How to attract tourists. Develop a set of measures to attract foreign tourists to the Russian Federation. What attracts tourists to your city

From Rostourism. In 2014, which is associated with the beginning of the crisis, 42,921 tourist trips abroad were registered among Russian citizens. In 2017 - 39,629.

Yes, there is definitely a downward trend. But 7 or even 8 percent is not a figure that can “kill” the market. People travel, and the TOP 20 for 2017 includes Germany, Israel, Italy - countries with far from the lowest prices.

If so, where are the clients?

Many travel companies emerged in the first decade after the collapse of the USSR. At that time, people who were just facing the collapse of the Iron Curtain simply had to be given a plane ticket and a hotel reservation, and that was it. The man is happy. He got away to see the world and can tell his friends what it’s like abroad.

Time has passed, and now the bulk of potential clients for the tourism business are children of the 80s and 90s. With a different worldview, more free and independent.

They don't want to lie belly up on the beaches of Antalya. Maybe once a year, when you need to take your parents and small child for a walk. And they don’t want to crowd together with dozens of complete strangers around yet another cathedral or monument. They can organize their own vacation via the Internet, without intermediaries.

What do they want? Bright, rich impressions that are difficult to get on your own. Hot air balloon flight over Cappadocia. A walk through the “secret” courtyards of Istanbul. A trip to the "hobbit village" in New Zealand. Participation in a national holiday. They want to realize their dreams and sparkle with beautiful photos on social networks.

Conclusion: the market is changing, and you need to change with it.

Promising niches for the next few years

Now we come to the main thing. You can talk as much as you like about how the world is changing, but where to run? What can be done to attract the current generation of tourists who are hungry for variety and experiences?

First of all, move from standard solutions to unique ones. Develop your own routes, establish relationships with new format tour operators, collaborate with private guides.

And most importantly, treat the tourism business as creativity, and not as a craft. Creativity is in fashion today - in the broadest sense of the word.

Here are some examples of fertile niches:

• Organization of individual tours. People who have money don’t want to travel “like everyone else.” Give them the opportunity to book a tour with you with the most flexible conditions, without standard solutions. Large tour operators such as TUI and PAC are already starting to explore this niche. They organize trips according to individual requests to almost any country in the world, without being tied to ready-made “packages”. There are also small private companies like White Label Travel, which specializes in the premium segment. But this part of the tourism market can still accommodate many companies.
• Organization of thematic tours. Bicycle trips, diving tours, cooking classes - find those areas that interest you and in which you can offer something unusual. It is with this approach that Velovuyki, which organizes cycling trips around Europe, or Safari Tour, which specialize in diving tours and dive safaris, have become popular in their niches. Large tour operators, by the way, also often make such programs - designed not for a wide audience, but for individual thematic segments. This means that the market exists.
• Organization of author's tours. Bloggers have huge readerships, and many of them specialize in the topic of travel. In partnership with them, you can develop unusual programs. For example, one of my favorite projects, Travel Inside, grew out of a purely “blogger” format. They do not have a special thematic niche, they use a different approach - they gather their own warm audience that travels only with them. You can do the same or enter into partnership agreements with popular bloggers and organize tours together.
• Organization of tourist groups in a club format. Accommodation, transportation, entertainment and attractions are the minimum for organized groups. But you can go further and organize parties, communication and other team building elements during your trips. Prominent representatives of this format can be One Life and Mikhail Kozhukhov’s Travel Club. Their clients are not just groups that meet every few days and say goodbye forever. No, they travel with them and with each other for many years.
• Organization of tours around Russia for foreigners. All the same approaches can be used within your own country (unusual, original, thematic tours). Examples include Express to Russia or ExploRussia, as well as foreign companies like Responsibletravel, which organize tours to Russia for foreigners. They focus not only on history and typical walks in the center of Moscow or St. Petersburg, but also on natural attractions, holidays, and national cuisine. The market exists, but is not yet filled with competition, and there is huge scope for new business.

Personal experience

I started working in the tourism business in 2015, in the midst of another crisis. The bulk of clients are from countries of the former Union. At that moment, my husband and I managed to intuitively find the right direction and we founded Time 2 Travel club - a company for organizing individual travel.

