Wellness tourism, auto tourism, wine and yacht tourism are the areas that are actively gaining popularity in our country. However, the creation of an appropriate infrastructure requires not only serious money, but also specific approaches
In 2024, the Ministry of Economic Development expects an increase in investments in tourism within the framework of the national project “Tourism and the Hospitality Industry” to 700 billion rubles and even more. “We see that over the past three years, the volume of investments in tourism has tripled. New hotel rooms are being introduced: last year, the growth rate of commissioning of the room stock amounted to 40%,” Deputy Head of the Ministry Dmitry Vakhrukov said at the Travel! Sustainable Development Forum held in Kamchatka. According to him, the growth potential of tourist trips in the country as a whole is 140 million by 2030, while there is a shortage of accommodation. For example, only in the Far East, where the tourist flow is planned to at least double in six years, it is necessary to build 25 thousand new rooms.
Of course, the provision of preferential loans under government Decree No. 141 is one of the “reference points” for the creation and modernization of the country’s tourism infrastructure. As I have repeatedly told you BFM.ru , credit organizations and the State Development Corporation “VEB.The Russian Federation” issues such loans for the implementation of investment projects, the creation and development of tourist clusters that contribute to the development of domestic and inbound tourism in general, and the state provides subsidies from the federal budget to reimburse their lost income.
Subject to certain parameters, at the moment a loan for up to 15 years at a rate of 3-5% can be obtained for the construction or reconstruction of buildings for hotel accommodation. You can invest credit funds in hotels located in multifunctional (office or shopping and entertainment) complexes. An important addition that appeared last year: now you can invest money in the creation of year-round amusement parks and water parks, as well as in the development of the infrastructure of ski resorts.
Vacationers at the Bolshoy Voodyavr ski resort in the Murmansk region. Photo: Lev Fedoseev/TASS
However, there are other destinations in the long list of domestic tourism segments that are not listed in a separate line in the government decree, but are no less significant. Some of them do not yet have their own development program, for some such programs have already been developed, although financing issues have not been fully resolved or not resolved at all. Meanwhile, the market players I talked to BFM.ru We are sure that these areas have a great future, so they deserve the closest attention from both the state and private investors and entrepreneurs.
Wellness: longevity is a new culture of life
According to the non-profit organization Global Wellness Institute (GWI), after the pandemic, there has been a sharp growth in the wellness services market worldwide: according to Global Wellness Economic Monitor estimates, the global health economy has grown by 27% since 2020, reaching a record level of 5.6 trillion dollars and, according to forecasts, by 2027 it will reach 8.5 trillion dollars.
As for Russia, according to GWI statistics, in 2022 our wellness services market was estimated at 71.4 billion dollars. According to the BusinessStat project, the statistics of which are referenced by the ideologist and founder of the First Line preventive medicine resort, Maria Grudina, in the same year 2022 there were 1,743 sanatoriums with 442,200 beds in our country, but only 28 of them (collectively ready to accommodate about three thousand people) had modern infrastructure.
At the same time, if in 2022 the Russian market turnover of sanatorium and resort services amounted to 195.1 billion rubles, then the forecast figure for 2024 is 221.7 billion rubles, and by 2027 the bar should rise to 254.1 billion rubles (an increase of about 30%). In conversation with BFM.ru Maria Grudina suggested that one of the key reasons for this growth is the growing interest in preventive medicine, and this is exactly the approach that advanced Russian resorts are now offering.
