Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, Dear colleagues!
We really have a growing demand for domestic tourism. The number of tourist trips in the first nine months of this year is almost 18 percent more than the same period last year.
Moreover, the geography of trips is also expanding, people are increasingly going to the North Caucasus, Altai, Baikal, Karelia. These regions have increased the number of tourist trips by one and a half times. The Far East and Kaliningrad – by a third.
At the same time, the growth will continue in winter. We forecast 30 million tourist trips from November to March, which is seven percent more than last year. But we already had a very high season last year, so these are such good figures. And of course, in addition to our traditional leaders – large cities, the North Caucasus, Altai, the Urals, Sakhalin, Kaliningrad, the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Murmansk Region, the Baikal territories will show the greatest increase in tourist flow, that is, this is where we are already seeing growth now.
At the same time, the tourism industry, transport, responsible services and departments are preparing to meet this increased demand for travel. I will start with transport and I will definitely get to the hotels too.
Of course, the key topic is transport accessibility. Together with colleagues from the Ministry of Transport, we are now comparing the transport schedule and tourist flows before each season and synchronizing both so that we have enough carrying capacity where people go.
At the moment, there are enough seats for sale on planes and trains in general to meet the growing demand of Russians for winter holidays. We will have the peak of traffic on New Year’s dates, which is natural. Active booking of tickets is already underway. Colleagues are monitoring the situation and, if necessary, are ready to promptly provide additional flights. I think Vitaly Gennadievich will tell you about this in detail.
We pay special attention to affordability. We have a separate incident: once a month we look at where and what is happening and why, what are the reasons. Of course, we have different dynamics in different directions. The Federal Antimonopoly Service ensures that there is no unreasonable increase in ticket prices. Of course, it is important for us that the transport industry continues to flexibly respond to the growth in demand with this additional increase in supply, because in the summer we saw that the growth in demand that we predicted was exceeded, and the transport workers worked well, promptly, gave additional flights, we had no excesses.
The second important point is the points of attraction, where to go in winter and during the New Year holidays. Traditionally, residents of the country choose large cities: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, and others, and in each of them we have dozens of events planned for all ages and for every taste. We took the festive programs of all regions, looked at it, really very powerful preparation.
But what is important? It is important that smaller cities actively form their event programs and actively invite tourists. For example, the New Year’s capital of 2024 is Suzdal. Suzdal is celebrating its millennium next year, and they accordingly launched the entire program, all festive celebrations, and attract people as much as possible.
Our popular point of attraction for family holidays is Veliky Ustyug, which has been developing the brand of the patrimony of Santa Claus for a dozen years. An airport was opened there last year with the support of the federation, regular flights there appeared. Of course, the flow has grown. And plus there the railway has done a lot to roll out this direction. Since November, a special tourist train has been running from Moscow through Kostroma, another one will be added in January, that is, colleagues are also actively promoting it.
The festival “Russian Christmas” is planned in the city of Shuya, Ivanovo region. A gastronomic festival will be held in Svetlogorsk, Kaliningrad region. Karelia holds a rally every year in January. To attract tourists, the Irkutsk region organizes a traditional festival of ice sculptures.
In Buryatia, you can ride the largest ice rink in the world, they are actively exploring Lake Baikal for these purposes, there are really great events there. Nenets Autonomous Okrug invites everyone to snowmobile cross country competitions. Of course, the southern regions are also active in the winter season, Sochi Park is traditionally a point of attraction there, the southern residence of Santa Claus.
Last week, together with the regions and federal agencies, including supervisory agencies, on behalf of the Government, we held a meeting on readiness for the winter season. Special attention was paid to the topic of security, especially at mass events. Here, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the regions have a good, proven experience of interaction to ensure public order at mass events. Colleagues reported that they understand everything and are preparing.
For many, the winter season is associated with a ski holiday. As of today, all ski resorts have announced their readiness to receive tourists, some of them have already opened: Woodyavr in the Murmansk region, Manzherok in Altai, Sheregesh in Kuzbass. The resorts of the North Caucasus will open in early December. On Elbrus, there is already a roll-up of trails.