What worked well:

• Experience and own example. We travel a lot in Europe and Asia, we constantly write about it on our social networks, and clients trust our advice on choosing attractions and hotels. Moreover, they want us, as people who have seen everything with our own eyes, to advise them on the best options.
• Individual approach. We do not offer ready-made tours, but rather ask what the client would like. Yes, often the choice comes down to one of a dozen popular countries for which we already have preparations. But this is how the client gets involved in the process, begins to plan the trip even before payment, feels that this is his trip, his dream is coming true. And, as a result, he goes with us until the very end, and does not look at how the competitors are doing.
• Honesty. We play openly and tell clients: here is the cost of travel, here is our commission. Oddly enough, they bargain extremely rarely - apparently, they understand that earnings on one trip are not that great, and do not fantasize about huge hidden commissions. We also always tell people honestly what they are paying for, why one option is more or less expensive than another, and what to expect on the spot. This is highly valued and pays off handsomely in the form of positive reviews.

Organizing individual tours was a good decision and we decided to go further. Now we are expanding our business and will soon launch an online project under the same name Time 2 Travel - a search engine that will unite organizers of excursions, tours and tourist entertainment, as well as travelers who are looking for unusual experiences.

Photo: on

This new project grew out of our pain as travel organizers: it is difficult to find quality excursions and entertainment. When clients ask to organize a walk around Istanbul or Paris, the last thing they want is to get a standard “historical information” lasting several hours. I would like to find a person who loves this city, lives it and not only tells and shows, but gives travelers impressions.

Here we can return again to the issue of free niches in the tourism business. Agree, a tour guide is not the rarest profession. But if you don’t work like everyone else, but do something unusual, of truly high quality and from the heart, and not according to standard templates, it will be much easier for you to find your audience and sell them your services at good prices.

A few key words

Free niches are constantly appearing on the market and finding them is not so difficult. What is needed is to monitor how people's preferences change. Yesterday they simply wanted an organization within the framework of “visa, ticket, hotel” - they needed to meet these needs. Today they want entertainment, impressions and beautiful photographs - these new desires need to be satisfied. Tomorrow this will also change and other tourism destinations will begin to gain popularity.

To keep your finger on the pulse, it is useful to regularly read social networks and forums, listen to reviews, and most importantly, ask your audience directly. This should all be part of an ongoing and regular workflow.

Don't be afraid of negative reviews. When a client says something was missing, they are giving you the most valuable free consultation and actually pointing out where they can improve. In the same way, you can monitor your competitors’ reviews and get ideas: what their customers like and what they don’t like.

With this approach, you are unlikely to run out of ideas. Of course, then there will be a lot of work to implement the plan, but this is a topic for another story.

Our country is a huge territory that contains a whole treasury of various riches: natural, architectural, works of art and many others.

For many years (especially during the Iron Curtain period), foreigners perceived our country as snow-covered with large snowdrifts, which lies on the ground all year round, and polar bears walk and roam the Russian streets. However, fortunately, the “Iron Curtain” was lifted, and now a different opinion about Russia has formed in the minds of people from abroad, and according to statistical data, it can be confidently stated that residents of other countries are increasingly showing interest in studying our state every year .

What attracts foreigners to our country?

Firstly, this is an amazing story that is unlike any other. Russian tsars, their dynasties, revolutions, the communist past - all this has left its mark on world history. Foreigners want to see our state with their own eyes, confirming or refuting the existing opinion about it, inspired by the lessons of world history, newspaper or magazine information, and political assessments. Therefore, many foreign tourists strive to visit Russian historical museums.

Secondly, this is our culture, which is considered the great pride of the Russian people. Russian culture has occupied, and will continue to occupy, a worthy place in world culture for a long time. Russian ballet is famous throughout the world. Russian theater is very interesting to foreigners. Russian literature is a separate word. Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Lermontov - every foreigner knows the names of these Russian literary geniuses. What about Russian music?! Incendiary Russian melodies with dancing delight any foreign tourist. What about Russian classical music?! Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Mussorsky, the works of these great composers are known all over the world. This explains the interest of foreign tourists in visiting Russian theaters, concert halls and conservatories, reading rooms of libraries and bookstores, and cultural museums.

