Sergey Ivanov: ‘We need a letter from Federal Agency for Tourism on lifting Turkey tourism ban’
Tatarstan plans to attract tourists from Khakassia and establish air travel with Tyva
Last week a delegation of Tatarstan headed by President Rustam Minnikhanov visited two republics with rich natural resources and national culture but falling behind concerning their economic development. Increased commodity turnover, exchange of cultural experience and development of tour destinations can be a result of the visit to the regions. Moreover, as the chairman of the Committee for Tourism of Tatarstan told Realnoe Vremya, domestic destinations won't fail this summer as a result of the opening of Turkey. However, very tourists will be responsible for their decision after the official opening of the all-inclusive country.
Increase commercial turnover
Last week a delegation of Tatarstan headed by President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov went on business trip to the Republics of Khakassia and Tyva. At a briefing dedicated to these two trips, journalists were told that there was signed an agreement on commercial, economical, scientific and cultural cooperation between Khakassia and Tatarstan on 30 June. The analogous agreement was signed with Tyva on 1 July.
Almaz Khusainov, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of Tatarstan, paid attention to the small commercial turnover between Tatarstan and the two regions. According to last year's results, the commercial turnover of Tatarstan with Khakassia was 107m rubles per year and 7m rubles per year with Tyva.
'During the trip, President set a task to increase the commercial turnover,' Khusainov told. Consequently, it is planned to organise cooperative missions of business communities of Khakassia and Tyva in Tatarstan and vice versa.
GRP of Tyva is 41bn rubles – it is about 2% of GRP of Tatarstan. The speaker noted the absence of railway is a deterrent to the development of the region. 'The government of the republic is working on the construction of railroad until Abakan connecting the Trans-Siberian Railway and directly till borders with Mongolia.' Khusainov told supply of machinery (KAMAZ, Helicopter Factory), increase of the commercial turnover among consumer goods – synthetic detergents (NEFIS), medicine, pharmaceutics, food industry are prospective directions for cooperation. There will be created a working group to go into these issues.
Eye-catching Gladenkaya
In Abakan, the delegation visited the 6 th International Cultural and Tourist Forum called Siber Il. At the end of the visit to the republic, Minnikhanov charged with the annual participation in this forum and study of ethnic and art crafts. Speaking about the visit, Minister of Culture of Tatarstan Ayrat Sibagatullin stressed the name of the platform where the forum took place. It turned out the sports hotel is called Gladenkaya (smooth). 'We asked them why it is called Gladenkaya?' They say there are mountains around but this place is on the plain this is why it is called so,' the Minister told.
According to Sibagatullin, in Tyva, Minnikhanov set a task to study the experience of the use of public space on the riverbank of Yenisey and boost links with the Tatar community and consider a possibility to organise the 2017 Sabantuy in Tyva.
Moreover, Tatarstan is to establish the cooperation between artistic collectives in both republics.
'We are interested in the Khakass people as tourists'
According to the chairman of the Committee for Tourism of Tatarstan Sergey Ivanov, the density of population in Khakassia is 6 times less than Tatarstan. 'In tourism, it creates unique possibilities. It has an amazing nature, huge nature reserves. Particularly the Khakassia State Nature Reserve occupies 267,000 ha: for example, our Volga-Kama Nature Reserve occupies 10,000 ha.
'Undoubtedly, it additionally has archaeological monuments like famous petroglyphs that date back 3-2,000 BC, engravings that can be found only here in Russia. First of all, it is interesting for tourism, of course,' Ivanov told.
The speaker noted the experience of Khakassia concerning the creation and protection of nature reserves will be studied. The chairman of the committee is convinced the Sayano–Shushenskaya Dam will also become a point of interest for tourists. Tatarstan, in turn, is also interested in the Khakass people as tourists.
'I'm not only orienting to the promotion of the Khakass resources in Tatarstan. First of all, we are interested in the Khakass people as tourists. Indeed it is not a poor region, though it has a small population. Nevertheless, 550,000 people live there, and they are very interested in the European part of Russia because it is almost the centre. This is why we want to attract the Khakass people to Tatarstan,' Ivanov told. Tatarstan is ready to offer different types of holiday: cruise on the river, health resorts and local sightseeing tours.
President's task to work on the launch of direct flights between the regions was the result of the trip to Tyva. 'There was a task to work on the organisation of direct flights between Kyzyl and Kazan because nowadays the logistics enables to get Tyva making two connections,' Ivanov told. As he said, today's logistics is not very comfortable. Additionally, Tyva can be considered as a window to Mongolia and Kyzyl would be an entrance to Russia for the Mongolians. However, it seems we won't have to talk about the launch of direct flights: apart from a necessary analysis of a possible plane load and other nuances, there is an obvious problem – the Kyzyl runway is under repair and needs to be reconstructed.
Besides, President charged with the development of tourism – to organise the Tatarstan business exploratory trips to Tyva and Khakassia and acquaint with tour agencies of these regions.
'Tourists will make a choice'
A correspondent of Realnoe Vremya asked about prospects of such destinations like Khakassia and Tyva taking into account the fact that it is told about a refusal of even coastal tours in Crimea because of the opening of Turkey. In answer to it, Sergey Ivanov told such destinations are aimed at one target group, while Turkey is designed for another. So, the opening of Turkey won't influence active domestic tourism. 'Interest in active routes and active tours is stable: opening or closure of coastal tours don't affect it.
Ivanov commented the opening of Turkey later during a face-to-face talk to the correspondent of Realnoe Vremya.
'I find it difficult to assess the volume of tourists who will visit Turkey this year. Tourists will make their choices based on info messages, etc. We need an official letter from the Federal Agency for Tourism on lifting Turkey tourism ban. Since then a tourist should make a decision, while we will go by regulations issued by our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Federal Agency for Tourism.'
As for the possible reduction in demand for Russian resorts, Ivanov thinks that a part of people who has not decided where to go on holiday yet or already has confirmed tickets will try to reorient to Turkey. But in the latter case, a person will face a number of sanctions. What is more, in his opinion, the majority of the tourists knows where to rest in July and August.
It should be remembered during the first three days after the lifting the ban on the sale of tickets, Turkey became the most popular destination among the Russians judging by the amount of the packages that were sold there. Realnoe Vremya also wrote the number of calls of tourists who asked about Turkey was 10 times higher than the volume of supply in the market. However, at present the price for a tour is 40-50% higher than last year. Tour operators explain it by the absence of the official permission for charter flights. According to the forecasts, tours will cheapen this autumn when the summer buzz weakens.
In answer to a question about the launch of charter flights from Kazan to Turkey, the chairman of the Committee for Tourism told he has no information. As Realnoe Vremya wrote, charter flights were promised to return on 7 July.