This year, resorts will account for almost 20 percent of winter tourist trips, but the potential, of course, is much greater, we understand this, so we are actively developing the infrastructure of ski resorts. We have increased the routes by 27 kilometers this year, and next year they will be by another 50 – this is just the result of the support measures that we have deployed. In total, the length of trails in Russian resorts will increase to 470 kilometers, namely trails, certified lifts.
We also work out security issues at ski resorts with all services. These are, of course, medical care, navigation, weather conditions, avalanches. Rostechnadzor pays special attention to the readiness and technical condition of all cabins, lifts, and so on – this is extremely important.
And a separate topic, Vladimir Vladimirovich, we also discussed with the Ministry of Emergency Situations during the selector – this is climbing mountains. We agreed that we will strengthen informing tourists about the need to register with the Ministry of Emergency Situations. We will conduct an additional information campaign.
The Ministry of Emergency Situations, I must pay tribute, made all these mechanisms very simple, but once again, taking this opportunity, I would like to call everyone who goes to the mountains: it is necessary to inform the Ministry of Emergency Situations so that they understand where you are and, if necessary, can provide emergency assistance. This is extremely important for us.
And what you started with, Vladimir Vladimirovich, is really a key topic – the availability of hotels. According to business estimates, by mid-November, half as many seats have been booked for the holidays as a year ago. That is, we have people planning in advance, booking more actively. The demand is really big.
The Krasnodar Territory is traditionally the most popular by the number of bookings – ski resorts, Moscow, St. Petersburg. The load of hotels in large resorts, such as Sheregesh, Arkhyz and Krasnaya Polyana, is significantly higher than average, that is, there is a great demand.
The shortage of hotels against the background of increased demand has an impact on prices. According to Rosstat, since the beginning of the year, prices in the two-three–star segments have increased by 8-11 percent, premium – four–five – 14 percent growth. The main thing here is to increase the number of rooms. How are things here?
Since the beginning of the year, 122 thousand rooms have been included in the register of qualified hotels and rooms. This is plus 16 percent compared to last year. Of course, we understand that this is a business coming out of the shadows in many ways – tax conditions, restoring order, competition, and so on. But, according to Rosstat, 10 thousand new numbers were introduced in the first nine months of this year, despite the fact that for the whole of last year the figure was 11 thousand, that is, we have an increase of plus 40 percent. And this is also the result of the work of the national project that was launched two years ago, the first hotels are already being introduced with the support of the national project.
At the same time, according to the program for creating modular hotels, which we launched in the spring of this year, more than a thousand rooms have been introduced. In general, the regions committed to enter three thousand numbers by the end of the year.
In total, taking into account the 2022 program, they were also introduced this year, four thousand new rooms in comfortable modular hotels.
At the same time, on your instructions, which you gave at the St. Petersburg forum, the Government additionally found 10 billion rubles to support modular hotels. And under this program, all the money has been brought to the regions, they are actively introducing it now, bringing it to business and so on. That is, here, Vladimir Vladimirovich, everything that is possible, everything that we have “rolled out” to the maximum, we are doing it.
Moreover, this week we will announce a new big competition to support the construction of stationary hotels for another 20 thousand rooms – this is what you also supported at the St. Petersburg forum. There are also ski resorts here, in this competition, and children’s amusement parks. That is, here we go straight on all your instructions, we implement them rhythmically.
Of the small, but, it seems to me, important steps, what would I note? On your instructions and at the request of Kuzbass, we, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture are simplifying access to driving snowmobiles. We finally agreed that they will be able to drive them on the basis of category A and B rights, but only if these snowmobiles do not travel on public roads. It will be possible to cross, but of course it will be impossible to move along them. We are submitting the relevant draft law, the final version – we are exchanging letters now – to the Government and we also hope that the Duma will support us here as soon as possible, because people have been waiting for this bill for a long time. Everyone who has used snowmobiles understands how necessary it is.
Vladimir Vladimirovich, summarizing: the tourism industry is ready for the winter season. Regions, businesses, federal agencies, and supervisory authorities know their areas of responsibility. We will monitor all issues on behalf of Dmitry Nikolaevich Chernyshenko, who regularly monitors the situation, as part of the work of the tourism headquarters.
Thanks for attention.
