Igor Chernyshev, a senator from the Tomsk region, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Social Policy, told Vestnik Kavkaza about trends and problems of internal tourism in Russia.
- The dollar’s and euro’s high rates have refocused many of our tourists on domestic tourism. What new features can Russian regions offer, do they have sufficient authority for autonomous regulation of this sector?
- Everything new is actually well-forgotten old. With regard to the facilities on show, in relation to vacancies, in respect of spa treatment, great changes have taken place, and of course the return home of Crimea. And today it is also an area that is very interesting for tourism, despite all the problems associated with the availability of this territory. The main factor today, which affects, is the availability of these sites.
We have invested few trillion rubles in various development programs, in repairs and reconstruction in the tourism industry, investment in the tourist spots on the level of the constituent parts of the Russian Federation: it is federal money, money of the regions, it is money from local budgets, it's money of private investors, who are also trying to enter this market actively. But the main thing the state should do is to ensure the availability of these tourist spots. I mean, first of all, of course, air transportation. In this regard, we have today a big problem, as far as almost all transportation is horizontal for the moment. That means today we all fly to Moscow or from Moscow, a major amount of traffic is concentrated there, and with few exceptions there is vertical transportation between subjects. It means the way that transport is available to our average citizens, who want to go somewhere to have a rest.
- Are our Russian regions able to regulate autonomously issues related to tourism? Can they act independently, or are they dependent somehow on the federal government?
- Dependent, of course. Today all regions depend on the federal government, because almost all regions are subsidized. The State Duma adopted a law in the first reading on empowerment of local governments in the organization of tourism. Today local governments by and large do not have the right to spend money, even on the local budget for coordination, linking work at the local government level for the development of tourism.
We say that the "Golden Ring" of Russia, other facilities, other cities, today they are ready to receive tourists. They have prepared cultural monuments, repaired and restored them. We had special programs, corresponding to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and development programs continue to operate until 2017. But in order to attract tourists more effectively to some certain territory, we need to establish information centers, which would be interested in working not only with one particular company, some specific agency, particular a private or municipal museum, but which will be interested in attracting tourists, who want to travel to a specific territory, so they can see more and can be in safety on this territory. The fact is that when it's all organized, and the authorities are involved, the level of responsibility for the city and the guests of the city is completely different. So for the organization of a whole infrastructure, local authorities do not have enough power.
The same applies to the northern regions, for example, the extreme north, where there is an issue of inbound tourism, I mean hosting. Someone will find it interesting to see how oil is extracted, and how different productions are developing, where the gas is taken from. But the most important thing is to provide opportunities for the rest for the citizens of the northern regions, I mean outbound tourism, when local governments are taking care of the health of their citizens who reside in the territory, and organize the rest for them. Because in the conditions of the Far North with its long winters and so on, it is very important to get enough of summer. This is important especially for children. In this regard, local governments must have authorities involved in this work. Maybe not even being directly involved in this work of directing citizens to the rest with regard to their financial sources. But in terms of organization at least, in terms of providing security, to be sure that people do not go to the Plunder and Flee Inc resort, which is organized by exactly the same company under the name Plunder and Flee Inc. That is why today there is a lack of responsibilities of local authorities with regard to this issue, and it is on the agenda.
- Most tourists, including Russian tourists, choose large cities when it comes to domestic tourism. And small cities, though historically rich and attractive, are visited by small numbers of tourists. What is the reason for this, how can we influence the situation?
- Advertising is an engine of progress, we are all living in this world today. Information policy in terms of tourism development was really more focused on the funds to be spent, was more focused on the creation of these places. Now in the Federation Council there is a tradition. At each plenary meeting we watch a very short film about a small town, one of the small towns. I watch the Russian Public Television program now too, but there are no movies, there are photos of notable places of small towns.
We don’t need presentations in Moscow or St. Petersburg, but a week across the country. This week’s task is to dip Russians in their country. That means, not only federal TV channels, but also local TV channels showing ready-made federal-level corresponding short movies. Doors of all educational institutions, all enterprises and organizations are open in order to attract tour operators to review their products, which they offer, routes, where to go. At schools at this time, too, it is necessary at the same time to show and to tell about the cities of Russia, about our historical and cultural heritage. And accordingly, with this to motivate people to travel, so they can switch off summer beds, to testify, to travel, travel around the country. Of course, it would help to create more patriotic education and the very appearance of tolerance, which our president is always talking about. Still, our country is multinational and we must, at least for a short time in the summer, stir, see each other. Here, of course, the media plays a big role. For example, your name is Vestnik Kavkaza and I understand that the Caucasus is associated some anti-terrorist operation in the next hot spot of the Caucasus. But it does not generate a positive attitude to go there.
- Would you not agree that, when a crime is happening in the Caucasus, the mass media cannot hush it up.
