‘The hotel room capacity isn’t handling the existing tourist traffic’
How tourism will develop in Tatarstan in 2024
Tourist traffic in Tatarstan is growing today, while there is a deficit of infrastructure for the guests. Due to this, an expansion of the room capacity is one of the key challenges the republic faced. It was discussed how to solve this problem, what it is needed to develop the region’s natural potential at On the Other Side of the Volga River: Upcoming Tourism Season in Tatarstan at Kazan Kremlin on 11 March.
Lack of room capacity in Tatarstan
Tatarstan ranks sixth among Russian regions in room capacity giving way to Krasnodar Krai, Moscow, Crimea, Moscow Oblast and Saint Petersburg, said Chairman of the State Committee for Tourism Sergey Ivanov during the discussion. According to him, the room capacity increased thanks to big events the republic had been hosting in the last decades.
Nevertheless, there is a shortage of hotels today. “2022 and 2023 showed that the room capacity didn’t handle the existing tourist traffic,” Ivanov complained. He noted that the existing infrastructure yet cannot meet the demand of even domestic tourists, not to mention foreign guests.
“A lot of effort is put now in the republic, the city to attract new investors to create accommodation facilities. Tourist traffic continues growing, but mainly thanks to accommodation in flats, private apartments,” Ivanov explained.
At the same time, head of the Kazan Kremlin State Historical and Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve said that the shortage of accommodation led to the situation when tourists started to arrive mostly during the low season when it is easier to find a vacant room. This brought to some balance of the load.
English-speaking environment at the record-low level
Head of the Committee for Tourism Development Daria Sannikova thinks that the recent Games of the Future showed that it is important for workers, especially in tourism, to learn foreign languages.
“Now there is an understanding that English is not yet enough for us. It is necessary to expand the language range of our employees hosting gusts. We are actively working the younger generation to make sure they learn not only English but also Spanish, Portugal, Korean, Chinese,” she said.
