Development of national tourist routes discussed at the Exposition
On June 14, at the RUSSIA EXPO as part of the Russian
Tourism Forum "Travel!", a round table "National Tourist
Routes" was held. Its participants discussed pressing issues of organizing
trips to such destinations.
In particular, experts shared the best practices of forming
an interregional national tourist route (NTR), talked about the creation of
comfortable infrastructure and other topics.
"None of the routes was easy for its developers. But
all this work is important, and it gives the impetus and the example of tourist
products that should be created in the country. And it is obvious that we have
a big deficit of good complex tourist products for both our tourists and
foreign tourists. If we have sort of dealt with the infrastructure, we are
still not very good with tourist products, and this is the main challenge for
the next two or three years. And here the role of the institute of national
tourist routes is the most important, because we already have something to look
up to," said Deputy Minister of Economic Development Dmitry Vakhrukov.
The Minister of Tourism of the Samara region, Artur
Abdrashitov, told how the national route can serve as an impetus for the
development of other areas of infrastructure on the example of the current
tourist train "Zhiguli Weekend".
"The
route incorporates several directions under the single brand of
"Zhiguli" — it includes mountains, and cars, and our famous foamy
drink, and much more. And we certainly have a tendency to have a special
attitude to the development of automobile tourism and the entire infrastructure
for travelers who come to us both by bus and by private cars. And in Zhigulevsk
urban district, for example, today the list of investment projects includes
three projects on creation of out-of-town accommodation facilities, and if once
it was a difficult task to stay overnight in the Samarskaya Luka National Park,
today, together with investors and thanks to the national project "Tourism
and Hospitality Industry", we are actively solving it. And all this and
much more is emerging in connection with our national route," emphasized
Artur Abdrashitov.
One of the main vectors of tourism development taking into
account the development of macro-territories within the framework of national
projects is, first of all, the formation of interregional routes. Natalia Lukyanova, Minister of
Tourism of the Tver Region, spoke about cooperation with other regions on the
example of the Gosudareva Doroga (Sovereign's Road) — a popular tourist route
connecting the two Russian capitals — Moscow and St. Petersburg.
"Everyone faced the fact that they were doing it for
the first time, and the road took not a month, not two, but several years,
because we had to literally "marry" four regions: we had to find each
other, love and accept each other. The most difficult thing for all of us was
to understand why we need this and who would drive the entire process. We took
the initiative to do this: to merge four budgets, include important objects. In
our region, new measures to support the tourism business have appeared, and in
all competitive selections, projects along national routes receive additional
points. The tourism infrastructure is actively developing. The tourism
industry's contribution to the region's GRP is 3.2%. We have learned to
perceive all remarks and criticism from experts as tasks that need to be solved
and that move us forward," concluded Natalia Lukyanova.
In turn, Andrei Yermak, Minister of Culture and Tourism of
the Kaliningrad region, spoke about the development of national tourist routes
in the westernmost region of the country.
"National tourist route is a synonym for quality. It is
a guarantee of safety, a guarantee of comfort, a guarantee of vivid
impressions. For us, the national tourist route is also an opportunity for
competent systematic distribution of subsidies from the federal center through
a single subsidy. In 2024, we will submit two more tourist routes for national
certification. One is related to hiking tourism, the other is related to
gastronomic tourism. In 2025 we are planning to get the national status for two
more tourist routes: the Gothic Ring and the river trip "From Bay to
Bay" — for this route we are now forming a charter fleet and ships that
will carry passengers," said Andrei Yermak.
IV Russian Tourism Forum "Travel!" takes place at
the International RUSSIA EXPO from June 12 to 16, 2024. The organizer is the
Roscongress Foundation. The Forum is officially supported by the Government of
the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian
Federation, ANO "National Priorities", Centre for Strategic Research
and leading industry associations.
More than 250 speakers take part in the business program
consisting of 40 sessions. More than 500,000 guests, including representatives
of 20 foreign countries, are expected to visit the forum during the five days
of its work. The exposition will include more than 500 participants from 89
regions of Russia.
Detailed information on the business and festival program,
as well as a mobile guide is available on the official website:
https://rustravelforum.com/
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