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27.06.11
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An Undiscovered Land
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By Svetlana Kononova
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Russia is the largest country in the world, stretching 3,000 kilometers from its frozen northern seas to its southern subtropical coast, and 10,000 kilometers from Kaliningrad in the west to the Bering Strait in the east. But despite the huge variety of its scenery and climate, rich historical and cultural heritage, and thousands of amazing places to see, Russia still doesn’t have a reputation as a popular travel destination in the eyes of either foreign or domestic tourists.
Russians are among the world’s top ten nationalities for spending on international tourism, according to a report compiled by the World Tourism Organization, but Russia itself hosts a relatively small number of foreign visitors. According to official statistics from the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism, about 200,000 foreign tourists visited Russia in the first quarter of 2011, while 2.25 million Russians traveled abroad during the same period, mostly to Turkey, Egypt, Spain, Italy and China.
The main problems facing Russia’s domestic tourism industry are well-known. Tours in Russia are often much more expensive than a comfortable and relatively cheap holiday in a popular well-developed resort in Turkey, Egypt or Thailand. Russia’s tourism infrastructure is also underdeveloped in many regions, and there is limited availability of affordable accommodation, such as three-star hotels and bed and breakfasts. Travel costs in Russia are also high, especially for those traveling by plane. Foreign visitors also often complain about the poor level of service in Russia.
But despite these problems, domestic tourism is developing rapidly and becoming more and more popular, experts say. Adventure tours and ecotourism are in increasingly high demand, as well as trips to Russia’s top tourist destinations Moscow and St. Petersburg. “When we started working 12 years ago, almost all of our clients were foreigners. Russians couldn’t understand how it is possible to spend money on traveling to the Kamchatka Peninsula, for example, to take pictures of hair seals, not to hunt, just to see them. But now the situation has changed and more than half of our customers are domestic tourists. This probably reflects a general trend of increasing interest in the environment and ecotourism,” said Taisia Omeshatova, a manager at Dersu Uzala, an Ecotourism Development Fund. “Most of our clients live in big cities. They are well-educated and have quite high incomes. They work hard and spend most of their time at the office. These people want to spend their holidays somewhere far away from an overcrowded noisy city and relax in a totally different environment. Sometimes they even ask us to organize tours to protected areas, where the only people there are a small group of 6 to 15 tourists,” she added.
Anastasia Ivanova, a marketing manager at RussiaDiscovery, a travel agency which specializes in activity and adventure tours, also identified increasing interest in unusual holidays. “The demand for adventure holidays in Russia has doubled overall since 2008 and trebled for the most popular destinations in the same period. People have had enough of standard beach holidays abroad and want to experience something new,” she said. “Another growing trend is for more complicated and expensive adventure tours. Many of our customers started out with simple weekend tours somewhere in central Russia, but later turned to more interesting and exiting destinations.”
Yet unlike her colleague from the Ecotourism Development Fund, Ivanova found it difficult to describe a typical traveler who opts for activity and adventure tours. “Clients have different preferences. Some of them just need a quiet, peaceful and meditative holiday in a beautiful natural environment. Others like activities such as fishing, horse riding and jeep tours. Another group is made up of families with children. The fourth category are those who prefer adventure tours that are safe, but give travelers a small taste of risk and adrenalin,” she explained.
Interest in all these tours is high among foreigners, with most of Russia’s foreign tourists coming from Germany, France and other Western European countries. Holidays in Russia’s Far East are also very popular with Chinese tourists.
According to RussiaDiscovery data, the most popular Russian domestic holiday destination is Karelia, located on the border with Finland. This area is famous for its beautiful landscape, including thousands of lakes and rivers. There are also many important cultural sites in the region. Kizhi Island on Lake Onega, which houses an open-air museum of pre-Revolutionary wooden architecture, is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Valaam Archipelago in Lake Ladoga is famous for its monastery and chapels. The Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea are home to a medieval monastery, which was used as a prison and served as a prototype for the GULAG system in the Stalin era.
The second most popular domestic holiday destination is the Kola Peninsula. A unique territory within the Arctic Circle, the Arctic Ocean laps its shores and it has retained its primeval beauty. Popular sightseeing tours here often include trips to mountainous tundra, the Northern Lights, stone labyrinths, waterfalls and rivers full of salmon – sights that the average inhabitant of a big city does not have the opportunity to see at home. A flight from Moscow to the Kola Peninsula takes only three hours.
Russian tourists with a limited holiday budget, especially families with small children and young people, often choose a holiday in central Russia or in the Urals region, where prices are affordable. Fishing enthusiasts go to central Siberia to fish in the Yenisei, or to the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), to fish in the Lena. Other popular domestic tourism destinations include: Chukotka in the Arctic Circle; the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Far East; Lake Baikal in east Siberia; and Altai, the ‘golden mountains’ of Siberia. One of the most exotic trips is a tour to the North Pole on an ice-breaker.
One factor that has led to a boost in activity, adventure and eco-tourism, is the relative independence of these sectors from Russia’s under-developed hotel infrastructure. “People who love eco-tourism and going on expeditions are ready to live in tents to see untouched nature, amazing scenery and wildlife,” Omeshatova said. “But not everybody understands the difference between a picnic somewhere in the forest and eco-tourism. The goals of eco-tourism are not just rest and relaxation, but to gain new knowledge of nature as well. Our tour guides are professional biologists, staff from conservation areas, or huntsmen who can tell a lot of interesting stories about the areas they work in,” she added.
Prices for domestic tourism vary from 4,500 rubles ($160) for weekend tours in central Russia to 600,000 rubles ($22,500) for a cruise on an ice-breaker to the North Pole. The cost of a trip is dependent on a number of factors, from location to the size of the group and the type of accommodation provided. Average prices for adventure and eco-tourism vary from 60,000 to 120,000 rubles ($ 2,150 to $4,400). The target market for such tourism is therefore the same as those who can afford a holiday abroad.
Meanwhile, a poll conducted by the Public Opinion Research Foundation (VTsIOM) found that 56 percent of Russians will not go on holiday anywhere this summer due to financial problems. Nineteen percent of respondents said they will spend their holidays at summer houses, a trend which has seen little change over the last eight years. Eleven percent of Russian holidaymakers plan to go to Russia’s Black Sea coast, seven percent to other places in Russia and five percent to the Baltic States. A total of two percent intend to spend their holidays abroad. |
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