Who in Russia to rest well

What is Russian Tourism? Turkey, Egypt, Croatia, Montenegro... or still Sochi, Anapa, Suzdal, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Karelia, Altai... For now, both.
What happens tomorrow?

My native country is wide, with many forests, fields and rivers. Yes, indeed, it is wide, because even after the collapse of the USSR, having lost the Baltic States, Georgia, Armenia and Ukraine, and with them the traditional resting places of Soviet citizens, it preserved the rich tourist and recreational potential of Karelia, Central Russia, Altai, the Black Sea coast of the Krasnodar Territory, the Caspian Sea.

It is fair to say that many tourist and recreational brands of the Russian Federation inherited from the Soviet Union. These are slightly modernized sanatoriums, holiday homes, boarding houses located in the resort areas of the Krasnodar and Stavropol Krai, Altai and Abkhazia (although Abkhazia de jure is not Russia, its recreational territories, given the visa-free regime and the single currency, are quite accessible to Russian tourists); these are tourist routes of the Golden Ring; these are extreme tourism of Karelia, Altai, Sayan (autonomous routes through forests, rafting and kayaking, fishing, hunting, picking mushrooms and berries).

The pricing policy of travel agencies is very similar. For example, the travel agency Rusalturs, which represents the services of Abkhazian resorts in the Russian tourism market, in 2009 offers two-bedroom rooms with a bathroom and toilet, air conditioning, TV and refrigerator costing from 950 to 2800 rubles per day. Rusalturs promises an excellent beach holiday with opportunities for diving, rafting, paragliding, horseback riding, sightseeing. Tour operator "Akris" invites you to visit the Altai balneological resort Belokurikhu. The price range is from 1900 to 2400 rubles per day. The price includes: accommodation, treatment, food (buffet), if desired, you can take part in rafting along the rivers of the Altai Mountains, but this service is paid separately.

Of course, in both cases, we should not forget about the cost of flying to the place of rest and back (it is unlikely that a modern tourist from Central Russia will want to spend a few days of long-awaited vacation in the stuffiness of passenger trains), but the prices for air tickets are quite comparable to the prices of flights to Turkey and Egypt. Tourists who have been vacationing in Abkhazia this summer assess the living conditions as quite comfortable. Recreational services are almost the same as resort services in Croatia and Montenegro.

If someone does not like the southern heat, you can spend a vacation in the middle strip of Russia. Cultural and educational brand "Golden Ring" offers more than 25 routes, designed for a period of two to seven days, with a visit to Suzdal, Vladimir, Myshkin, Yaroslavl, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Rostov the Great, Murom, Diveev, Torzhka, Rybinsk, Tutaev, Gorodets, Gus-Khrustalny, Vladimir, Kostroma, Plyos, Sergiev Posad. The cost of trips varies from 4200 to 17 000 rubles, while they include insurance, accommodation in rooms of the selected category, meals, full excursion, as well as transport services (buses of the 1st class "Neoplan"). However, it should be remembered that the impression of visiting historic cities can spoil broken roads and unobtrusive roadside service. In this regard, the Russian authorities have much to learn from their European colleagues, who 70 years ago realized that no business can develop without good roads.

For lovers of hunting and fishing there are special offers. For example, the Forester’s House, located in the Orlov Polesier National Park, offers hunting and fishing, boating and horseback riding, a real Russian steam room, visiting excursions. Accommodation in the Forester's House costs 3000-4500 rubles per day, but for other services you need to pay extra: for food - 1100-1500 rubles. /day, organization of fishing - 250 rubles, excursions - from 600 to 1000 rubles. (A trip to a unique bison nursery will cost 450 rubles.)

Orel travel agencies have developed excursion programs, which include a visit to the Vvedensky women's and Uspensky men's monasteries, museums of folk crafts, the Literary Museum of Orlov writers N.S. Leskov, A.A. Fet, L.N. Andreev, I.A. Bunin, M.M. Prishvin, the estate of Spaskoye-Lutovinovo-the fatherland of I.S. Turgenev, the archaeological excavations of the ancient Kurgan burial ground.

