Asian countries is also growing, primarily from China. There are now many foreign guests coming to Moscow and St. Petersburg for holidays, including those with relatively high incomes that stay in luxury hotels.
In 2017, there were two big separate waves of inbound tourism. In June, football fans joined the FIFA Confederations Cup Russia 2017, while foreign tourists not interested in football preferred to postpone their visit to Russia until July-August 2017. Judging by early reservations, in June-July 2018, there will be another big wave of inbound tourism due to FIFA World Cup 2018 that will take place in 11 Russian cities. These cities are Moscow (“Sol-City”), St. Petersburg (“Northern splendor”), Samara (“Wings of Russia”), Ekaterinburg (“Treasure of Ural”), Rostov-on-Don (“The city of Cossack freemen”), Saransk (“Provincial town par excellence”), Nizhny Novgorod (“A royally established city”), Volgograd (“A city of sun and memories”), Kaliningrad (“A coast of knights and amber”), Kazan (“The heard of Kazan”) and Sochi (“Russia”s summer capital’). Seven of the FIFA World Cup host cities – Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Ekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Sochi and Nizhny Novgorod – are among Russia’s top ten tourist destinations.
Like all other mega-events, such as the APEC Summit 2012 in Vladivostok, the World Summer Universiade 2013 in Kazan, the Winter Olympic Games 2014 in Sochi and the FINA World Championships 2015 in Kazan, the FIFA World Cup 2018 gives Russia a good chance to demonstrate worldwide its hospitality, generosity and reliability as a host country, thus boosting its tourism (Getz, 2013).
However, the potential of inbound tourism is far from being fully used. The incoming tourism is mostly limited to visits to Moscow and St. Petersburg or quite traditional routes that are the most famous cultural destinations in Russia (i.e. the Golden Ring). Many Western experts and potential foreign guests are convinced that Russia is not a “suitable” place for tourists. The reason is partly due to the negative information flow about Russia in Western media (Sheresheva and Kopiski, 2016). At the same time, as Andrades and Dimanche (2017) underline, tourism development in Russia remains hindered not only by destination image but also by such issues as infrastructure development, workforce training and education, quality management and sustainable management. There are also difficulties of visa processing for foreigners and insufficient development of road networks in many Russian regions, as well as an acute shortage of entertainment and accommodation resources in almost all attractive regional destinations, especially in small towns that are actually “hidden gems” of Russia.
As to outbound tourism, the number of trips by Russians abroad fell dramatically in 2014 and continued to decline in 2015. In 2016, Turstat (2017) reported 31.7 million outbound tourist trips. Prior to this, Rosstat also noted a decrease in the number of foreign trips made by Russian residents in 2016 of 7.9 per cent (Rosstat, 2017). According to the statistical office, the flow of tourists to Turkey and Egypt has declined more than to other countries.
In 2017, the Levada-Center conducted a public opinion poll: 1,600 respondents from 137 different settlements in 48 Russian regions participated in the survey conducted by a personal interview method (Levada-Center, 2017). In accordance with Levada-Center results, the majority of Russians spend their vacations in Russia. Less than 20 per cent of respondents answered that they have been abroad on vacation at least once. Almost 70 per cent do not plan to spend their holidays abroad, including resorts in Turkey, Egypt, Thailand, Greece, Spain, the United Arab Emirates or Cyprus that are among the most popular destinations for Russians (Table IV). The most popular destinations in the first three months of 2017 were Finland (736 thousand trips), Abkhazia (667 thousand), Kazakhstan (512 thousand), China (430 thousands), Estonia (393 thousand), Thailand (381 thousand), Ukraine (372 thousand), Germany (273 thousand), Poland (273 thousand) and the United Arab Emirates (210 thousand) (Turstat, 2017).
At the same time, the number of Russian tourist trips across Russia has increased in recent years: by 30 per cent in 2014, by 18 per cent in 2015, and by 15 per cent in 2016 (Rosstat, 2017). The number of domestic tourists in Russia increased to 55 million in 2016. The Krasnodar region (15.8 million tourists) and the Moscow region (12.5 million) became the leaders of domestic tourism; Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sochi are now the most popular cities for tourists. It is worth noting that there are also a number of fast-growing destinations. As an example, Kabardino-Balkaria, Kaliningrad, Irkutsk and Bryansk regions showed the highest growth rates in domestic tourism as compared to 2015, which amounted to 40, 30, 30 and 51 per cent, respectively (Turstat, 2017). Volume of tourism services provided for Russian citizens is constantly growing (Table V).
