“Resorts of the North Caucasus will be a serious point for tourist growth”

By Vestnik Kavkaza

With less than a year left before the Olympic Games in Sochi, it is hoped that the Games will attract the attention of the whole world to Russia, and tourists will flow here.

“Last year more than 28 million international arrivals were registered in Russia. The growth is 13%,” the head of the Federal Tourism Agency Alexander Radkov states. “According to the Federal State Statistics Service, 2 million 570,000 people visited our country for tourism (the growth is 10%). As for the way of counting touristic arrivals, the World Tourism Organization counts any international arrivals, except for labor migration.

Regarding international arrivals, first place is taken by Ukraine (6.5 million), Kazakhstan (3 million 630,000), Uzbekistan, Finland, Moldova, Poland, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, and China takes 9th place. As for “pure” tourism, Germany takes first place (375,000), China (343,000), the USA, the UK, Finland, Italy, and Turkey. China is a separate topic for a discussion. Last year we successfully conducted arrangements of the Year of Russian Tourism in China. It influenced significantly the growth of touristic inflow from China – the growth of Chinese tourists was 46% last year.

As for departures, the situation is the following. Russian citizens undertook more than 47 million visits abroad. 15 million of them were about organized tourism. The top of foreign countries where our citizens travelled for any reasons is the following: Ukraine takes the first place again, Finland, Kazakhstan, Abkhazia, Turkey, China, and Egypt. Concerning organized tourism, these are Turkey, Egypt, China, Thailand, Spain, Germany, and Greece.”

Apprising the potential of the North Caucasus resorts, Radkov said that “today the demand for mountain-skiing resorts in Russia significantly surpasses supply. Nothing will be empty. We have about 150 mountain-skiing complexes, but it’s insignificant, that is why people go abroad. The North Caucasus is a prospective region for development, including mountain-skiing tourism. But two main issues have to be solved: infrastructure and security. The current infrastructure is weak. Mountain-skiing complexes should be developed, modern ski trails should be constructed, as well as hotels. Transport communication should be established because today it is very difficult to reach some mountain-skiing resorts.

These problems are solvable. In general the situation has very good dynamics for normalization in the North Caucasus. I am sure that these resorts will develop and become a serious point of growth of tourism in the RF.”

Speaking about establishing of a positive image, Radkov noted that “branding is the most effective way of promotion in the touristic market. For example, at international exhibitions our regions are presented as some territory, but foreign tourists badly know Russian geography. What is the region? What is situated there? However, there are brand: Siberia, the Baikal, the Volga, the Golden Ring. They are understandable. Tourist routes do not depend on administrative boundaries. Promotion of territories through branding is the most effective marketing approach.”