Buryatian Sagaalgan: business in a fairytale setting

During February 22-25, Buryatia will be holding the fifth annual multiregional ethnic event called “Magic Sagaalgan”, which is also a name of a national holiday – lunar New Year. For the first time the Buryatian Santa Clause – The White Elder Sagaan Ubgen – will meet with his Japanese “brother” – Yamamoto.

The Sagaalgan of today was created by Andrey Izmaylov, commercial director of a tour company called Sputnik-Buryatia. The project received much help, including funding from the republican government. Each year a round sum goes to organizing this event. The objective of this project is to promote Buryatia’s tourist resources and to show what the region has to offer in winter.

“All tour operators want to smooth out the seasonality, - explains Andrey Izmaylov to RATA?news. – Our peak time is summer. The project is aimed at development of event and all-season tourism. We’re inviting fairytale characters from different regions of Russia. This year, we’re receiving the Tuvinian Santa Claus along with tour operators from Tuva, who will learn how to create a similar product for themselves. During the festivities we have all kinds of round?tables and meetings; we’re establishing business contacts, even with Santas”.

According to Andrey’s observations, more and more people visit Baikal during winter. “I can’t claim that it’s all thanks to the Sagaalgan. But we see our tourist base getting more reservations during the low season. And our brand is becoming popular – The White Elder is invited to different events, for instance to Veliky Ustyug for the fairytale character parade. That is another way of expanding our territory and making new business contacts”, - said Mr. Izmaylov.

The tour operator’s opinion is backed by official government data. According to Vyacheslav Dmitriev, Head of the Marketing and Promotion Department at the Republican Agency of Tourism, in the past, winter tours were amounting to only 14% of the whole tourist flow, now that figure rose up to 20%. “The tourist flow grows every year, and Sagaalgan plays its part in this, - thinks Mr. Dmitriev. – More people and tour operators join the project, and eventually more tourists are interested. The hotels are selling more rooms every winter”. According to Vyacheslav Dmitriev, Sagaalgan is visited by guests from Irkutsk and Zabaikalie regions. “This year we’re taking in kids groups from Chita,- added Andrey Izmailov. – Probably other operators will have similar offers”.

Both spokesmen noted that the project should also intensify interregional tourism. “The main event is carried out in Ulan-Ude, and people come from all around the republic. They order tourist buses, book hotels, buy sightseeing trips and visit museums”, - said Vyacheslav Dmitriev in an interview to RATA-news.

Andrey Izmaylov thinks that children should be the main audience for the event. “A fairytale festival is a theme that is great for promoting youth tourism. Sagaalgan gathers people from far away towns and villages of our region as well as people from other parts of the country. And these kids are future tourists. If they like it here, they’ll visit when they get older”. A two-day kid’s tour to Sagaalgan will cost about 2.5 thousand roubles (about $75).

Japan has its own interest in the meeting of Santa Clauses. “For now there’s little hope in increase of the European tourist flow, but Asia, on the other hand, is a very big and perspective market. And we should take that into account, - explains Andrey Izmaylov. –Our geographical positioning suits the business just right”.