The Ministry of
transport published on its website a draft law providing a 72-hour visa-free
regime for passengers and crews of sport sailing ships and recreational vessels
arriving in Russia
via sea and river checkpoints. It is about the yachts for not more than 18
people, among them no more than 12 passengers.
For now, visa-free
entry to Russia
is available only for passengers of cruise ships and ferries. Solving the issue
the most active for several years was the Russian Union for Travel Industry,
the North-Western Department in particular, interacting with the administration
of Saint Petersburg,
State Duma and the Russian Federation CCI. As a result passengers of cruise
ships and ferries can now enter eight Russian cities without visas - Vladivostok, Vyborg, Kaliningrad, Korsakov, Nakhodka, Novorossiysk,
Saint Petersburg, and Sochi. The Russian Union of Travel Industry
has consistently advocated the introduction of 72-hour visa-free entrance for
yachtsmen. It will be recalled that the current Minister of transport Maxim
Sokolov is a member of the Union’s Board of
Control.
The aim of the
Ministry of Transport is to consolidate positive results of the visa-free
ferries and cruises practice. Draft law first of all is targeted at tourists.
Therefore, it is assumed that foreign yachts’ passengers will have a visa-free
entry not at all border crossing points, but only in those regions, where the
introduction of such regime is economically justified and will contribute to
the development of the inbound tourism. These border crossing points will be
determined by the government of Russian
Federation.
According to the head
of Department for tourism and regional policy of the Ministry of culture of
Russian Federation Sergey Korneyev, this draft law is a big step forward. «We
absolutely favour the position of the Ministry of transport and we took an
active part in draft legislation. It is too early to speak about any numbers
and the flow of tourists. At this step it doesn’t really matter. What really
matters is that easing visa regime will stimulate the development of water
tourism and the corresponding infrastructure as well. All the more it’s an
extremely active recreation field”, - he explained. Indeed, all over the world
yacht tourism is considered to be more favourable, than, for example, beaches
or sightseeing: yachtsmen, as a rule, are wealthy people, and spend
considerable amount of money on vacations. Scarcely can we speak about a large
number of such tourists, but, however, according to all-Russian federation for
sailing, they receive about five thousand requests from abroad for navigating
inland waterways.
Saint Petersburg’s
experience has already proved the effectiveness of visa-free entry. Since 2009
when State Duma adopted the decree of the 72-hour visa-free stay for foreign
passengers of cruise ships, the cruise flow to the Northern capital, according
to Sergey Korneev, are numbered by hundreds thousands. And what's more
important - old and new ferry lines have been revived. So, in April 2010 the
first regular year-round line St. Petersburg - Helsinki (ferry Princess Maria) was opened, and in 2011
ferry Princess Anastasia started operating on the new route Saint-Petersburg - Stockholm. Within 2011
the two lines transported more than 500 thousand passengers. In 2012 more than
750 thousand people took the advantage of St. Peter Line. Cruises give St. Petersburg more than
80% of tourists. In due season three ferry lines between St.
Petersburg and Finland
were closed because of unprofitability: a lot of foreigners didn’t want to go
through a complicated procedure of issuing Russian visa for a short trip to Saint Petersburg.
In fact, foreign
yachtsmen now are in a similar situation. The rivers and lakes of Russia became
available for them since May 2012. The government has approved the rules for
recreation and sailing sports vessels on inland waterways of Russia. Earlier
similar amendments were adopted to the Code of internal water transport of Russian Federation.
Now ferries can pass through water areas of Central part of Russia, Siberia and the Far
East – but only after vetting and if there’s a Russian speaking
crewmember that can sail a ship. Until recently, private recreation crafts in
inland waterways of Russia
were allowed only by the order of the government, and the crafts obligatorily
had to take a Russian pilot on the board. Now the requirement is gone, and a
very good step has been made in the attraction of foreign yachtsmen to our
rivers and lakes. However, a number of administrative obstacles, including the
visa, detain the wide access of foreign yachts.
One more step to
stimulate the inbound flow to Russia
should become a law allowing foreigners, passing our territory in transit, to
stay in the country up to 72 hours without a visa. The Ministry of culture
works upon the project; according to the Ministry, there are up to 500 thousand
foreigners a year. At the same time the Department works on the project of ten
days visa-free stay in Russia
for football players and foreigners, which will participate in cultural events,
festivals. “There are a lot of such events in the country. About 60 per year
refer to the Ministry of Culture, explained Sergey Korneyev to RATA-news, we’ve
done our job and now the document is being discussed in various echelons, but
yet it’s too early to speak about the terms”.
