KEY CONCLUSIONS
Tourism is one of
the leading industries in the Far East economy
“Tourism in the Far East is
growing rapidly. <…> Growth rate in the past year amounted to 22.6%
<…> Making the Far East more accessible for both Russians and foreign
guests is a primary task we set for ourselves. We need the tour flow to grow at
least fivefold,” Olga Golodets — Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian
Federation
“International tourism takes the third place after chemicals and
petroleum. <…> In terms of growth rates, the Far East is number one,
outperforming such successful regions as Moscow, St. Petersburg, or Sochi,”
Olga Arkhangelskaya — Partner, Head of Real Estate, Hospitality, and
Construction Services, Head of the Transportation, Infrastructure and
Government, and Public Group in the CIS, EY
The Far East is
becoming more attractive for foreign carriers and tour operators
“Vladivostok is the nearest foreign city to Tokyo <…> Our company
becomes a locomotive <…> for the transport development of the Far East,”
Ueki Yoshiharu — Representative Director, Chairman, Japan Airlines
“The economic sector we approached last year is cruising <…>
Vladivostok should be a part of it too,” Choi SeungHwan — Chief Executive
Officer, Hanchang Co., Ltd
Lack of
infrastructural development
“What matters most is that we increase accessibility of the national
parks, reserves, and historical points of interest so that the tourism becomes
substantial,” Olga Golodets — Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation
“Lack of ports of call in Asia <…> is a problem that starts
affecting the market dynamics,” Valeriy Nagorny — General Director, Vladivostok
Sea Terminal
“Airports should welcome long range flights <…> cruise ships have
to get serviced somewhere <…> We need to untangle customs and military
issues <…> reasonable compromise between safety and tourism development
still hasn’t been found,” Sergey Bachin — General Director, Roza Khutor
“Checkpoints at peak hours are (overloaded – Ed.) far beyond their
planned capacity. On-land is our priority for quite some time now,” Konstantin
Shestakov — Director of Tourism Department, Administration of the Primorsky
Krai
Low quality of
service
“Rich tourists want to come here but there’s no places for them to spend
money at <…> That’s a problem,” Choi SeungHwan — Chief Executive Officer,
Hanchang Co., Ltd
“There are common problems, like launching individual training
programmes for interpreters in Kamchatka and Sakhalin,” Valeriy Nagorny —
General Director, Vladivostok Sea Terminal
Lack of organized
promotion for the Far East as a brand
“There’s no centralized promo campaign, no content, no strategy (for the
Far East – Ed.) apart from typical clichés,” Taras Demura — General Director,
TUI Russia
“The problem is that the Russian Far East brand is completely unknown in
North America,” Mark Dudley — Regional Director, InterPacific Aviation and
Marketing, Inc.
“Environmental tourism is one of our priorities <…> This potential
is evidently underused,” Zarina Doguzova — Head, Russian Federal Agency for
Tourism
Imperfection of
state support
“State support matters. Right now, it’s very convoluted, there’s too
many aspects that don’t help but rather get in the way,” Olga Tkacheva — Deputy
General Director for Strategic Development and Marketing, Flotiliya
Expensive air
travel for Russian tourists
“Without additional state support we can’t provide access because it’s
just too far away. The price of a plane ticket matters, we need to support and
subsidize that. Many airports (of the Far East – Ed.) are closed tonight
<…> and that primarily hits the charter flight operators. They need
coverage <…> to briung the costs down <…> One of our more focused
tasks is to take off this edge,” Evgeniy Chudnovskiy — Director General,
Airports of Regions
SOLUTIONS
Optimizing state
support
“We’re coming up with a new business development strategy, where the Far
East plays a special role. We’re going to allocate federal funding to support a
whole number of projects in the Far East,” Olga Golodets — Deputy Prime
Minister of the Russian Federation
“Our brand-new approach is to send as much federal funding as possible
to the investment project that are supposed to directly influence the
development of tourism in our country,” Zarina Doguzova — Head, Russian Federal
Agency for Tourism
“There’s an entire array of support measures <…> that influence
tourism. They include simplified visa procedures for citizens of 19 countries,
subsidizing flights to the Far East, nulled profit tax for hotels, advanced
social economic zones and the free port regimens, package tours to the Far
East,” Olga Arkhangelskaya — Partner, Head of Real Estate, Hospitality, and
Construction Services, Head of the Transportation, Infrastructure and
Government, and Public Group in the CIS, EY
“Pretty much every region has an export centre <…> on the local
level to support small companies together with tourist ministries,” Roman
Glushak — Head, Representative Office in the Far East Federal District, Russian
Export Centre
Update the
infrastructure
“General country-wide development plans include reconstruction for
nearly all airports in the Far East <…> In the next 2 to 3 years the Far
East will see its airport infrastructure increase dramatically,” Evgeniy
Chudnovskiy — Director General, Airports of Regions
“It’s important to build in clusters in the Far East. <…> As an
infrastructure company that also builds, we are ready to invest but only in
public-private partnership,” Alexander Romanov — Executive Director,
Infrastructure Financing Division, VTB Capital
“Apart from being a tourism commodity, the infrastructure protects the
ecosystem <…> We’re trying to create an infrastructure that can
accommodate countless number of tourists without damaging the environment,” —
Sergei Aramilev, General Director, Amursky Tigr Centre
Using digital technology
to promote the region
“We have very particular plans to transform the industry digitally based
on the available resources <…> Before we create convenient quality
digital content about the country everything is going to be very difficult,”
Zarina Doguzova — Head, Russian Federal Agency for Tourism
“Digital technologies in tourism is an area where Russia can win very
quickly. It’s a continuous work with the society and there are competences and
resources for it,” Alexander Idrisov — President, Founder, Strategy Partners
Group