Thirdly, these are the traditions of our people. Maslenitsa with hot pancakes, New Year, which is celebrated the first fourteen days from the beginning of the year, Christmas fortune-telling on Christmas Eve, apple and honey spas - all this is typical only for our Russian people, and so unusual for a foreigner. So they come to us from different parts of the world to see what is simply a curiosity for them.

Fourthly, this is Russian cuisine. Siberian dumplings, thick borscht, rich cabbage soup, tender herring under a fur coat, rosy pancakes, soft stretchers and much more - this is what a foreign tourist likes to enjoy upon arriving in Russia. The Russian people love to eat delicious food, which is reflected in their national cuisine. Our food is simple and filling. And every foreigner likes it.

Fifthly, this is a huge territory of our country, every corner of which contains priceless treasures. The Moscow region and St. Petersburg are huge pearl cities of our country. It is in them that the main attractions of our state are concentrated - the Kremlin and Red Square, Palace Square, the Winter Palace, the Peter and Paul Fortress. Also located here are the main museums of the state - the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, the Hermitage, the Tretyakov Gallery and many others. The country's best theaters and concert halls are also located here - the world-famous Bolshoi Theater, the Maly Theater, the Operetta Theater, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, etc.

Sixthly, these are unique natural places that are interesting not only for exploring, but also for a good rest. Lake Baikal with exciting fishing, Caucasian mineral waters with healing mineral water, Sochi with a wonderful beach holiday, Yakutia with sleigh rides in the cold, dog-drawn sleigh rides, cold Murmansk with snow-covered mountains for skiing, Karelia - Russian Lapland with snow-covered skiing taiga, the mountainous Urals are also created for excellent skiing.

All the riches of Russia cannot be counted. Each tourist will need at least one year to make at least one trip to our mother earth, and even then it will not be enough to thoroughly study it. This is what it is, our Russia, our homeland and our pride.

Instructions

The easiest way to attract customers is word of mouth. When you open it, tell your friends about it. Some of those who come will use your services. If the clients are satisfied, they will recommend them to friends, since people have been using the services of the same travel companies for years. In a few years you will form a group of regular customers.

Create groups on social networks and blogs where interesting and profitable offers will be posted. Attract users who are interested in . This can be seen in their interest lists. It is important that someone constantly, almost 24 hours a day, looks at these groups and blogs, responds to comments, gives advice, invites new clients. Analyze their requests, because this can provide food for thought on new ways to attract clients. Some travel agencies offer big discounts. Is it worth becoming one of these companies? Take a different route: inform that you have new interesting routes for sightseeing tours. Clients think that the offers of travel agencies differ mainly in price, and not in content. Prove that this is not so.

Work on the name of the travel agency. Not everyone attaches great importance to naming, but the name works on your image around the clock. Some travel agencies are named too banally. As a rule, this is something with the prefix -tour. If you create a bright, memorable name, this will already give you an advantage.

The attractiveness of a travel agency to clients sometimes depends on its location. It should be convenient to access - both by personal and public transport. If the tour company is located in courtyards, draw arrows on the asphalt or hang signs on nearby houses so that you can be easily seen. This also applies to companies that open in residential areas. Don’t be afraid to locate a travel agency where it has competitors: the specifics of people’s choice of tours are such that they usually visit at least 2-3 companies to decide on the choice of trip. It’s good if your company is surrounded by its own kind.

Instructions

Engage actively with the media: act as an expert or submit your own releases regarding development trends for publication. The published materials will definitely contain a link to your company.

Video on the topic

Sources:

• target audience of the travel agency

The number of travel agencies today is so large that a reasonable question arises: do such companies find a sufficient number of clients? Unfortunately, a large number of travel companies close within the first year of operation. After all, attracting customers is becoming increasingly difficult.

You will need

• - Internet.

Instructions

Create a unique offer that will distinguish you from your competitors. Despite the oversaturation of the tourism services market, you can always find a narrow niche that has not yet been occupied. Event tourism, eco-tourism, trips to championships and superstar concerts - there are a lot of options to attract attention to your services. Of course, it is extremely difficult to invent something fundamentally new in this area. In this case, try to do what everyone else does, but a little differently.