The practice of creating and promoting interregional tourist products and routes on the Russian market has, in recent years, significantly expanded. For example, a number of new interregional tourist projects were added to successful tourist routes that remain popular for decades (such as the “Golden Ring of Russia” and cruises along the Volga River).
The new projects are as follows:
“Russian Estates” in the Central Federal District;
“Silver Necklace of Russia” in the North-Western Federal District;
“The Great Silk Way” in the North-Caucasian Federal District;
“The Eastern Ring of Russia” in the Far Eastern Federal District and the Siberian Federal District;
“The Great Tea Way” in the Siberian Federal District;
“Patterns of Russian cities” in the Central Federal District, North-Western Federal District, Privolzhsky Federal District;
“The Red Route” in the Privolzhsky Federal District;
“Great Volga” in the Privolzhsky Federal District, the Central Federal District and the Southern Federal District; and
“Siberian Trakt” (“Siberian Way”) in the Ural Federal District, the Siberian Federal District and the Far Eastern Federal District.
The tourism products provided in the framework of these interregional projects are less influenced by the factor of seasonality, which is important for the even distribution of enterprises on the tourist infrastructure.
At the same time, the Russian tourism and hospitality market is far from saturated. There is still a gap in infrastructure, technologies and quality of services that needs to be filled. This requires large investments in the development of domestic tourism that are impossible without government support.
Russian Government policy: shift to diversity and sustainable regional tourism
In most emerging economies, state policy plays a leading role in boosting sustainable tourism development (Hamzah, 2004; Jackson, 2006; Mowforth and Munt, 2015; Sharpley and Telfer, 2015) and one can say the same about Russia. In the post-soviet Russia, the government neglected opportunities for hospitality and tourism development; as a result, the industry was in deep crisis (Burns, 1998; Crouch and Ritchie, 1999).
Everything changed though when Russian authorities began to pay more attention to this sector. In 2004, the Federal Agency for Tourism (Rosturizm) was founded, and this initially reported directly to the Government of the Russian Federation and later was administered by the Ministry of Sport, Tourism and Youth Policy. Since 2012, Rosturizm has been administered by the Ministry of Culture of Russia, a federal executive body with responsibility for developing state policy and regulations in the sphere of culture, art, cinema and tourism. The importance of tourism for sustainable social and economic development is now recognized at all levels of state governance.
The “Concept of long-term socio-economic development of the Russian Federation until 2020” defines a target benchmark for balanced, spatial development (Concept, 2008). According to the concept, the program aims at ensuring sustainable socio-economic development of the Russian regions, taking into account their potential for tourism development and the need to remove infrastructure constraints. This also correlates with the main goal of the Strategy of Tourism Development in Russia up to 2020, which focuses on integrated development of domestic and inbound tourism, taking into account the provision of economic and socio-cultural progress in the regions of Russia.
In the current decade, the Federal Target Program “Development of domestic and incoming tourism in the Russian Federation (2011-2018)” was developed and quite successfully implemented. Today, tourism in Russia forms 3.4 per cent of the gross development product (GDP), affecting 53 related industries.
In the course of the Federal Target Program “Development of domestic and incoming tourism in the Russian Federation (2011-2018)” implementation, considerable experience in studying and assessing the tourist potential of Russian regions has been accumulated. Therefore, the development of various types of tourism and new destinations, taking into account the specific geographical location and climatic conditions of Russian regions, as well as their financial resources and cultural differences, is an urgent task requiring a huge joint efforts of the state, business, regional authorities and local communities.
In the Draft Concept of the Federal Target Program “Development of domestic and incoming tourism in the Russian Federation (2019-2025)”, the formulated goal is to create the conditions for the effective development of tourism in Russia, and to achieve a 70 per cent increase in the industry’s contribution to the national GDP by 2025. Achieving this goal is possible if the volume of domestic and inbound tourism services grows at a rate that is twice as high as the growth rate of the Russian economy. Actually, there are three possible scenarios for tourism development in Russia (Table VI).
It is planned to give priority to the cluster approach in tourism development that the Russian Government started to apply in the previous decade (Alexandrova and Vladimirov, 2016), along with boosting public–private partnership and coordination of regional tourism development programs.
There are five major objectives stated in the concept:
Integrated development of tourist clusters infrastructure in five types of tourism that are identified as priorities: The proposal is to focus on five priority types of tourism with the best prospects for the period 2019-2025:
cultural tourism;
health tourism;
active tourism;
cruise tourism; and
ecotourism.
