About 1.2 million tourists visited the Samara region last year, which is 13.4% more than a year earlier. Experts attribute the growing tourist popularity of the region not only to the World football Cup held in Samara, but also to the development of the corresponding infrastructure. In their opinion, with the proper promotion of the Samara region the volume of tourist traffic to the region by 2025 can grow to 2.3 million people.

Champion result

According to the Ministry of culture of the region, 1.2 million tourists visited the Samara region in 2018, which is 13.4% more than in 2017. The agency states that the volume of tourism services in the region grew by 16%, of hotel services and specialized accommodation facilities - by more than 100%.

Experts attribute the increase in tourist flow to the holding of the World football Cup in Samara, but note that such interest to the region would not have been possible without creating the necessary infrastructure. “Football is an informational occasion to visit the city. But tourists would not have appeared if the city and the region had not prepared the appropriate infrastructure: airport, hotels, embankment, facades, fan zone and the pedestrian zone on Kuibyshev street. The list is not very long, but decent enough compared to what has been done over the past 30-40 years”, explains Mikhail Segal, commercial director of Samaraintur. Managing partner of the Veta expert group Ilya Zharsky highly appreciates tourism potential of the Samara region: “The presence of natural, historical, and cultural attractions, coupled with the fairly modern transport infrastructure created in preparation for the 2018 World Cup games, create the prerequisites for further growth in tourist flow, both at the expense of the Russians and at the expense of foreign citizens”.

Bet on business

Mikhail Segal believes that Samara needs to pay attention to the development of business tourism: “We need to develop business and business tourism. If we compare our city with Kazan, then Samara is in the most advantageous position for transport logistics. We have both a river and a railway. We live in the center part of Volga, 22 million people live around us”. The expert recalls that the government of the Samara region has already concluded an agreement with the National congress bureau on cooperation in promotion of the event potential of the region at the international level and integration of the region into the global meeting industry. “Now they mainly go to Sochi, to Kazan. Because there are places where they can go, sleep, eat, walk, organize a cultural program. This is what we should strive for”, says Mr. Segal.

President of the hotel and tourism Association Irina Fan-Young agrees with him. “We need comprehensive measures to attract international events to the region like it is in Kazan, we must work to promote the region’s tourism resources, formulate proposals for individual tourists who can hypothetically come from neighboring regions and spend at least a weekend. The medical potential is also good”, says Irina Fan-Jung, adding that now the Samara region, in the first place, needs competent systematic promotion.

According to Ilya Zharsky, the Samara region can become an attractive place for guests in the field of ecotourism. “Among the natural attractions of the region, it is important to note primarily the Samarskaya Luka national park, the Buzuluksky Bor national park, and the Zhigulevsky nature reserve named after Sprygin. As well as landscape reserves: Vasilievsky Islands and Sergievsky mineral waters”, Mr. Zharsky lists.

However, here, according to the expert, a competent information campaign is also needed. “In fact, the only thing that is necessary for development of ecotourism in the region is minimal investment in promotion, that is, an advertising campaign that will let the Russians know that there are such recreational areas in the region and that it’s easy to get to them, since the region already has a modern airport, high-quality roads, a hotel fund, and so on. Unfortunately, not so much is being done in this direction, which, in my opinion, hinders formation of the image of the Samara region as a tourist Mecca”, Ilya Zharsky believes.

Local brands

According to the Ministry of culture, projects that have already become a brand for the region and new ones contribute to an increase in the tourist flow to the Samara region. This is the Grushinsky festival, as well as the VolgaFest festival, Syzran tomato and Silver pipes of the Volga region. Within the framework of the new project “Cultural Heart of Russia”, which will be organized this year on behalf of governor Dmitry Azarov, many events are held in the region in open areas: concerts, festivals, processions, carnivals, exhibitions. Another event that can attract tourists to the region is holding of a beer festival in Samara, the idea of which was born in May at a retreat on the development of a tourist and recreational cluster in the Samara region. In addition, the region plans to revive the festival “Rock above Volga”.

Irina Fan-Jung notes that such large - scale events are beneficial for the region. However, according to her, city hotels to a lesser extent experienced an increase of visitors during Rock over the Volga: “Because people were not accommodated in city hotels. Maybe some other segment will be attracted now, and perhaps the hotels will be loaded”. The expert emphasizes that in order to increase interest in the region it is advisable to conduct international events that should be held systematically, at least once every three months.

According to Mikhail Segal, any event increases interest in the region: “Samara was the capital of event tourism in the Soviet Union. The Grushinsky festival brought together 100 thousand people, which was a unique phenomenon for the Soviet Union. We need to brand some of our potentials and promote them with budget money. And it will return to us a hundredfold. Each invested ruble in tourism will return 10 rubles, and for each invested ruble there will be 15 jobs”.

