Transcript of the start of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: We are at the start of the holiday season. People will be going on holiday this summer in spite of the financial difficulties brought on by the crisis. They'll be going abroad, and people from other countries will be visiting Russia. We know about the problems that Russian tourists often face when travelling abroad. Especially if their travel agencies turn out to not actually exist. What is going to happen this year, how is your Agency preparing for the approaching season?
Anatoly Yarochkin: Total insurance payments last year were 19 million roubles. This year, in spite of the difficult situation following New Year holidays, when the number of people travelling abroad fell by 21%, most major tour operators have done quite well during this difficult time.
There was one unpleasant incident with Avatour in April, but the travel agency had 20 million roubles in two insurance companies. To date 436 people have asked for help with insurance claims. I am certain that 20 million roubles will be enough. In this case no one suffered. But I would also like to note that the fault lay with the Turkish side. The Turkish tour operator that was supposed to be taking these people stopped trading.
I believe the State Duma will soon hear the 3rd reading of the amendments to those parts of Law № 132 related to financial guarantees. I don't know what form it will take when passed. There are various options: 100 million roubles for the tour operators involved in foreign travel, and a sliding scale for minor agencies.
Though I should say that I do not understand what a minor agency is.
Vladimir Putin: Who does undesrtand it?
Anatoly Yarochkin: We are not able to check that business activities correspond with the law. In the case of any breaches, it is the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Protection and Welfare and the Prosecutor's Office that have investigation rights.
Vladimir Putin: Why? Let's consider this problem in more depth. If it affects people's interests, then it should be regulated, how else could it be?
Anatoly Yarochkin: We would like to move to self-regulation, including for major tour operators.
I signed an order on April 30. 636 tour operators were denied permission to carry out this kind of work. The number of tour operators fell by 13% compared with last year, due to the fact that they were not able to offer any guarantees, either with a bank or with an insurance company. That means the market is getting stronger, and it is becoming more transparent. Particularly for those tour operators that do offer bank guarantees, banks do not give the guarantees to the tour operator, if it is not working legally. The bank will only offer the guarantee if the company has been operating for many years with a good turnover, and the bank sees it. That's why we are taking this path, it is essentially the only tool we have at the moment.
But there is one very important aspect. Today we do not know how many travel agencies there are. After all, they are also involved in the market. They receive the money, but from the moment licences have been revoked, we have lost all control. And it is not just us, but also at the local and regional levels. That is why we would like the list of activities which require governmental involvement before trading starts to include these travel agencies. Then we would at least have an idea. We know that there are about 20,000 agencies but we would like to have a more accurate figure. Then we would be able to regulate this matter somehow.
I think that the number of Russians who will travel abroad for tourism and on holidays this year will fall by 25%, as the first quarter of the current year indicates.
But we hope that people will still go on holidays, and that they will holiday at home, in this country. Thus we will see record numbers of Russians who spend their holidays in Russia. Last year it was 30,000,000 people, and we will see this trend continue, in spite of the crisis.
Russian Railways has played a very helpful role. They did not simply lower the cost of summer tickets, something that hasn't been done for many years, but they gave the biggest discounts for trips to the south in autumn. That makes holidays in Sochi and Anapa in September and October very affordable. I think that this approach helps Russians to have better holidays.
Vladimir Putin: It will encourage people to take their holidays in September and October.
Anatoly Yarochkin: Yes.
The leader is of course the Southern Federal District, which is visited by 17 million people out of 30 million. 14 million go to the Krasnodar Territory. As for the other regions, the Altai Republic attracts just under a million, and the Tver Region attracts about 800,000 visitors. These are for the most part individual tourists.
Vladimir Putin: Going to the lakes.
Anatoly Yarochkin: Yes, to the lakes. We have set up a joint working group with the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief since the number of our own, and foreign, citizens who take active holidays increases year on year. Sadly, as a consequence, the number of people who go missing, and who die has also seen an increase. Most people die in the water, when they are swimming, or rafting. Many people from the cities come to the mountains for the first time and don't realise how fast the current is in mountain rivers.