Today, there are 15 promising integrated investment projects supported by the Russian Government that have excellent potential to expand the tourist offer for each of these five priority types of tourism (Table VII). To enhance the competitiveness of the domestic tourist product, these long-term tourism investment projects can be supplemented with elements of other types of tourism.
Development of tourism industry specialists in training and education to help address the lack of skilled personnel and to facilitate improvement in the quality of tourist services. A methodical approach is planned with software-based support for training and to implement advanced training programs for tourism industry professionals and introduce standards for tourist and recreational services. A specialist batch of training and skills development programs will be implemented to facilitate the creation of a comfortable environment for tourists with special cultural and religious needs.
Promotion of Russia as tourist destination, to raise awareness about Russian tourist products in the world market. Activities that need to be carried out include the development of a pan-Russian network of tourist information centers, as well as an international network of “Visit Russia” tourism marketing centers; monitoring and evaluation developments of the Russian and foreign tourism market, to implement more substantial marketing strategy; design and implementation of advertising campaigns, events and actions to promote Russian tourist products and tourist routes; development of loyalty programs and a tourist navigation system.
Stimulation of entrepreneurial and public initiatives through the mechanism of subsidies and grant support. Different kinds of subsidies are planned, including subsidies to Russian credit institutions for reimbursement of loans granted at a reduced rate to investors in tourist clusters. Grant support for public and entrepreneurial initiatives – mainly proposed by small businesses and micro enterprises – is targeted at tourism cluster infrastructure development, at the intensive use of new technologies and at the introduction of best practices and environment friendly methods for tourism management (among others).
Development of the ICT infrastructure for tourism industry management.
Because digitalization and use of ICT became an important integral part of contemporary tourism, a number of projects have been initiated, among them:
development of a unified information system “Electronic tour”;
creation of an information system that provides, on a reciprocal basis, visa-free group tours;
creation of a pan-Russian database of tourist facilities, tourism industry organizations and tourism specialists; and
creation of a database of activities related to the use of foreign tourist vessels.
Both state bodies and business actors agree that these measures should be applied in a comprehensive and coherent manner and that a substantial increase in domestic and inbound tourist flows can be achieved via a coordinated strategy. This will help the Russian regions to create new tourist objects, routes and brands, and to expand the list of available tourist services, value propositions and destinations for target audiences’ that have different interests and preferences.
Conclusions
In recent years, the Russian tourism and hospitality market has faced substantial challenges. In 2014-2016, tourist flows from Europe and the USA declined and were partly replaced by tourists from Asia. Outbound tourist flows also decreased. In 2017, tourist flow from Europe returned and arrivals from the USA began to increase, and the overall geography of tourist flows, especially from China, has increased very significantly. At the same time, Russia is experiencing a big shift toward domestic travel that is now the focus of Russian business and state authorities.
The Russian Government is making a sustained effort to improve tourism infrastructure and to help the Russian regions in their movement toward sustainable tourism development, with the effective use of region-specific competitive advantages. A growing number of prospective tourist destinations in the country are based on the wide diversity of nature, climate, cultures, religions and the history of different regions. Many attractive small cities and towns, with unique tourism potential, that have so far remained unknown to foreigners, are now integrating into new tourist routes.
Still, there is a lot to be done to ensure the attractiveness of Russia for both local and foreign tourists, including further development of tourist infrastructure, enhanced use of ICT in tourism, elimination of skilled staff shortages and the development of a Federal program to promote Russian hospitality and diversity. The Draft Concept of the Federal Target Program “Development of domestic and incoming tourism in the Russian Federation (2019-2025)” addresses these gaps and offers many new opportunities for both local and international businesses.
This paper is financially supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project No. 17-18-01324 “Sustainable development of the territorial economy through networking of small cities and district centers”).
