Visa regime and prospects of the tourism industry in Russia

Russia is rich not only in hydrocarbons and in general with natural resources. In this vast country, stretching from the Far East to Kaliningrad, there is everything that the world tourist Mecca can only dream about.

Base of branch

Monuments of antiquity, untouched corners of nature, ancient kremlins and castles, beautiful sandy beaches, taiga expanses and subtropical forests, ski resorts, huge lakes and shy beauties of the middle belt, great museums and collections of unsurpassed artists ... This list of even the most common definitions of the treasures of the Russian land Can continue for a long time. What is needed in order for the flood of guests to come here, wishing to join a multinational culture? Yes, in fact, a lot of things are required for this, but first you need to take the first step: simplify the visa regime for tourists. This is what the government is asking the leading tour operators.

Cheap ruble - a chance for a tour operator

Decreased relative to the dollar, the ruble has done almost everything in this area in order to attract foreign tourists with relatively low prices for accommodation, food, transportation and services. And this advantage should be used right now, especially since after the Sochi Olympiad a completely benign infrastructure appeared, at least on the Black Sea coast. The possibility of visa-free travel to Russia is claimed by 24 countries, with another four dozen active negotiations are under way to simplify the regime of crossing the border. The leaders of nine large companies operating in the country on the tourist market (Tari Tour, Windrose, Svoy TS, Intourist, etc.) wrote an open letter to the Foreign Ministry, which proposed a number of measures to revitalize Indicators of the industry. Among the main recommendations is the introduction of the possibility of obtaining a visa at the direct border crossing and simplification of the procedure. As a likely result, the authors of the document predict an almost instant increase in visitors by a third.

What prevents tourists?

The main obstacle for those wishing to come to Russia, the authors of the letter consider the procedural difficulties that arise when trying to obtain a visa. This opinion is accepted by the Cato Institute (Washington, DC, USA), whose employees calculated the number of tourists who originally wanted to visit Russia and compared it with the number of those who succeeded. Only the most persistent pitches get the necessary papers, and they turned out to be only about 10%. Usually, having queued up in queues and having studied a long list of required references, the potential guest refuses the thorny path and chooses something less problematic, like Tallinn, Tbilisi, Lviv or Bourgas. Visiting Moscow, St. Petersburg or Sochi is postponed, which, undoubtedly, affects the volume of foreign currency earnings and profits of travel companies, and, of course, not for the better. It is to this discrepancy between desires and realities that the heads of the largest tourist operators of Russia drew the government's attention.

Actions of Rosturism

It can not be said that the Federal Agency for Tourism does absolutely nothing to attract foreign guests. For example, the head of the department Oleg Safonov introduced a proposal to reduce the cost of a one-time visa by almost four times, to $ 20-30. By the way, such prices have long been operating in countries such as Turkey, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and nothing, they have not gone bankrupt on this cheapness, but quite the contrary, and the entry to the European Union is much less worthwhile than to Russia. Safonov believes that this measure alone will increase foreign tourism by 20 or 30 percent, and the economy will receive up to six billion dollars in additional revenues. It is surprising that at such small expenses this project has not yet been implemented. In 2015, there was a 13% increase in tourism activity, explained almost entirely by the devaluation component, which is confirmed by the reduction of Russians traveling abroad (31%, 10 million people). It's time to strengthen the effect, turning the problem into an advantage.

The European Union and the United States

The EU countries are not generally included in the list of 24 states with which negotiations are held on the abolition of visas, just like the United States. First, taking into account the general scale of prices, the fee for the stamp in the passport, which is levied for the right to cross the border, in these cases is not any kind of deterrent. In Europe, for such money you can have lunch once, and quite modestly. Secondly, the abolition of visas should in principle be mutual, this is a matter of diplomatic parity and equality, and after the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis, the negotiation process was almost stalled. Another thing is the simplification of procedural moments that impede full-fledged tourism, and there is a lot of work to be done in this area.

East direction

The priority course at the moment is the easing of the visa regime with India and China. This has already made some progress, since the PRC citizens have the opportunity to obtain permission to stay in Russia right at the border checkpoints (airports, train stations, etc.). With India, the visa regime operates online. Chinese tourists are increasingly visiting Russia, although the crisis has affected the return flow, it fell from 609 thousand to 295 thousand in 2015. Indian businessmen can visit Russia in December on a business visa issued on the basis of an invitation from a single legal entity. With both countries, negotiations are under way on the mutual possibility of travel for up to six months. Similar contacts exist with the Japanese Foreign Ministry, although interstate relations have not yet been backed by a peace treaty. Russia is ready to simplify the visa regime with Tokyo.

The Arab world

The Russian Foreign Ministry is making efforts to simplify the procedure for crossing the border with respect to many Arab states. Holders of diplomatic passports of the Russian Federation will soon be able to freely visit Sudan, Bahrain and Kuwait. The tourist flow to the Middle Eastern countries is relatively small, so only 36,000 Russians have visited Qatar, the UAE has received 240,000 tourists, the number of guests traveling in the opposite direction is not reflected in Rosturizm statistics. But serious prospects seem possible with regard to Iran, with which an intergovernmental agreement was signed on February 6. According to him, the registration of trips for students, scientists and representatives of the business community is greatly simplified.

A good example and problem

Since 2104, the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation have mutually introduced a visa-free regime, which immediately led to an increase in tourist exchange by 75% (from 40 to 70 thousand). In general, the growth is fixed, but it is still very slow, if we estimate it in quantitative terms, it is approximately 5%. Tourist operators in an effort to diversify their activities are trying to cover all possible directions (internal, inbound and outbound), especially in times of crisis, when there is a deficit of demand. The largest percentage of travelers to Russia are visitors from China, the European Union (mainly from France and Germany) and the CIS countries. In addition to visa restrictions, experts believe that the insufficient infrastructure of the industry, inadequate compliance of facilities with international security standards and the deficit of hotel rooms in different price segments, constrain the factors for expanding the tourist flow.