Develop a corporate culture of communication with clients. In this case, we are not talking about basic politeness and impeccable service, which are undoubtedly also important. Consider the technical organization of work with potential consumers of services. This includes promptness of calls, high-quality telephone consultations, speed of selection of tours. Very often, clients are eliminated at the initial stage only because managers make them wait on the line for a long time or do not call back on time. Eliminate such shortcomings.

Increase trust in your company. As a rule, a potential tourist chooses a company that has been operating on the market for a long time. Of course, a newly created travel agency may look suspicious due to the increasing frequency of scandals with numerous fly-by-night companies. If your company has been around for a short time, actively build a positive reputation for it. Use public relations, charity events, topical online forums and blogs.

Develop a customer loyalty program. Every traveler should be 100% satisfied with your service. Try to anticipate all the client’s needs, warn about possible difficulties, remind about the departure date, and upon return, be sure to ask about their impressions. It is in this case that he will tell his friends about you and recommend you as a reliable company.

Helpful advice

Develop a discount program for regular customers. This is especially true for package tours, in which the price is the same in different agencies.

Beginners and professionals in the travel business are constantly looking for new ways to promote their business. They tend to use the Internet, their contacts, and other creative methods. So, what do you need to do to successfully promote a travel agency?

Be clear about your target audience. Have a clear idea of ​​what class of people your travel agency is targeting. Your success will fundamentally depend on this. If, for example, your company is located in a residential area, then your target audience will be families who want to relax on. Use mainly local marketing mechanism, i.e. work with those people who are nearby.

Study thoroughly the work of your closest competitors. Be sure to scout out the work of companies that are located near your office or in the same area. Ask third parties why clients go to this particular agency, what is their advantage over you. After that, work on the shortcomings in your organization and offer better deals to your customers. Be different from others, bring something new.

note

In order for the Russian province to become tourist attractive, full cooperation between the authorities and business and the population is necessary.

This was discussed by the participants of the Interregional Tourism Forum “History of Russia in Small Towns” held in Kostroma.

Today there are about 700 small towns in the country, but only a few can be considered interesting for tourists. The Association of Small Tourist Cities, for example, includes only eight members: Azov, Dmitrov, Elabuga, Kungur, Myshkin, Suzdal, Tobolsk and Uglich. In addition to those mentioned, there are, of course, other tempting “small” points on the Russian map, but in any case these are crumbs in comparison with the total array of opportunities that have not yet been used.

Meanwhile, tourism for the periphery is the most serious, and sometimes the only source of economic development. A representative of the small French town of Provins near Paris, Bruno Baron-Renaud, who participated in the conference, named figures that were absolutely fantastic by Russian standards: this town of 10,000 people receives 700,000 tourists annually. Such a record is still unattainable even for the leaders of domestic provincial tourism.

It is well known what problems prevent the Russian tourism industry from soaring and forcing it to crawl. Probably only the lazy did not talk about the poor development of infrastructure. But along with the lack of normal hotels even in “originally tourist regions,” we have, for example, the problem of lack of standardization of hotel services.

Arriving at each subsequent hotel of a similar star rating, you are not sure whether there will be shampoo and slippers. “Everything is completely unexpected and different every time,” noted Svetlana Razvorotneva, a member of the Commission of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation for regional development and local self-government. A separate problem, in her opinion, is the high cost of transport. Tickets to Baikal or Altai are more expensive here than to London or Rome, which is why tourist flows are redistributed in favor of abroad.

But the main problem that seriously impedes the development of the tourism business in municipalities, according to Svetlana Razvorotneva, is the banal disinterest in this of the heads of municipalities. This is one of the consequences of existing inter-budgetary relations, which have greatly narrowed the revenue base of municipalities, since taxes from business activities almost do not reach local budgets.

Cultural and educational tourism brings little return. The most profitable trips are on vacation

The current inter-budgetary system gives rise to dependency, since more than half of the income of municipalities is generated through assistance from higher budgets, the expert believes. - A persistent stereotype is acquired: the worse you work, the more you get. Accordingly, the incentive to do and develop something ourselves disappears.

