Ildar Khalikov: ‘We can say that now Tatarstan has tourism as a full-fledged industry’
At the Russian forum 'Zdravnitsa-2016', that started on 22 May, there was a large-scale discussion of the prospects and problems of the sanitarium-resort complex of Russia. The correspondent of Realnoe Vremya attended the event and learnt the main painful points of the industry and how the ruble devaluation and the closure of Turkish and Egyptian destinations may play into hands of Russian economy. The priority directions of the development of tourism and sanatorium-resort industries, designated by the experts, are also interesting — it is the maximum attraction of foreign visitors and… the development of domestic medical tourism.
'The interest is much higher than at the industrial exhibitions'
Despite the fact that Zdravnitsa started on Sunday morning, the halls and corridors of Korston hotel and entertainment complex were crowed with the forum participants of all kinds — there were officials, representatives of Russian health resorts, the developers of various kinds of equipment (from machinery to diving chambers, to the small saunas).
The forum opening ceremony was held on a large scale: the mere number of welcome speeches sounded in the Ballroom of Korston is amazing — there were nine speakers, including Prime Minister Ildar Khalikov. Also, the President of National Resort Association Aleksander Razumov voiced greetings from the head of the Russian presidential administration Sergey Ivanov, the chairperson of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko and the chairperson of State Duma Sergey Naryshkin. It is noteworthy that after talking to the press, Ildar Khalikov noted the increased interest in the topic of domestic resorts. As the Prime Minister said, 'the interest is much higher than at the industrial exhibitions'.
Speaking of exhibitions: in the framework of the forum, the Russian health resorts, boarding houses, resorts and suppliers of health-recreational equipment had an opportunity to present themselves and their achievements. In total, the site posted more than 60 stands with information about the places of rest and sanitarium-resort treatment in Russia, as well as the latest developments in diagnostic, therapeutic, auxiliary equipment and reflexology.
'I'm pleased with the fact that there is a movement forward and those wishes, which we expressed to the health resorts, are being implemented,' commented on the exhibition Ildar Khalikov. 'First of all, they are starting to cooperate very closely with medical institutions, because for any treatment the rehabilitation period is sometimes even more important than the period spent on a medical bed. We really hope that in the near future we will form common standards of the Ministry of Health and our health resorts. But even more important and nice thing is that we have many visitors not only from Tatarstan but also from other regions.'
Attractive ruble devaluation and the substitution of Turkey and Egypt
The discussion on the sanitarium-resort complex logically led to more global discussion on the development of tourism in Russia and Tatarstan in particular. According to the Prime Minister of Tatarstan, the progress of this industry in the Republic can be called revolutionary — 10 years ago, Kazan was visited by no more than 500 thousand tourists per year, last year this figure grew to 2.3 million.
'According to the results in 2015, we can say that Tatarstan now has tourism as a full-fledged industry. Its share in GDP of the region can easily be increased up to 5-7%,' said Khalikov.
The speaker also noted that one of the main tasks now is to increase the number of foreign tourists, and a great help is the opening of direct flight Frankfurt — Kazan on 17 June.
'The current ruble devaluation — a very favorable period in order to attract foreign tourists. A tourist can get a full tour with flights, hotels, food and visiting tourist sites for 500 euros. Our task is to increase this number, including in sanitarium-resort complex,' concluded the Prime Minister.
The head of the Federal Tourism Agency Oleg Safonov told about the development of tourism industry across the country, especially after the abolition of Turkish and Egyptian destinations.
'If to talk about how tourism is developing in the Russian Federation now, I would like to note that Russia was the most selling tour product during May holidays. It was the first time for, perhaps, 25 years of existence of contemporary Russia. It is the tendency that please us. Tourism finally started to perform the function of the development of our Russian economy. The money, earned in Russia, are finally used within the country,' told the speaker. 'Of course, our citizens have a right to go abroad, but in the competitive struggle we should create the most comfortable conditions in order our citizens could spend a vacation within the country. The sanitarium-resort complex also provides such opportunities.'
Safonov hastened to clarify that the substitution of Turkey or Egypt is out of the question, however, Russia has a huge potential to both Russian and foreign citizens vacation in the Russian Federation. By the way, in 2016 Russia entered the top 10 on being visited by foreign tourists, but the ambitions of the Federal Tourism Agency are higher – to get in the top 3.
Also, Oleg Safonov shared interesting plans — Russia will actively develop the medical tourism. Now the leaders in this industry are Israel, Malaysia and Singapore.
'There is a great potential from the point of view of medical tourism development. It can be developed on the basis of sanitarium-resort complex of the Russian Federation. We started that work together with the Ministry of Health of Russia. We agreed that the Ministry of Health will determine those clinics, technologies, where our country is the leader, where we can offer both our citizens and foreign citizens very good conditions, including, maybe, in treatment price,' summed up Safonov.
Absent chain of command and modern approach to the clients
A member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor Aleksander Razumov spoke in his report on the main problems of the sanitarium-resort industry. According to the speaker, the development of this direction takes the fifth place in the importance in the development strategy of the healthcare in the Russian Federation, and the efficiency of the complex has long been proved, however, the problems have not been lessened in this field yet.
'The problems do really exist. First of all, it is needed a clear state policy in the field of sanitarium-resort complex, its functioning. In fact, there is no chain of command. It is needed to create a separate federal service under the Russian government,' said Razumov. 'In the current situation the territorial resort administrations are topical – the analogues of zonal administrations existed during the Soviet Union. Also, it is needed to do scientific research which would allow creating new methods of rehabilitation and would prove the efficiency of existing ones.'
According to Razumov, in order to improve the situation of the industry, they should complement the registry of the sanitarium-resort complex, which is currently being created by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, with useful information — to extend the characteristics of the health resorts and resorts, to disclose the information about the sources of financing of the objects. And one of the main requirements is the transition to modern practices of working with clients.