Tatarstan’s hospitality industry attracts 100bn rubles and 4.4m tourists

Photo: Михаил Захаров

Laurels of 2024

The most obvious task of 2024 for the tourism industry of Tatarstan was the holding of BRICS Summit, Chairman of the State Committee for Tourism of the Republic Sergey Ivanov began his report. More than 25 billion rubles were invested in infrastructure development from the federal and regional budgets — everything went to roads, construction of new facilities, repairs, landscaping, and more. The summit made the past year “historic” for Tatarstan.

“Today Tatarstan demonstrates not only quantitative, but also qualitative growth in the level of the tourist product. Last year, the republic once again confirmed its right and opportunity to host events of the highest level. To be honest, not all regions can boast of such a high level of hospitality infrastructure today. The fact that the key BRICS event was held at a really high and high-quality level last year is a great merit," Dmitry Vakhrukov, the deputy minister of economic development of Russia, commented on the results.

The second task was to implement the activities of the national project “Tourism and the Hospitality Industry," Ivanov continued. It lasted four years and finished last year. And only in the last year of implementation, 306.4 million rubles were invested in the project from the federal and regional budgets. The chairman of the State Committee told why the funds were raised:

• creation of modular non-capital accommodation facilities — 170 million rubles over two years and 11 new glamping facilities for 129 rooms;

• development of tourism infrastructure (81 facilities) and organisation of events, subsidy — 156 million rubles;

• Human resources Development Centre — 94 million rubles and four new training programmes.

The third task is to promote the tourism potential. According to the committee's forecasts, by the end of 2024, the tourist flow to Tatarstan will reach 4.4 million people, an increase of 5%. It is expected that the volume of services in the sphere will exceed the mark of 100 billion rubles — in 11 months of 2024 it reached 97.6 billion rubles.

“We are very close to the value of 5 million tourists, which we only dreamed of 10 years ago. Given the rich tourism potential of our republic, today we must set ourselves a target of 10 million tourists by 2030," Ivanov outlined the plans. “We are used to that Tatarstan has been at the top of all possible tourist ratings in recent years, but in order to reach the figure of 5, 7 or 10 million, we still need to do a lot. The flow will not increase by itself.”

There are also problems

Despite the high assessment of the results, there are some difficulties in Tatarstan. The chairman of the Tourism Committee devoted the next part of his report to them. Surprisingly, he called the first problem a slowdown in the growth rate of tourist traffic and the number of people booking hotel rooms. There are several reasons for this.

• High prices for hotels: “Kazan remains one of the most expensive cities in Russia for travel. The average cost of a room in the city in the three— to four-star segment last year was almost 9 thousand rubles! It increased by 27% compared to 2023. It is more expensive than ours only in Moscow, and in the summer season — in Kaliningrad and Sochi.”

• Booking apartments instead of hotel rooms is due to the first problem: “Due to the high prices in hotels, tourists book apartments for accommodation. More than half of all bookings are for private apartments, and this number continues to grow. I urge hotel managers to turn to tour operators this year and work more actively on room blocks so that the workload does not decrease by the end of the year.”

• High ticket prices: “This New Year's weekend, the cost of a train ticket from Moscow to Kazan reached 10-12 thousand rubles per compartment. Thus, the average cost of a trip as part of a tour group to Kazan is at least 40-50 thousand rubles per person for three nights, including travel and meals. For a family, it comes out from 100 to 200 thousand, and some spend even more.”

• Insufficient number of newsworthy events: “Tatarstan has many attractions, cultural institutions, and restaurants. But tourists are also interested in attending newsworthy events. The most worthy of them often become a reason to come to the region. There are not enough events in the republic that would attract not only local residents, but also guests from other regions.”

The second global problem, voiced by Ivanov, has been plaguing the tourism sector for several years — it is the shortage of personnel. Today, more than 1,500 students study in the specialty, and more than 400 people graduate annually. However, as a result, less than half of them enter the specialised labour market.

“Not all employers understand that students are the most valuable resource today. A young specialist is perceived as a “prefix” to the service. We need to understand that the generation that studies at universities today is different. We need to work with them individually, pay attention to them. When they come to internship, it is necessary to make students fall in love with the profession! More than half of them are young people from other regions. It is important to keep them in the republic and the industry. I believe that all our universities and large employers need to build this work," the speaker said.

Let's move on to the plans

It is necessary to increase the number of tourists staying in hotels by one and a half times by 2030. Accordingly, it is necessary to increase the number of hotels, Ivanov went over to the plans. Currently, there are about 27,000 rooms in Tatarstan.

“The second task is to attract foreign tourists. A historic event was the opening of a direct flight from Shanghai to Kazan. Our tour operators need to actively enter the Chinese market using this flight. The tourist flow from Islamic countries is also growing. Tatarstan has a Halal Certification Centre. Together with them, it is necessary to develop and implement clear standards for working with guests from Islamic countries," the speaker continued.

The development of the republic's districts is also planned. At the moment, a large tourist flow is observed in Yelabuga and Tetyushsky district — “several times more than the local population”. In addition, Chistopol has potential, where a new riverport will be launched this year.

“We need to continue developing ecotourism. Now the Volga Trail is overgrown with infrastructure, but the potential for the development of this area is still very large," the expert mentioned casually.

Rifkat Minnikhanov, the president of the Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, outlined another task for the future: it is necessary to promote scientific tourism in the republic:

“Tatarstan holds a leading position in the country in terms of the number of popular science tourism facilities, but there are not enough existing routes. And this is one of the indicators of the scientific and technological development of the region. At the same time, it is necessary to bring existing routes in line with the new federal GOST. Let me remind you that the republic has developed a programme for the development of popular science tourism until 2035.”

Thus, there are 71 facilities and five routes of popular science tourism in Tatarstan.

“Popular science tourism is a tool that allows us to bring complex scientific ideas to a wide audience. Tourism in this context performs two key functions. Firstly, it promotes the dissemination of scientific knowledge and achievements through accessible interesting formats such as excursions, exhibitions, lectures, and master classes. Secondly, it serves as a team to popularise science among young people, motivating young people to choose scientific and technical professions," said Minnikhanov.