We are working to get all groups that do water sports and mountaineering to register. And also offer them the opportunity to rent beacons if they cannot be bought. We are working on this together with the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief because the most difficult issue here is the inaccessibility of these regions.
Overall I think that the tendency seen in incoming tourists that we had last year (if you include business travel, which is up 15%), unfortunately, will not be retained.
We should, strange as this may sound, in spite of the crisis, seek new points of support. I am not being nostalgic at all, but the Soviet Union had 41 offices abroad, which offered information and advertising for tourism. Today we have none. There are many foreign countries which have their tourism representatives in Moscow. There are in total 39 such offices in Moscow.
Of course this system would need to be developed in the main donor-countries: France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Here is an example: In Spain we carried out an advertising campaign, and the number of tourists from Spain grew by 33% in 2008.
The lack of any permanent advertising about the opportunities Russia offers as a travel destination, how amenable it is for tourism, is, of course, an impediment to us.
And also the fact that we have an advertising budget 30 times lower than, for example, Turkey.
Vladimir Putin: Where does the funding come from for these advertising campaigns?
Anatoly Yarochkin: They have state funding for these advertising campaigns.
Vladimir Putin: It is from the state budget?
Anatoly Yarochkin: Yes, of course. There are state companies. If we take Spain as an example, then it is Tour Espana. It is like Rostourism, the Russian Company for Tourism. They receive budgetary funding and they have offices in 45 countries, if I am not mistaken. They have two offices in Russia. The Government pays for them, and they actively advertise through seminars in cities with populations over 1 million. The tourism representative from the country in question visits each city before the season and holds seminars for tour agents, and distributes brochures.
Today we advertise in eleven languages, and take part in seventeen major international exhibitions; we ourselves organise a major exhibition. We also draw all regions together onto one all-Russia stand, so that they have the opportunity to tell visitors from any country about the opportunities their region offers.
Vladimir Putin: We can think about that, bearing in mind, of course, the input that this sector makes to the Federal Budget.
Anatoly Yarochkin: I can tell you the input to the Federal Budget right now. It is no less than 3.2% if you take it all into account, even the multiplicator effect. I am not here counting the absolute total, but the income from foreigners who come to the Russian Federation and who stay in hotels amounts to 9.6 billion euros alone.
Vladimir Putin: They pay 9.6 billion roubles to private businesses, but I was talking about the proportion of income to the Federal Budget.
Anatoly Yarochkin: In terms of tax revenue?
Vladimir Putin: Exactly.
Anatoly Yarochkin: You know, where we are now is that tourism as a discrete sector was created not long ago. The Central Bank and the Federal Service for State Statistics both listed tourism under the category of "other public paid services to the population", together with dry cleaning and hairdressing, so it has not been possible to get an accurate figure for this alone.
Given that we have 1,200,000 people in direct employment, and when you include related enterprises such as transport, restaurants, right down to the museums people visit, then the figure rises to 2 million people.
And if we are talking about the regulations that affect ferry services, then I think that this is one of the most timely anti-crisis measures that the Government has taken. I can say with confidence that today Morskoi Fasad, the new passenger port, is already ready for work. It admitted a ship on its opening day on September 10, 2008, and this year has agreed to admit 112 cruise ships. That is 260,000 to 270,000 people.
Vladimir Putin: I have signed several documents about foreign citizens and stateless persons who come as tourists to the Russian Federation by ferries. How will this work be organised in practice?
Anatoly Yarochkin: In practice this season will be hit and miss. Of course, St Petersburg, and Kaliningrad to an extent, have the infrastructure required. We will not see a massive increase immediately this season, but by 2010 there will be a clear, noticeable increase. I am more than certain that if about 500,000 people visited St Petersburg by boat, then that figure will double in 2009-2010, no question.
That is good, because the northern capital's ability to welcome cruise liners is growing year on year. Work will be very simple to organise, we are working on this with the major tour operators. We will advertise these opportunities in our tourism media. And in addition, we will rapidly get this information out to our European colleagues, and will hold press conferences. All the necessary advertising material, in paper and electronic form, will have been prepared by autumn, the peak of the exhibition season.
Vladimir Putin: Good.