Table I.Position of Moscow in international rankings, in comparison with some megacities in Europe and Asia
| City | The World’s Best Cities (2018) | Top 100 International Tourist Destinations |
|---|---|---|
| London | 1 | 4 |
| Paris | 3 | 10 |
| Moscow | 4 | 24 |
| Rome | 16 | 12 |
| Berlin | 28 | 35 |
| Tokyo | 5 | 36 |
| Shanghai | 97 | 20 |
| Beijing | 24 | 25 |
Sources: The World’s Best Cities (2018), available at: www.bestcities.org/rankings/worlds-best-cities/; Top 100 International Tourist Destinations, available at: http://brilliantmaps.com/top-100-tourist-destinations/
Table II.Russian Federation in the Global competitiveness index 2015-2016
| Elements of basic requirements | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic requirements | 1 Institutions | 2 Infrastructure | 3 Macroeconomic environment | 4 Health and primary education | |||||||
| Overall index | Rank | Score | Rank | Score | Rank | Score | Rank | Score | Rank | Score | |
| 45 | 4.44 | 47 | 4.87 | 100 | 3.46 | 35 | 4.81 | 40 | 5.29 | 56 | 5.94 |
Source: World Economic Forum (2016)
Table III.Dynamics of the Central/Eastern Europe tourist market, 2010-2016
| International tourist arrivals | International tourism receipts | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (1000) | Change, (%) | Share, (%) | US$ million | Share, (%) | |||||||||
| Destination | 2010 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 14/13 | 15/14 | 16/15 | 2016 | 2010 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2016 |
| Central/Eastern Europe | 98,5 | 115,2 | 121,4 | 126,0 | −9,1 | 5,4 | 3,8 | 20,5 | 48,3 | 58,8 | 50,4 | 52,6 | 11,8 |
| Armenia | 687 | 1,204 | 1,192 | 1,26 | 11,3 | −1,0 | 5,7 | 0,2 | 646 | 966 | 936 | 968 | 0,2 |
| Azerbaijan | 1,28 | 2,16 | 1,922 | 2,045 | 1,4 | −11 | 6,4 | 0,3 | 657 | 2,43 | 2,31 | 2,71 | 0,6 |
| Belarus | 677 | 973 | 860 | … | 0,7 | −11,6 | … | … | 440 | 868 | 729 | 710 | 0,2 |
| Bulgaria | 6,05 | 7,31 | 7,1 | 8,3 | 6,0 | −2,9 | 16,2 | 1,3 | 3,41 | 3,91 | 3,15 | 3,63 | 0,8 |
| Czech Republic | 8,63 | 10,62 | 11,62 | 12,1 | 3,1 | 9,4 | 4,1 | 2,0 | 7,17 | 6,82 | 6,06 | 6,31 | 1,4 |
| Estonia | 2,37 | 2,92 | 2,99 | 3,14 | 1,5 | 2,5 | 5,2 | 0,5 | 1,07 | 1,8 | 1,45 | 1,54 | 0,3 |
| Georgia | 1,07 | 2,23 | 2,28 | 2,72 | 7,9 | 2,4 | 19 | 0,4 | 659 | 1,79 | 1,94 | 2,17 | 0,5 |
| Hungary | 9,5 | 12,14 | 14,3 | 15,26 | 14,3 | 17,9 | 6,6 | 2,5 | 5,63 | 5,87 | 5,33 | 5,65 | 1,3 |
| Kazakhstan | 2,99 | 4,56 | … | … | −7,4 | … | … | … | 1,01 | 1,47 | 1,53 | 1,55 | 0,3 |
| Kyrgyzstan | 855 | 2,85 | 3,05 | … | −7,4 | 7,1 | … | … | 160 | 423 | 426 | 432 | 0,1 |
| Latvia | 1,37 | 1,84 | 2,02 | 1,79 | 20 | 9,8 | −11,4 | 0,3 | 642 | 956 | 896 | 867 | 0,2 |
| Lithuania | 1,5 | 2,06 | 2,07 | 2,3 | 2,5 | 0,4 | 10,8 | 0,4 | 967 | 1,38 | 1,16 | 1,9 | 0,3 |
| Poland | 12,5 | 16 | 16,73 | 17,46 | 1,3 | 4,6 | 4,4 | 2,8 | 9,58 | 11,5 | 10,5 | 10,9 | 2,5 |
| Rep. Moldov | 64 | 94 | 94 | 121 | −1,8 | 0,5 | 28,6 | 0,0 | 163 | 228 | 204 | 245 | 0,1 |
| Romania | 1,34 | 1,9 | 2,24 | 2,47 | 11,5 | 16,9 | 10,6 | 0,4 | 1,14 | 1,83 | 1,71 | 1,73 | 0,4 |
| Russian Federation | 22,3 | 25,44 | 26,9 | 24,6 | −17,4 | 5,6 | −8,6 | 4,0 | 8,83 | 11,76 | 8,42 | 7,79 | 1,7 |
| Slovakia | 5,4 | 6,02 | … | … | −11,7 | … | … | … | 2,23 | 2,58 | 2,36 | 2,75 | 0,6 |
| Tajikistan | 160 | 213 | 414 | … | 205 | 94,0 | … | … | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0,0 |
| Turkmenistan | … | … | … | … | … | … | … | … | … | … | … | … | … |
| Ukraine | 21,2 | 12,7 | 12,4 | 13,33 | −48,5 | −2,2 | 7,3 | 2,2 | 3,79 | 1,61 | 1,08 | 1,09 | 0,2 |
| Uzbekistan | 975 | … | … | … | … | … | … | … | 121 | … | … | … | … |
Source: UNWTO Tourism Highlights (2017)
Table IV.The share of Russians who traveled abroad on vacation and plans to make such trips, %
