Despite the difficult situation of recent years – crisis phenomena, weather conditions – the resorts of Krasnodar Krai demonstrate stable growth and development. As of April 15, our tourist flow was 1.75 million tourists. Over the past three years, there has also been stable growth from year to year. 2016 showed another record – 15.8 million tourists. 2017 was difficult in terms of competition, in terms of climatic conditions, but at the same time it also had positive dynamics – 16 million tourists.

This year, we are also taking a systematic approach, together with the business community, to ensure growth both quantitatively and, to a greater extent, qualitatively and an increase in the average bill. Capacity is also growing steadily. During the period of maximum deployment in the season, we have more than 400,000 beds, but we can increase this to 500,000 if necessary.

Our investment dynamics are also very positive. In recent years, the accumulated volume of investments is about 170 billion rubles. Today, we have 25 investment agreements in progress for a total of about 18 billion rubles. Taxes are also showing stable growth: positive dynamics - 7 billion rubles. In fact, this is an 8% increase. The share of the industry in the GRP is about 5.5%, if we calculate it as it is officially calculated. And if we take into account the multiplier effect, the health resort complex forms from 30 to 70% of the contribution to other industries and somewhere around 12-17%, according to various estimates, of the gross product.

Limitations of growth

Here we agree with Crimea. Our air and rail transportation have a very significant impact on the competitiveness and final cost of the tourism product, despite all the measures we take to reduce the cost and improve the quality. Now we are actively stimulating the development of interregional transportation, not through Moscow. There is a positive trend, but we would like more.

We are in constant contact with our base operator, Basel, and are working on joint marketing programs to attract carriers, but the work is also not easy. We have UTair , Ural Airlines , and S7 operating on interregional routes, and we are thinking about several more routes this year.

Priorities and development mechanisms

Of course, it is a year-round vacation, it is a year-round workload. And here too there are already certain results, even over the last 2-3 years.

And, of course, we are actively working on event saturation – and business event tourism is also actively growing here.

We are also developing active types of tourism at a qualitatively new level, we are now structuring this work. Agricultural tourism has made a powerful leap in recent years: there are already more than 100 objects, and 5-7 years ago there were about a dozen objects. Moreover, the level of the objects is often not lower than the European one, and some are even higher in a number of parameters.

Government support

One of the issues that was raised during the round table was state support: federal, regional and its effectiveness. Here, the development of engineering infrastructure is very important for us. This includes the quality of sea water, the level of water supply, uninterrupted electricity, and much more. The federal target program has shown that this is a truly powerful resource, because regional budgets cannot pull out the full volume.

In addition to grants, subventions, and a support center for entrepreneurs, this year we are launching a loan at a preferential rate for entrepreneurs from the health resort complex and tourism - it will be slightly less than 7%. We are opening an event directorate - this is an organizational tool that forms an event calendar and provides assistance in organizing events of any format that are aimed at promoting resorts and attracting tourist flow.

Consolidation of efforts

What we see as development is the unconditional consolidation of efforts with the Republic of Crimea, the formation and promotion of the Black Sea cluster, and we also have joint plans for the Azov coast. We have an identity with the Republic of Crimea, there are differences.

Moderator's question

What is the budget of the Ministry of Tourism of the Krasnodar Region for promoting itself in the Russian Federation in the media in terms of event tourism?

Christophor Konstantinidi: There is a figure – about 15 million rubles per year. But the most important and fundamental thing we do is not done with budget money. There are very effective organizational mechanisms that we have found for ourselves. In order to conduct a campaign in federal media, you need budgets of 200-300 million rubles and more. Of course, these are unaffordable amounts for most regions. We have very effectively organized work with federal media, we create precedent events, and people come to us for free.

But we are definitely stronger together, we are more interesting for tourists, we are more interesting for business. Our surveys and monitoring confirm that tourists are interested in spending four days in Crimea, four days in Krasnodar Krai. Accordingly, a unified positioning of resorts in the South of Russia, the Black Sea cluster is necessary.

In addition, this year we are planning to organize a single information space so that tourists are informed about what is in the region, what is in the republic.

And a very important aspect: we are planning to launch a comprehensive, large tourist route under the patronage of the Federal Tourism Agency together with the Republic of Crimea and the Rostov Region by this year. It will be called "The Golden Ring of the Bosporan Kingdom" - this is ancient history, ancient monuments. We have all this, but tourists will learn about it only by a residual sign, already coming to us or colleagues - that there are magnificent museums in Gorgippia, Phanagoria. We will prepare a full description, form a comprehensive product and begin promoting it through key partners.

The interregional project "Liner Prince Vladimir" has already been formed, which will be the marine component. And we will also work out the automobile component now using buses and personal cars.

The text was prepared based on the speech at the IV Yalta International Economic Forum, held by the Vedomosti newspaper on April 19, 2018 in Yalta. All positions are indicated as of the time of the conference

"We are definitely more interesting together"