For the first quarter of 2012 airports of Moscow recorded almost
1.1 million of international arrivals, which is 21% more than for the same
period of the previous year. The head of Moscow City Committee for Tourism and
Hotel Industry, Sergey Shpilko called this growth unprecedented. According to
him, the number of hotel guests is growing.
“We came to the highest rate for the last ten
years. Of course, these are still modest numbers, but we need to get started.
It was important for us to get over the negative dynamics, and we did it within
the last year and the beginning of this year”, - he stressed.
According to the Head of the Committee, the
number of tourists accommodated in hotels is more important indicator for the
city than the number of arrivals. Last year it grew by almost 600 thousand.
Another important indicator is the number of nights spent in the hotel; in 2011
it reached 12.6 million. “The numbers were higher only in 2000, but only by
0.7%. There was stagnation with small fluctuations from 2000 to 2008, and in
2009 this indicator just fall to the ground. It took us 12 years to get back to
the rates of 2000. In
2011 the amount of overnights increased by one million if compared with 2010, and
these are the numbers of Russian Statistics Department which we believe are
understated”, - explained Mr. Shpilko.
He noted that the cost of accommodation in Moscow hotels, which has
dropped after the crisis, still remains rather low, as new accommodation
objects are constantly brought into operation and the competition between
hotels is growing. “The tourist flow to Moscow
is growing, but the competition between hotels is growing even faster”, - noted
Sergey Shpilko.
Now, according to the data of the Committee,
prices in Moscow
hotels are about 10% less than in 2010, and the prices have increased only by
3% during the first quarter of 2012 if compared with 2011. For today, the average
cost of a room in 2-3* Moscow hotel is 2.66
thousand rubles, which refutes the myth of expensive hotels in Moscow, - thinks Mr. Shpilko. “In summer
expensive 4-5* hotels will once again offer profitable group rates which are
5-10 euro more expensive than rooms in 3* hotels. So those tourists, who
couldn’t afford it within usual terms, now will have a chance to get
accommodated there. In July-August 2011 the prices for hotels went down by
30-40%. Summer is the time to come to Moscow”,
- stressed Sergey Shpilko.
In 2011 Moscow
recorded 4.47 million foreign arrivals. The number of hotel guests amounted to
4.7 million (1.6 million of which were foreigners).