Ryazan, Tula and Nizhny Novgorod regions offer many excursions to monasteries, historical, cultural and archaeological sites, museums, fairs of folk crafts, folk holidays (there are so many that it is time to write a separate article). These excursions are quite affordable (the total cost is divided by the number of tourists). Thus, the most expensive excursion (10 thousand rubles) with a group of 20 people will cost 500 rubles per person, and with a larger group even cheaper.

The season of extreme tourism in Karelia begins in May and lasts until October. Three days of rafting on the Shuya River cost 5600 rubles. 11 days of the exclusive route “Such different Karelia” (rafting on Shuya and kayaking on the Ladoga skerries) will cost 14,900 rubles, and this cost includes food, rent of boats and tourist equipment, instructors, insurance and hiking “charms”, like overnight campfires and Russian baths.

River cruises are still popular. Traveling along the Volga in good summer weather allows you to get a lot of pleasure from a leisurely contemplative holiday, which brings a pleasant variety of excursions to historical cities and beach holidays on picturesque sandy islands. The river tourism company of the Volga Shipping Company offers a huge selection of routes, cabins and ships. There are short four-day cruises (Nizhny Novgorod-Uglich-Nizhny Novgorod), there are tours designed for 12 days (Nizhny Novgorod-Astrakhan-Nizhny Novgorod). Prices range from 5000 to 84 500 thousand rubles per seat depending on the duration of the cruise, deck and cabin class. This price includes: accommodation in the cabin of the selected class, meals, entertainment program on the ship, excursions to ancient Russian cities (Uglich, Kazan, Saratov, Makariev, Kostroma, Tver, Plyos, Yaroslavl, etc.). Exemplary order is maintained on ships, and experienced chefs work on galleys.

RBC daily (08.07.09) published the results of a survey on vacation plans for 2,000 Russian respondents over the age of 18, conducted by ROMIR Holding in June 2009. According to him, 77% of respondents are going to rest in Russia, 15% in Europe, 4% in Asia. Among residents of the Southern Federal District and the Urals (respectively 64 and 53% of respondents), the share of vacationers who chose resorts in Russia is higher than the average for the sample (46%). Respondents older than 45 years (43%), representatives of low-income groups of the population (50%), as well as residents of the Far East (56%) and Siberia (40%) will remain at home for the period of vacation.

Russian citizens planning to visit Europe during their holidays are people with a high level of income (26% of respondents, among them 22% of Muscovites). In Asia, only 4% of Russian vacationers will rest. Asian resorts are most popular among residents of the Far East: air travel to Thailand, Vietnam and China costs them much cheaper than anywhere in Europe.

Dmitry Gorin, a member of the board of directors of the Inna Tour VIP-service group of companies, confirmed that this year there was a decrease in tourist activity of the Russian population, and outbound tourism flows decreased most noticeably, domestic flows decreased not so significantly. Analysis of the situation in the domestic Russian tourism market shows that a two-week holiday in Russia costs an average of 15,000 to 50,000 rubles, not counting the cost of moving to the place of rest and back.

The main drawback of “rest in Russian” is that it does not show professional system management, not even business technologies of tourist products. Now Russians are forced to trust the organization of their vacation people with questionable qualifications, whose work is characterized by a stunning level of irresponsibility. In this situation, the reason for the popularity of river cruises becomes clear: customers used to trust this brand, because the state for 50 years controlled the quality of cruise services. The Golden Ring tourist products, which 40 years ago were created under the auspices and at the expense of the state, are equally successful and even now exist due to the fact that the exhibition facilities are maintained at the expense of the federal budget.

Thus, domestic tourism lacks statehood in organization and management. It is impossible to delay the solution of this problem: now is the time to seize the initiative from the popular foreign resorts at least for those seasons when the “sea factor” does not work. If the state does not take control of the Russian tourism business “under its wing”, then the islands of tourist paradise left by the USSR, which are not interconnected by the state management system as a kind of supporting framework, will drown in the swamp of the post-Soviet space and chaos will reign on our tourist field.

Journal "Territory and Planning"

http://terraplan.ru/content/view/741/29