We are now preparing a serious package of proposals for the redistribution of powers and financial resources in the structure of interbudgetary relations in such a way that a significant share of the revenue side of local budgets remains local. This is an extremely important task,” said Evgeny Markov, president of the Union of Small Cities of the Russian Federation.

But, even if there is an initiative and the head of a small city is struggling to find creative solutions to attract tourists, he often prefers to implement large projects, forgetting that a small city first of all needs small programs.

The head of one of the municipalities, which has a unique tourism potential, explained to me this way: if he builds a factory or a large hotel enterprise, it will be clear and tangible,” Deputy Head of Rostourism Evgeniy Pisarevsky said at the forum. - And if you develop entrepreneurship, small hotels, folk arts and crafts, agricultural enterprises that supply products for tourists, the financial result will not be noticeable immediately. All this is true. But we must understand that the development of small and medium-sized tourism businesses primarily leads to the social well-being of the region: people will be busy and employed. They will ensure stability in the region. That is, material and intangible indicators must be harmonized with each other.

According to Evgeniy Pisarevsky, it is, of course, necessary to build large hotel complexes, but the advantage of small cities is that citizens living in urban centers come here to enjoy a relaxing holiday in an environmentally friendly and uncluttered space. And these advantages must be emphasized.

However, the pastoral, which is sweet to the eye, especially in its often squalid form today, is in fact very fragile. According to Evgeny Markov, the current processes of concentration of financial and labor resources in several of the country's largest cities can lead to the emptying of the periphery and the outflow of the most promising, energetic and, what is most sad, young personnel who could develop tourism there:

Every effort must be made to prevent the build-up of this colossal process that destabilizes the development of the country - the concentration of resources, globalization, which even threatens the disappearance of the Russian province.

At the same time, small towns themselves must stick together: developing tourism together is much easier and more convenient. Evgeniy Markov is confident that for this purpose it is necessary to form intermunicipal groups of small cities and create transport clusters around them.

Svetlana Razvorotneva also considers weak intermunicipal cooperation to be a hindrance to provincial tourism. According to her, if a town decides to develop as a tourist center, they rarely think about uniting in this endeavor with neighboring municipalities and creating a single program.

And yet, the main thing in the tourist development of the territory, according to the editor-in-chief of the magazine “Territory and Planning” Anna Kurbatova, is a clear understanding of the potential capabilities of the municipality and a clear idea of ​​what they can bring.

When you draw up marketing strategies for your cities, you must clearly understand what category of tourists you are targeting, how much money these people have and what they will spend it on, she advised regional representatives attending the conference. - Because, judging by the presentations we saw, a very average approach is developing in the regions in terms of the hospitality model.

According to the expert, tourism is, first of all, an economy, and if people come to one place or another, but do not spend money there, then the costs borne by the municipal and other budgets practically remain unrecoverable.

Today we are waiting for government investments in cultural and educational tourism, where we receive relatively little return,” says Anna Kurbatova. - Guests spend much more money on holidays (event tourism), but the most profitable type is travel for recreation. And it is in the entertainment and relaxation industry that private funds most willingly go. Therefore, it is necessary to create conditions that encourage investors to invest.

Although a good marketing program, as it turned out, is not a panacea. Solving any one problem out of several inevitably leads to imbalance. An example of this is the Tver city of Vyshny Volochek. Moscow investors and architects were attracted here, large amounts of money were invested, and significant intellectual resources were brought in. As a result, the city received a tourism marketing program, and then even an award at the Venice Architecture Biennale as a city where our historical future is shown based on the Russian context.

But this is a city with a completely degraded urban environment. It does not have any services in terms of recreation, entertainment, or infrastructure. Therefore, starting with communications, the authorities did not achieve results in terms of increasing the economic attractiveness and, in general, the attractiveness of the city as a display object, says Anna Kurbatova.

According to Svetlana Razvorotneva, “one gets the impression that the abundance of monuments in the regions simply turns off the brain” and that our embryonic tourism suffers from targeting a very narrow target audience - “such intelligent ladies of Balzac’s age who know something from history, literature, art and I enjoy seeing churches and museums." Meanwhile, there are practically no offers on the market for children and youth. And where will they come from if most of the small historical towns have an unpresentable appearance. Unfortunately, the restoration and maintenance of their monuments, including federal ones, at the proper level is carried out mainly by the municipalities themselves within the framework of their meager budgets.