| Question | Turkey | Egypt | Thailand | Greece | Spain | UAE | Cyprus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Have you ever been on vacation in: | |||||||
| Never | 81 | 88 | 93 | 94 | 96 | 96 | 96 |
| Once | 13 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| 2-3 times | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| More than 3 times | 1 | 1 | <1 | <1 | <1 | <1 | <1 |
| Are you going to visit this country, and if so, when? | |||||||
| Yes, in the next 12 months | 81 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Yes, in the next 3 years | 13 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| perhaps someday | 5 | 23 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 22 | 24 |
| No, I am not going | 1 | 68 | 67 | 68 | 67 | 70 | 67 |
| Difficult to answer | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Source: Levada-Center (2017)
Table V.Volume of tourism services provided for Russian citizens, bill. Rub
| 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 78,227.6 | 99,879.0 | 112,829.4 | 121,545.0 | 145,784.0 | 147,540.8 | 158,251.9 | 161,344.5 |
Source: Rostourism (2017)
Table VI.Three forecasted scenarios of tourism development in Russia, estimated indicators for 2025
| Scenario | Growth of tourist flow | Volume of tourist services, bill. Rub | Volume of paid accommodation services, bill. Rub. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inertial scenario | Stagnation at the level of 2018, or decrease | 274.3 | 373.3 |
| Optimal scenario | 28% | 330.8 | 455.2 |
| Ambitious scenario | 28% | 342.1 | 467.1 |
Source: FTP Concept (2018)
Table VII.Regions that take part in the projects for development of the five priority types of tourism in Russia
| Priority type of tourism | Project name | Regions that are engaged in the project |
|---|---|---|
| Cultural tourism | Silver Necklace of Russia | Arkhangelsk Region, Vologda Region, Murmansk Region, Leningrad Region, Novgorod Region, Pskov Region, St. Petersburg, Republic of Karelia, Komi Republic, Nenets Autonomous District |
| Central Russia | All regions of the Central Federal District | |
| Russian Baltic | Kaliningrad Region | |
| Ural | Sverdlovsk Region, Chelyabinsk Region, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area-Yugra | |
| Health tourism | Black Sea Coast | Krasnodar Region, Republic of Crimea, Sevastopol city |
| Privolzhye | Orenburg Region, Republic of Bashkortostan | |
| Caucasus | Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachaevo-Cherkessia, Chechen Republic, Stavropol Region, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Ingushetia Republic, Adygea Republic | |
| Caspian | Astrakhan Region, Republic of Dagestan, Republic of Kalmykia | |
| Active tourism | Siberia | Altai Region, Kemerovo Region, Novosibirsk Region, Khakassia Republic, Tyva Republic, Altai Republic |
| Cruise tourism | Primorye | Primorsky Krai |
| Volga Way | Samara Region, Ulyanovsk Region, Nizhny Novgorod Region, Penza Region, Saratov Region, Tver Region, Astrakhan Region, Ivanovo Region, Kostroma Region, Volgograd Region, Yaroslavl Region, Perm Krai, Bashkortostan Republic, Mordovia Republic, Tatarstan Republic, Mari El Republic, Chuvash Republic | |
| Russian Arctic | Arkhangelsk Region, Murmansk Region, Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) | |
| Amur | Khabarovsk Krai, Amur Region, Jewish Autonomous Region | |
| Kamchatka-Sakhalin | Kamchatka Krai, Sakhalin Region | |
| Ecotourism | Baikal | The basis of this project is the unique ecosystem of Lake Baikal and the Baikal natural territory, which extends to the Irkutsk Region, Republic of Buryatia, and the Trans-Baikal Territory |
© Emerald Publishing Limited 2018