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In Russia, Tourist-Friendly Attitude Becomes a Priority (Article)
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Posted by: ConnerVT

Tourist-Friendly Attitude Becomes a Priority
By Catherine Santore
Special to The Moscow Times

Considering that even Muscovites often need to ask for directions, tourists don't stand much of a chance when it comes to getting around town. Coming to the rescue is the Moscow tourism committee, which plans to open the city's first center for tourists, complete with free maps and smiling employees.

The Tourist Information Center began work last winter on the third floor of Gostiny Dvor, a shopping center at 4 Ulitsa Ilyinka, where it plans to open a small visitors' center this winter offering brochures and advice. Information will be displayed for all the regions of Russia, not just Moscow.

A focus on tourism at the federal and municipal level is a recent concept in Russia. City Hall's tourism committee was formed in 1998, whereas the Russian Department of Tourism was created in 2000, with a transfer of functions from the Sports and Tourism Ministry to the Economic Development and Trade Ministry.

"Three years ago, after the economic crisis, the Russian government saw that tourism could contribute to the Russian economy," said Yerzhina Mintssava, deputy chief of the strategic planning department of the Russian Department of Tourism. "That's why tourism was transferred from the social sphere to the economic sphere."

And there is certainly a need for the service. The organization's web site, www.moscow-city.ru, gets more than 4,500 hits a day.

The center plans to offer online hotel booking, an emergency hotline and multilingual information services, said Alexander Kolesnikov, general director of the Tourist Information Center.

An information center for the Krasnodar region opened in May. The region hosted nearly 5 million visitors in 2002, according to Irina Tyurina, spokeswoman for the Russian Union of the Travel Industry.

"This is a huge step for Russia, which was lagging behind many other countries in this area," said Tyurina, adding that information centers first began opening in Russia two years ago, in Murmansk, Novgorod and Pskov.

The new focus on domestic tourism has generated better connections and a more funds. The 2003 budget for the Russian Department of Tourism is $3 million, enabling the organization to fund a Russian stand at international travel fairs as well as publish guidebooks, maps and hotel guides -- a total of more than 270,000 copies in seven languages have been handed out in the past three years.

"That may not be much for countries with well-developed tourism industries, but for Russia this is a huge step forward," Tyurina said. "Three years ago, there wasn't any printed material. We didn't have anything to show people."

One of the committee's glossier publications, Moscow Today & Tomorrow, is published monthly, but with a print run of just 5,000 copies. The organization has also produced a promotional film about the city center; a walking-tour guidebook printed in English, French and German; a quarterly cultural guide; a hotel guide; a calendar of events; and a road guide of the Golden Ring in English for tourists brave enough to drive into the provinces.

The tourism industry is growing at a rate of 7 percent to 10 percent per year, according to Mintssava. She said tourists spend an average of $1,000 on a trip to Russia, which amounts to about 1 percent of GNP. Most tourists travel from Finland, Germany, Poland, China, France, Mongolia, the United States, Italy and Britain. Foreign tourists visiting Moscow in 2002 totaled 2,259,000, up from 1,713,000 the year before, said Grigory Antyufeyev, chairman of City Hall's tourism committee.

"In 1989, 5 million foreign tourists came to Moscow, so we're actually returning to what we had before," said Antyufeyev, whose committee has a budget of 269 million rubles ($8.78 million).

Growth in the tourism industry is hampered by several factors, including the visa application process, the dearth of hotels and tourism infrastructure and the image of Russia in the West.

Mintssava's department spearheaded an ill-fated attempt to issue 72-hour transit visas at the Russian border. Airlines could not sell tickets if the customer did not already have a visa to Russia, so the project never took off. Mintssava would also like tourist visas to be issued free of charge to applicants from Schengen countries.

"This is a very difficult problem to solve because Russian consulates abroad live off the money they collect from visas," Tyurina said.

Even before tourists can reach the visa process, some 30 percent to 50 percent of applications to tour groups are turned down each year due to a lack of hotel rooms, Tyurina said.

"Because the majority of tourists go to St. Petersburg, Moscow and the Golden Ring, there is a catastrophic lack of hotels," she said.

The image of Russia in the West has been steadily improving due to a mix of economic and political stability, advertising and, Tyurina said, the effects of international terrorism.

"This image of Russia as a dangerous country no longer exists, especially after the events of Sept. 11, 2001. And in light of what is happening around the world, Russia seems to be one of the safest places for travel."