Thus, according to the deputy head of the administration of the Uglich district of the Yaroslavl region, Elena Kaneva, there are 167 historical and architectural monuments in Uglich, but over the decade the federal budget invested 17 million rubles in them, the regional budget - a little less, and the local budget and investors - more than 300 million.

And this - despite the obvious underfunding from higher budgets - is a concrete example of the triumph of initiative. You can always achieve success if you have the desire. Why, for example, in the Ryazan city of Kasimov, located on the banks of the Oka, with an architectural ensemble no worse than in Suzdal - as a forum participant put it, “emptiness: no souvenir shops, no restaurants, everything is closed”? And in Yaroslavl Myshkin, on the contrary, every ship is greeted with songs and dances, trying to attract tourists to the city. The federal budget is certainly not to blame for this...

The development of tourism programs in cities and regions cannot be achieved only through the efforts of the authorities, sums up Svetlana Razvorotneva. - For these programs to be implemented and work, full cooperation with the business community is necessary and, of course, the public must be involved in these processes. Where this happens, the tourism industry begins to develop. Where this is not the case, all programs developed by administrations remain a stillborn product.

Nadezhda Makatrova

How to attract tourists and become a tourism brand in Russia

If you want the world to change, become that change.

Mahatma Gandhi

Every obstacle is overcome with perseverance.

Leonardo da Vinci

Preface

How can we attract tourists? How not to get lost among thousands of proposals from other cities and countries? How to convince Russians that you can relax in comfort in Russia, and that a small town far from the Russian capitals is not necessarily a “hole”?

As the practice of recent years shows, these questions can be heard at all conferences, round tables and forums dedicated to the development of tourism in Russia. They are also heard during our conversations with representatives of local and regional administrations from different parts of the country. And these questions concern not only officials, but also heads of travel agencies, owners of hotels and restaurants, directors of museums, sanatoriums and even local residents who rent out their living space to vacationers...

So what to do? “Take an example from Myshkin!” – this dangerous advice is repeated, like a broken record, by various “gurus”. Myshkin is a wonderful city, but, firstly, its strategy is not suitable for everyone (Myshkin has about 6 thousand inhabitants), and secondly, it is pointless to copy the tip of the iceberg without seeing and understanding everything that is hidden from view in thicker than water.

Three or four years ago, participants in tourism exhibitions representing Russian cities and regions said: “All we need is money for advertising, and people will come to us!” Money was allocated, tourists did not come... Today there is a more professional understanding that attracting tourists is not so much advertising, but a whole task system, which need to be addressed at the territorial level. And this book is a story about who should solve these problems and how, what mistakes and pitfalls there may be, what resources can be used in the work and how to place emphasis. And of course, examples of success.

The book “How to attract tourists and become a tourism brand in Russia” is based on an analysis of the experience accumulated in Russia and the CIS, both successful and unsuccessful, as well as the experience of some foreign countries in developing tourism and promoting the territory in the tourism market. In addition, some observations and conclusions made while working on projects of the consulting company “Konkretika” served as material for the book.

This book is methodical, sometimes unpleasant and even offensive, since it tells not only about the opportunities and hidden potential of Russian cities and regions, but also about their typical mistakes and shortcomings. But the main value of the book, in my opinion, is specific practical recommendations that explain WHAT need to be done and HOW do, as well as 420 real-life examples, providing rich soil for your own ideas and solutions.

I hope the book will become your assistant in your work. Have a productive reading!

Nadezhda Makatrova,

Director of the consulting company "Konkretika"

Tourism brand: to be or not to be?

Fate leads those who want to go, and drags those who do not want to go.

Cleanthes, ancient Greek philosopher (IV-111 centuries BC)

In the Soviet Union they had not heard of brands. But at the same time, all citizens of our huge and multinational country firmly knew that:

If you want to go to the sea, then you need to go to the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus or to Crimea. With small children - to Anapa or Evpatoria;

If there are no vouchers to the Black Sea, then to the Azov Sea, to Yeisk;

The intelligentsia preferred the Baltic states;

If you need treatment, the direct route is to the Caucasian Mineral Waters sanatorium;

For lovers of excursions and cultural and historical values ​​- Moscow, Leningrad, the cities of the Golden Ring and, perhaps, Pskov and Novgorod;

Military-patriotic education - Volgograd with its famous Mamayev Kurgan.