Zhiguli weekend

According to director of Tourist information center of the Samara Region (TIC) Ksenia Zvonkovskaya, in order to remain attractive to tourists it is necessary to develop constantly, offering a first-class tourist experience and a unique trip experience. “In recent years consumption model has changed in the direction of choosing trips of the city-break format (short weekend trips to another country), in which travelers try to combine several goals and holiday formats in one trip. Offers like city-break have been used in the region for a long time, there are a lot of different weekend programs for both children and adults”,says Mrs. Zvonkovskaya.

In this regard the Samara region can offer the Zhiguli weekend tourist route, a three-day tour over the cities of the region with a visit to Samara regional art museum, to the park of the history of technology named after K. G. Sakharov, the AvtoVAZ Museum, objects of the Samarskaya Luka national park and the Zhigulevsky state natural reserve named after I. I. Sprygin, as well as a tasting of the famous local beer, and a master class on preparation of Syzran’s brand cake Pautinka.

This year new railway tourism projects have also started. This is “To the Theater # Best by Train!”, a new format of weekend tours on comfortable trains to neighboring regions, combining travel, cultural program, and tourism. The key object of the show as part of the tour is the theater, with a mandatory visit to the performance. The second project , “Train to the open air” is aimed at popularizing rail travel, developing domestic tourism, and creating the image of the region as the owner of unique natural, environmental, historical and cultural resources.

As Ksenia Zvonkovskaya says, in the next six years, according to Booking estimates, glampings, which differ from campsites in creating comfortable conditions for travelers in exotic places, will be very popular. “In Russia this type of recreation is only in its infancy, and this year the first glamping park was launched in the village of Smolkino, Syzran district, Samara region, which is located near nine natural monuments. It is necessary to analyze constantly the world trends, requests, and preferences of the target audience, to create proposals that are appropriate for them”, said Mrs. Zvonkovskaya.

Another main task in development of tourism, according to her, is to fill the territory with tourist offers in the low season. “One of the most interesting offers in the region are international winter sports championships, such as the Snow Kite World Cup IKA (a stage of the world Cup in snowkiting), which is annually held in Togliatti, and the Volga Quest dog sled race. In the winter season unique tourist winter routes are gradually launched, this year an organized winter snowmobile route on Mount Strelna was tested and launched. There are jeeping tours in the region, as well as ship trips on water, on air cushions in winter, pilgrimage tours, outdoor activities, ecological and other types of recreation”, says Mrs. Zvonkovskaya.

Mikhail Segal also reminds that in the Samara region a draft of a tourist and recreation zone of the village of Shiryaevo is being developed: “I hope that the project will be implemented. I hope that the construction project of ski complex on Otvazhnaya mount, which has been discussed for 15 years, will also be implemented. Negotiations are underway with the Ministry of natural resources, it seems that experts have a positive opinion, there are no particular obstacles. There will be mountain skiing, hotels, restaurants, a road, and people will come”.

Without slowing down

Experts emphasize that after the championship the region became interesting for both local and federal investors. “Federal investors pay their attention to the cities where the stadiums were built for the 2018 World Cup. And now people want to invest money in Samara, not only local, but also federal, from Moscow and St. Petersburg. This is one of important results of the championship. The task now is not to slow down the improvement of infrastructure, to equip the city, to make roads, lighting, transport interchanges, and to build facilities. This is done by private business, but it will not invest in infrastructure if it does not see that the flow will increase in future ”, Mikhail Segal explains.

Ksenia Zvonkovskaya notes that “traditionally after major sporting events there is a positive trend in increasing the tourist flow to the territory. The 2018 World Cup was one of the most powerful image - building advertising campaigns for the Samara Region, so in the coming years the region will get the most out of such a major event. It is important in this case to maintain a positive trend and to strengthen it with an active advertising campaign to attract tourists and increase their number”.

Ilya Zharsky notes that the mundial has set the level, which would be difficult to achieve in the absence of comparable sports or cultural events: “The effect of the high base of 2018 will inexorably negatively affect the indicators of all next years, but, in my opinion, this should serve as a stimulating factor. In fact, the World Cup allowed to re-open a region with a rich history, culture, and picturesque nature on the map of the country and the world ”, the expert says, recalling that before the World Cup most Russians did not consider the Samara region as a place to spend vacations, and a significant part of foreigners could not even know about its existence, since for them Russia was limited, as a general rule, to Moscow and St. Petersburg, less often to the resorts of the Krasnodar Territory, very rarely to Baikal and Kamchatka.

It is necessary to create the so-called continuous demand for tourism services, based on formation of sustainable competitiveness, to implement a number of measures to increase the number of arrivals. And the question here is not only about the already created infrastructure, which definitely favorably influenced the appearance of the city and the region, but also about creation of a supporting infrastructure at the so-called points of attraction that will meet the needs of tourists ”, said Ksenia Zvonkovskaya. In her opinion, with all this, it is absolutely realistic to achieve an indicator of 2.3 million tourists a year by 2025.

Ani Ayvazyan