2014 was declared the Year of Tourism Development in the CIS. The problems of development of this industry in the post-Soviet states are quite similar - infrastructure, human capacity, and security all need to be developed.
Valery Korovkin, head of the International Department of the Federal Tourism Agency, believes that the CIS is “an immense territory with an absolutely colossal potential for completely different kinds of tourism, with numerous cultural and historical sites and an incredibly rich natural part”. But how should it be developed? The CIS Council of Tourism has started to develop a strategy for tourism development that is aimed at harmonizing all efforts in the CIS in the sphere of tourism. In Russia, a federal target program has been launched. In Mr Korovkin’s opinion, the main theme problem is the infrastructure. “We need to invite people, have places to treat them, places for them to sleep, to eat, give them an opportunity to avoid uncomfortable transportation changes. So all kinds of logistics are needed. We must make sure that our services are of high quality, that the transport in Russia is reliable, comfortable and safe.”
What is good about tourism, believes Mr Korovkin, is that it unites the services of several sectors of the economy. “But normalization in the legislation is needed to bring the legal framework to some common denominator, so that tourism would work equally well in our countries. A statistical approach is needed, which would allow to analyze the market with one approach”.
Alexander Novikovsky, president of the Association of Leaders of tourist business in Ukraine, told us that the Government of Ukraine has approved the concept of tourism development until 2022, which includes the definition of the specialization of tourist regions in Ukraine, such as the development of industrial tourism, or festival tourism. For the Crimea, the key task is to create the infrastructure for year-round service. Development of mountaineering and caving is the basic position here. The focus here is on bringing the legal framework in line with international rules and European standards, especially in the area of consumer protection. “Over the past few years Ukraine has made quite a serious step in the development of tourism, because we had the opportunity to host the well-known international Eurovision Song Contest, as well as Euro 2012. Next, we have a wonderful prospect – Eurobasketball-2015 next year”, Mr Novikovsky said.
Aset Musagaliev, deputy chairman of the tourism industry of the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies of the Republic of Kazakhstan, says that system plans has been developed in Kazakhstan, aimed at the creation of tourism infrastructure.” There is one fairly large project: Western Europe - Western China, the Silk Road. The program is large: roads are being constructed and communications are being conducted. A number of activities in the plan of development of our resort areas have been launched”, says Mr Musagaliev.
Mekhak Apresyan , head of the Tourism Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Armenia, is sure that to be competitive, productive cooperation is needed to make a joint regional tour product . In Armenia we have quite a lot of activities, different traditional festivals: a festival of Arts and Crafts in Gimri, a barbecue festival in Akhtala , a wine festival in Lori , the festival "Cultural Renaissance”, a festival of carpets is in Dilijan. And of course, we have already scheduled a festival dedicated to the Year of Tourism”, Mr Apresyan stated.
