Residents of million-plus cities will be offered weekend tours. First in Tula, Nizhny Novgorod and Kaluga, and then throughout the country. Thus, Russia is going to develop domestic tourism

Weekend in Russian

For residents of million-plus cities, a project will be launched to promote weekend recreation, the Federal Tourism Agency said. Due to the trips of Russians to neighboring regions, the department expects to develop domestic tourism.

They called the project Russian Weekends, it starts in September, first in the capital. We start by promoting opportunities in Moscow to spend the weekend in Tula, Nizhny Novgorod and Kaluga and gradually spread the project throughout the country, opening up new regions and routes, Rostourism explained to RG. As a result, the department expects to draw the attention of every Russian to the possibilities of independent travel around the country in the city brake format – this is how this type of tourism is called abroad, and in Russian – weekend tours.

Such tours will be promoted with the help of outdoor advertising, YouTube channels and information resources of partners. For example, the project was supported by Yandex. Then they count on word of mouth.

Travelers love to share their emotions, the Rostourism explains. And you can get them from visiting interesting places, and from events, for example, poetry evenings on the banks of the Volga, and from extreme events. The task of Rostourism is to remove the information vacuum that has formed around tourism in the country and tell people how much interesting and new there is in our country, the department says.

Moscow and the Moscow region advertise themselves well, but already in the Leningrad region there are cities where tourists do not reach, Yuri Shchegolkov, head of the tourist branding laboratory at RGUTIS, tells RG. The Sverdlovsk region works well – it comes up with programs, routes, the expert adds.

But the question is not only about informing tourists, although the initiative of Rostourism deserves support, says Mikhail Maltsev, executive director of the Ural Tourism Association. Russians don't travel much on weekends, not because they don't know where to go. “We have several mini-hotels on each highway, which, although they provide good service, but due to the lack of competition, have a high cost that is unbearable for most citizens. And they do not develop additional tourist services, since no one is forcing them to do so , – explains the interlocutor of RG the essence of the problem on the example of Yekaterinburg – one of the million-plus cities.

At the same time, there are enough attractions in the vicinity of Yekaterinburg within a radius of 70 kilometers, like any other large city. There are historical, mineralogical, folklore, industrial topics of tours. But local tourism is developing poorly due to not the most favorable investment environment, there are no people willing to invest in tourism, the expert notes.

For the proper promotion of tourism, it is also necessary to take into account the motives of Russians who are ready to travel.

Conventionally, citizens can be divided into three main categories, Shchegolkov says. The first is summer residents, they spend their weekends there. It's not easy to get them anywhere else. The second category is motorists. For example, in Moscow their number is already over the top. They buy a car so that it is, they go to work. And then the question arises – where else to go. This is where the presence of a car becomes an incentive for traveling for the weekend, the expert explains. For these people, information and good roads are just important. The third category has neither dachas nor cars, for example, schoolchildren and pensioners. Bus tours are suitable for them, the peak of which falls on May – September. So in this case it is worth connecting tour operators.

However, Rostourism expects to solve problems comprehensively. For example, the possibilities of cooperation with Russian Railways are being discussed.

The task of Rostourism is to stimulate regional administrations to promote their destinations and help them, experts say. Well, if we are talking about a specialized program of financial support to stimulate trips to small towns. Subsidizing businesses to create hotels, cafes, and develop tourist infrastructure along interesting routes would also play a role, experts add.