Визы, РСТ, Россия, Заграница, Транспорт, Туризм и закон, RTN Tech, Туристам
Главные новости

Moscow-bound tourist flow from Asia grows faster than from Europe

16:59, 29 февраля 2012

In 2011 the number of international arrivals to Russia’s capital reached 4.47 million people, adding 12% to 2010 results. This data, based on the Federal Border Guard Service’s records, was recently presented by the Moscow City Committee for Tourism and Hotel Industry.

 

Even though the year 2010 also showed an increase of 8% in the number of arrivals to Moscow, it was just the backtracking to the starting position after the tourist flow had fallen by almost 10% in 2009. Now we can speak of the actual growth. At that, According to Director General of Reiseburo Welt Company Mr. Konstantin Radoushkevich, the vitalization of the tourist flow falls on leisure travellers and not business ones, which the city has never lacked. The statistics also recorded some changes in the distribution of the tourist flow. The share of foreign visitors who specified their purpose of travel as tourism amounted to 38.4%, 40% fell on business travellers and 14.6 went to private visits. For comparison, in 2010 tourists gained 36.8%, business travellers – 41% and private – 15.2%.

 

Half of the tourist flow, the committee reports, came from far abroad. Most tourists arrived from Germany (308.1 thousand), China (182.1), France (135.6), USA (134.5) and Italy (121.5). The top 10 also includes Turkey, UK, Israel, Spain and the Netherlands.

 

That said, out of top five, the highest growth of the tourist flow (34.8%) was shown by China (34.8%) followed by Italy with 10.7%, then goes France (8.1%), USA (6.2%) and Germany (4.3%). While the tour operators don’t have any doubts about the Chinese figures, some of them are not ready to confirm the growth of the tourist flow from Europe. “At our company we have a decent traffic of European tourists, but we can hardly speak of any growth. This market is frankly stagnating - notes the vice president of Intourist Mr. Nikolay Kakora – Europe is going through the recession, so tours to Russia that have never been cheap, is the last thing on people’s minds now. Director General of Academservice Company Mr. Leonid Isakovich agrees with his colleague: European destination is quite dull so far. If any share of Moscow’s guests has been growing, it is business travellers as the number of the city’s international conferences, sport and entertainment events has been increased significantly” – he explained.

 

To Konstantin Radoushkevich the overall growth rate of 12% seems to be close to reality: “We record similar figures at our company. But according to our data, the increase falls not on Europe, but on China, Japan or, for example Iran, from where we have been welcoming more and more tourists over the previous year. Iran is a very perspective inbound destination, especially considering its population of 100 million people. We hardly have any promotion there, but the Iranians are interested in our culture anyway, they gather information and come to Russia to enjoy the sights”.

 

According to Director General of TourDepot Company Mr. Alexey Zhegalov, in 2011 the tourist flow from Japan became significantly more active. “Japanese economy is in crisis, the inflation is growing, but as the local currency grows stronger, travelling abroad is becoming more and more profitable for the Japanese. Thus, despite the country’s 2011 disaster and serious financial issues, we record the increase in the number of tourists from Japan”.

 

However the most impressing performance was shown by China. According to Nikolay Kakora, not only this market pleases with its quantity, but with quality as well. “If earlier the Chinese were mostly interested in the Mausoleum, today we receive more tourists prompting for cultural activities. They want informative guided tours, museums. Apart from Moscow and Saint Petersburg they express interest towards the Golden Ring and river cruises” – told Mr. Kakora.

 

Right now the inbound flow of tourists from China exceeds that from some European countries. We still receive few visitors from other South-East Asian countries: Japan (47.2 thousand), Vietnam (46.3), South Korea (37.1) and India (35.3).

 

As for the total volume of sales of tourist services, in 2011 it grew by 12.5% to 20.6 billion roubles (~$712 million).

 

In 2011 the occupancy rate of Moscow’s 2-3-star hotels increased by 10% and reached 60% - reports Hotels Information Exchange System. The occupancy rate of business-class accommodation added 2.2% to the total of 64.4%. According to Director General of Baltchug PLC Mr. Alexander Bobylyov, the year in 2011 the city’s high-class hotels experienced positive dynamics for the first time. “2008 was the best one over the last time. 2009 and 2011 proved to be recessive in point of fact and in 2011 the figures finally started to become better”.

Обсудить в telegram

вам может быть интересно