Bashkiria aims at 5 million tourists
Such a number of guests in the republic is planned to be achieved by 2035
Chairwoman of the regional State Committee for Tourism Elmira Tukanova made the results of the creation of a development strategy of the sector through 2035 public. During this time, it is planned to improve the quality of tourism services, their competitiveness in the Russian and international markets and increase tourist traffic to 5 million people a year. Specialists of the tourism sector shared opinions on if such indicators can be achieved within this term with Realnoe Vremya.
Tourist clusters and three development stages
The chairwoman of the State Committee for Tourism of the Republic of Bashkortostan thinks that the development of the sector should be focused on separate clusters, which are the points of attraction of tourists to Bashkortostan.
The chairwoman of the State Committee for Tourism of the Republic assumes that as a result of the fulfilment of the strategy, the volume of the tourism industry will rise to 25 billion rubles a year, while the number of people employed in the sphere and the amount of taxes received will double. It is planned to achieve such indicators in three stages, the first of which is due to end in 2024. During this time, it is scheduled to create competitive products, create a united registry of routes and create a chain of visitor centres. At the second stage, through 2030, the republic will deal with the organisation of additional tourist capacities to accommodate tourists and the development of a foreign network of partners to promote brands and products abroad. At the third stage, they will provide hosting large-scale events and entering key markets with tourist products and folk arts and crafts.
It is necessary to develop service
Realnoe Vremya learnt what is necessary first of all to develop tourism in Bashkortostan from experts of the sector. Traveller and geographer Sergey Pishchulov has just recently been to Bashkortostan. In his opinion, citizens of other Russian regions don’t associate Bashkortostan with the Urals, while they, as the traveller thinks, are one of the key attractions of the republic:
Traveller, exponent of tourism in the Urals Oleg Chegodayev also talks about the importance of developing service.
As for the tourist traffic bar of 5 million people a year, Oleg Chegodayev thinks it is too high to achieve within such a short term but he is sure that tourist traffic can and needs to increase.
Blogger Rais Gabitov is convinced that tourism development is not only raising the number of visitors to the region but also possibilities of earning from this.
It is necessary to get down to business, not name numbers
Director of Wind Rose tour agency Nikolay Kochnev believes that tourism in Bashkortostan isn’t in its heyday. The entrepreneur thinks that we shouldn’t be even talking about the supposed tourist traffic in 15 years.
“It is necessary to get down to business, not name numbers. I don’t know what calculation method is used and what the prerequisites are. Seemingly, it was necessary to simply name a beautiful number, this is what I think about it.”
At the same time, Nikolay Kochnev notices the influence of general economic factors on the tourism sphere, due to which many travellers have to save money, while tour operators lose profit.
However, Nikolay Kochnev thinks that there are positive tendencies too. So due to the pandemic and the closure of borders, domestic tourism had a new lease of life:
“I know that tourism started to develop now. COVID-19 lent a helping hand, and there appeared attention to domestic tourism. There has been progress in the last six months, in the last year. Grants are granted now, perhaps grants can help somehow. Campsites should be built, moreover, with public partnership.”
Economic effect from Ufa Marathon is 15 million rubles
Bashkortostan has big potential not only in nature but also in event tourism. Organiser of the Ufa International Marathon Vladislav Litvinchuk is sure of this. From his point of view, the big event can attract guests not only once. If a guest liked everything, he can come back to the city more than one time.
Vladislav Litvinchuk believes if there are more such events and if they become bigger, the number of tourists in Bashkortostan will certainly rise. The number of guests of event tourism can be raised by inviting, increasing the prize money and the route crossing urban sightseeing points.
“Guests can be attracted by an interesting route, which becomes more diverse, by inviting famous athletes, big prize money, attracting the federal press and federal partners. All this will influence the number of people who will come.”
According to Bashkortostan’s State Committee for Tourism, 1,9 million tourists visited the republic in the first six months of 2021. In 2020, 2 million tourists visited the region mainly due to coronavirus restrictions. In pre-COVID-19 2019, tourist traffic was 2,7 million people. A year earlier, it had been 2,5 million people.