- I would argue with you here, because any information, anything reaching people, especially people professionally unprepared for the information, for common consumption, it should still pursue a certain goal. A counter-terrorism operation is carried out by law enforcers, why inform the whole country about it? It is carried out somewhere in Dagestan, in your still smoldering points. Does it affect the Urals, the Far East? It concretely affects the inhabitants living nearby. They need to be safe from what may happen there, so that they would be focused on their security. What do others have to do with it? Why should other people who may be willing to go there, they may want to visit the Caucasus, know about it? We scare them with that regular information instead. On the contrary, we need to talk about development there, it should be shown that the republics today are warming up from the cold in the good sense, from the situation that was related to terrorism there.
If it is needed for a report, someone should make a performance report, no problem, report once a year about how much was done. Otherwise, with such periods, telling once a week about, I do not know, it seems to me, such things related to blocking terrorists somewhere, those [events] happen not only in the Caucasus, crime is everywhere. In the Caucasus, by the way, there are residential areas where not a single crime has happened for a year, these are statistics.
- Do you think some factors hinder the tourism development of the Caucasus?
- I still believe that professionalism in the tourism sector of those very regions is insufficient today. A person today expects a different level of accommodation, a different level of services because people have already been around, been around foreign countries, experienced different recreations. That is what the Caucasian regions lack today. It is not only the Caucasus today, it is more underdeveloped there. Problems of service are present in other regions, the problems of hospitability to tourists from local inhabitants. There is such a problem indeed.
- What about the renowned Caucasian hospitability?
- You know, I do not want to argue about Caucasian hospitability, but we are talking about tourism. We are not saying that you visit relatives, friends to stay for some time. We are talking about a regular flow of people. Even in Pyatigorsk, in other [cities], today, in terms of service, we are in such state, it is far from the standards we experience in Europe or Turkey. There is room for improvement. A person visits once and may refuse to visit again later on.Returning to what I started with, is the inaccessibility. Business would have understood and would have invested in the development of recreational places, accommodation places and, no doubt, in the development of the service. Motivation is needed for that, so people would enter higher education centers where tourism managers would be trained, we have big problems with management in the sector today. I happened upon an interesting thing in Sochi: we were checking the Olympic Games, while there were volunteers, there, we saw one service, but when the volunteers went back home, to their own business, we see a completely different thing. Maybe in the summer period, something will be changing again.
- For some obscure reason, we are not attracting foreigners. This is surprising, because our country was in fact for a long time behind the Iron Curtain. And access to it was closed. And, probably, maybe elementary curiosity should attract crowds of foreigners to our country, now that the borders are open. What do you think, why is this not happening?
- I would not quite agree with you, that we are not interesting. When we'll advertise it, then it becomes interesting. We are today, even here on the federal channels, everywhere, we advertise St. Petersburg and Moscow. And there are problems – the service and the issue of price. Our summer is much shorter than even in Europe, we want to earn as much as possible, then rest, lying on the stove, because really there is nothing else to do in this village. The prices of mineral water to add a zero to the price.Today, people are still largely focused on advertising, and the brighter and more intrusive, the more people are attracted to these places.
- How will Crimea develop in this regard?
- There are no miracles. And it is not possible to say that in a year or two it will even be possible to upgrade the infrastructure which is in Crimea today, to upgrade it to a level which would stimulate the flow of tourists. Crimea is good for tourists travelling by car. Crimea is ready for today and consistent with our requests for sun and hot sand on warm, clean beaches.
Another question here is of crossing over the Kerch Strait. Measures are taken now so that many things get into order, so the crossing process is more rhythmic.I think that I, as a representative of the Ministry of Transport, should not allow this situation, as the region is very young and it is not able to cope with all the problems, and the legislative authorities have no experience in coping with these issues, so we need to help more actively, I would even say more exhaustively.
Here, for example, I have a direct claim against the Ministry of Transport, which is, after all, saying that the Kerch crossing at the moment is a crossing between two subjects of the Russian Federation, Krasnodar Territory and the Republic of Crimea, and this is the responsibility, it turns out, of the federal center. Why then were the powers of the federal center given in this way to a constituent part? Well, I think this is a question for discussion. Because it was possible to do for the crossing, I emphasize, much more than was done, I stress much more because it was allocated sufficient funds from the federal budget for this purpose, and even more.
- Have you visited the Caucasus.
- I have been to the Caucasus. I really loved Rosa-Khutor, somehow, what I had seen before what happened there, and then after the Olympics, I think that if we do set a normal price-making policy, so that it would be affordable for the average Russian, it would certainly be great. So far, it appears, taking into account its popularity, there is no such need, I understand that business, perhaps, especially in the winter period, is sufficient to keep the price high. Although I was there in the summer last year, well, generally, there is something to check out, in terms of business. So maybe it is not flexible enough. But everything is being built gradually, I think that the management here will behave more flexibly too.
I have four grandchildren, and we are planning to make a visit to Kavkazskiye Mineralniye Vody. I mean visiting historic places, where great people walked, whose works we read with pleasure today, who made an enormous contribution to the development of our country. We need to strive to touch the places where, generally, people who are indeed the pride of our country, rested.
