State support and tourism potential of the Far East and the Arctic discussed at the RUSSIA EXPO

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On January 24, the International RUSSIA EXPO held a round table discussion on Tourism in the Far East and the Arctic: State Support and Regional Potential. The expert dialog was attended by Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation Dmitry Vakhrukov, State Secretary, Deputy Minister of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic Pavel Volkov, Head of the Tourism Committee of the Murmansk region Alexander Eliseev, First Deputy Minister of Economic Development and External Relations of the Amur region Ekaterina Kireeva and others. The event was held as part of the business program of the Day of the Far East and the Arctic.

The experts discussed whether the infrastructure of Far East and Arctic tourism is ready to meet its guest, what measures of state support for the development of the industry are most important, how cooperation between regional and federal tour operators is built and how to increase the tourist attractiveness of the region. 

"In accordance with the decisions of our President, tourism has become a nationwide project, and largely due to this, more and more Russian citizens are discovering the Far East. One of the key problems of the region is remoteness, but we are successfully solving this issue by expanding the route network," said roundtable moderator Pavel Volkov.

Dmitry Vakhrukov noted the growth of tourist traffic to the Far East and spoke about federal support for the tourism industry:

"We have noted a significant increase in tourist travel to the Far East. According to our data, it is more than 40% in 2023, compared to 2022, which, in turn, was 10% higher than 2021. Thanks to this, the share of trips to the Far East region and the Arctic has grown from 7.4% to 8.6% of the total number of tourists in Russia, and this is encouraging to see. And, of course, we are not leaving the Far East behind in terms of federal support: we estimate that the share of federal funds allocated to support tourism in the Far East is about 10%. This includes support for tourism infrastructure, the construction of fast-built modular hotels, and increasing the tourist attractiveness of cities".

According to him, the expansion of preferential lending programs for the construction of year-round amusement parks and ski infrastructure is also relevant for the Far East. In addition, the deputy minister spoke about some of the results of the visit of the President of the Russian Federation to the region:

"We were offered, and we were supported by the President, to establish a minimum amount of regional subsidies in the amount of at least 30 million rubles per region. This will allow us to move towards increasing the tourist attractiveness of small subjects".

In turn, Alexander Eliseev focused the attention of those present on the issues of adjusting state support measures: "It turns out that we launch a "big pharmacy", and the regions "diagnose" themselves, so we should focus on diagnosis. Diagnose everyone: first think about what can be done to make something work, identify growth points, and only then look for and adjust support measures. This is the key point".

The subject of expansion, development and promotion of national tourist routes and the main expectations in this direction was raised by Olga Zakharova, Director of the Urban Economy division of ASI.

 "We have two national tourist routes in the summer in the Far East and I think five in the Arctic. In my opinion, this is negligible, because in fact the Far East has a lot to be proud of and, on the one hand, the emphasis is on the development of domestic tourism, but at the same time we realize that there are many people who want to get to Russia, to feel it, to see it.  Without national routes this is impossible, because even if a person does not know, for example, the language, they look at certain markers. Therefore, we must provide for indicators that, on the one hand, reveal the tourist potential of the territories, and on the other hand, allow both our citizens and foreigners to see our country from the best side," Olga Zakharova said.