All Soviet people also knew about Baikal and Kamchatka, but they didn’t even dream of getting there - the flight was too expensive for a simple Soviet family to afford. Here they are - real tourism brands, created, by the way, with strong support from the state...

Of course, there were many other interesting places and routes in the USSR - “hits” on a regional and regional scale, where excursion groups from schools, universities, enterprises and institutions were constantly sent, but they could not compete with the all-Union “grands”.

25 years have passed since perestroika...

Today, if you look at the MITT or Intourmarket exhibition in Moscow, you can see hundreds, if not thousands, of new tourist sites and routes across the country on stands. One is better than the other, with intriguing descriptions and amazing photographs. It would seem that new times mean new names.

No matter how it is!

Ask an ordinary Russian which cities or resorts in our country he considers the most popular among tourists, and you will most likely receive the same list. True, Crimea and the Baltic states (as foreign countries) will have to be deleted from it, and St. Petersburg will take the place of Leningrad. Allow your interlocutor to include foreign resorts in the list, and Türkiye and Egypt are guaranteed to be in the first place. I'm talking about mass routes. Skiers will usually call it Elbrus, fishermen will call it Astrakhan.

"How so? Why? Russia's tourism potential is not limited to 10–15 popular routes?! We have two orders of magnitude more of them!” – one of the readers will be indignant. The potential may not be limited, but the perception of tourists, according to the laws of marketing, is, alas, not rubber. The law states: the number of bright, memorable images on the market is limited. I recommend that you re-read the highlighted phrase two more times.

It is only at first glance that it seems that it is enough to come up with “something original” and you will be noticed. You can come up with anything you want, but here’s the question:

– Will they remember this (against the background of competitors’ proposals)?

– Will they buy it (by comparing different offers)? And buy not just one season, but at least ten years in a row.

For clarity, I will give two useful analogies.

1. Each class has its own “excellent student,” “low student,” “clown,” “athlete,” and its own “beauty.” And sometimes - your own “outcast” (remember the film “Scarecrow”). It is very problematic to characterize all other children in terms of their role in the class.

2. In the 90s, many different stores and shops opened in Russian cities, but today most of them have “died”, giving way to online players. By the way, in Europe about 80% of goods are sold through chain stores.

What is the conclusion from this in relation to tourism?

In five years, a new pool of tourism brands of all-Russian significance will be formed in Russia. It is clear that Moscow and St. Petersburg will automatically retain their leadership positions due to their exceptional starting opportunities (just as there are three main TV channels in the country and... all the others). Resorts on our warm seas will also be in a privileged position (if there is no sudden climate change). And who else will be included in the list of the strongest remains in question for now...

If the heads of the cities and regions mentioned at the beginning had actively developed during the 25 years of perestroika, and had not relied on the tourist resources accumulated over previous decades, then everyone else would not have been destined to catch up with them in the foreseeable future. However, they remembered the development only 5-7 years ago, thereby giving their neighbors a chance.

The importance of getting into the leader pool is illustrated by the Zipf curve (Zipf)

Picture 1

Zipf distribution (Zipf)

Those cities and regions that find themselves at the tail of this curve may not count on anything serious... Perhaps they don’t need this, and tourism for them is like birch sap in a regular grocery store: they hardly take it, but they have it for assortment .

At the same time, our conversations with representatives of local and regional administrations indicate that in many parts of Russia they take tourism seriously, hoping with its help to give a new impetus to the development of the territory and replenish the budget. For this purpose, short-term and long-term programs are being developed everywhere, new tourism brands are announced, advertising catalogs are printed, exhibitions and presentations are held, journalists are invited, etc.

Why can’t many cities and regions make a breakthrough and significantly increase the tourist flow? What needs to be changed at work? Subsequent chapters of the book will be devoted to a detailed answer to these questions, but here I will only outline the key points.