Maria Grudina: GWI, of which I am an ambassador, in fact, only last year started talking about preventive medicine as a key trend that is coming to the wellness industry. And in Russia, almost six years ago, we founded the First Line resort on these principles. So we can proudly say that our country does not just follow the global market, but in a certain sense drives it, sets the directions for its development. I have no medical education, I am an economist, and earlier, when I declared that the “ill — treat” paradigm was outdated and the era of prevention was coming, doctors considered me almost an adept of esoteric practices. Now experience, including the experience of our resort, confirms how much more correct it is to look not “into an illness that has happened” or even “into possible harbingers of future illness”, but “in the period before them”, using, of course, not some stories about three frog legs from any ailment, but all the power evidence-based medicine. Therefore, when the wellness community insists on the need for special attention to our direction, on the development of a separate state financing program or at least preferential loans for the reconstruction and construction of sanatoriums and resorts, we are, in fact, talking about the ideology of preserving the health of the nation. We are talking about the fact that, including through our efforts, people can have a biological age of 30 at the age of 50. This is a new culture, and the more modern sanatoriums there are, the faster longevity will become the new norm of life.And where should such sanatoriums and wellness resorts appear? From your point of view, are there regions and specific places that are most suitable for this?Maria Grudina: It is classically believed that they should be located in places with a warm and mild climate, somewhere near the Black or Caspian Sea, and that location is of primary importance here. But our resort is located in Zelenogorsk, in the Resort area of St. Petersburg, and historically, since tsarist times, this far from the warmest place has been the concentration point of some of the best sanatoriums in the country – there are about 40 of them here and now. Because the local air is healing, it improves metabolism and promotes the improvement of the body (by the way, we actively use this fact proven by medicine in our programs). So, I think it is necessary to create sanatoriums not where it is warm, but where it is logical, taking into account natural, technological and human resources — and these may be the main tourist regions of the country, from Kaliningrad to the Far East, and large cities. By the way, the growing segment, which, it seems to me, should take off right away in Russia, is biohacking centers. So far, we do not have a categorical device, so biohacking is called everything in a row — from losing weight to swimming in an ice hole. But the practice of the “First Line” allowed us to deduce a more or less accurate formula: biohacking is health management, which includes body research, therapy, physical activity, aesthetics of food and sleep, and much more, which allows us to transfer the concept of health from the field of just physical condition to the sphere of mental and socio-cultural well—being. Biohacking centers are an urban format, they do not need solid land plots and large-scale money to create them, as for a wellness resort: for example, in the fall we plan to open in St. Petersburg, as part of one of the development projects on the Obvodny Canal, next to the Warsaw Express shopping mall, our biohacking center is compact, with an area of 700 square meters, and investments in it amount to about 200 million rubles. We really hope that the initiative will be supported, and such kind of cultural centers of a new attitude towards oneself and one’s health will begin to appear all over the country.
According to Maria Grudina, biohacking centers can play a special role in the life of cities with millions of people, where today there are requests related to people’s need for physical and mental wellness. “The biohacking center is ideally also very beautiful, it is a space designed to attract attention. Restaurants once became such spaces, and now all people want to go to beautifully decorated, cozy places with good cuisine. I hope that biohacking centers will also become points of attraction where people will not only improve their health, but also enjoy spending time,” the expert emphasizes.
Wine tourism: a market with huge potential, which is more talked about than used
In mid-February, the government commission on legislative activity supported bill No. 365108-8, aimed at the development of wine tourism and providing, in particular, the formation of domestic “wine roads”, the promotion of ideas of autotourism, the development of camping and glamping in Russia. As Federation Council Senator Andrey Yatskin recalls in his telegram channel, the current rise of Russian viticulture and winemaking in general and interest in wine tours in particular is, of course, largely due to the adoption of Federal Law No. 468 at the end of 2019. Based on the fact that traveling through Russian vineyards provides not only recreation, but also familiarization with the traditional rural way of life, the current bill proposes to allow peasant and farm enterprises to temporarily accommodate tourists in guest houses located on agricultural lands, the senator explains. According to him, the State Duma’s consideration of legislative initiatives on wine and rural tourism should take place in the spring session of 2024.
Back in 2021, President Vladimir Putin instructed to take measures to develop wine tourism. Among the priorities is to increase the volume of promotion of domestic winemaking products in the domestic market, as well as the development of wine tourism, sightseeing routes and related infrastructure, TASS noted at the time. Ah BFM.ru He cited the story of the head of the expert group, President of the Union of Sommeliers and Experts of Russia Artur Sargsyan that wine tourism has become one of the areas of auditing the largest wineries in the country and creating a wine rating designed to become a kind of navigator for fans of enotours and just connoisseurs of good wine.
“The wine jury visited 40 of the largest wineries in six regions of the country, evaluating farms by more than 100 parameters. Wine tourism is a serious independent part of the industry and a very important tool for its development. We have seen great interest from tourists in domestic winemaking, an increase in demand for expensive wine tours and exclusive tastings. Hotels at the wineries have already been booked until October in the summer. I think that by the next season, the wine and tourism infrastructure will be significantly strengthened,” the expert shared the details.
“In April 2022, the Wine Tourism Day was held as part of the online forum “Know Our: Summer 2022″. And here again it was said that wineries can become the core of a comprehensive tourist offer, which includes visits to other gastronomic points, that wine tours need to be complemented by visits to other natural and cultural sites, that tourists would love to come to wineries with an overnight stay, but there are few hotels there and they do not cover existing needs (for example in the Krasnodar Territory, there are hotels only with eight wineries), that with a competent approach to business, even such a difficult task as tourist loading of wineries in the off-season can be solved, and therefore, the preservation of jobs. In short, winemakers have a lot of right words and good thoughts, I would like to realize it all…”, is an excerpt from the material published on BFM.ru at the end of April the year before last. Today, in March 2024, we state again: interest in enotourism in our country is growing, and the fact that, according to winemakers, 70% of wine tourists come to them independently and only 30% through tour operators, this interest only confirms. For a more detailed assessment of the situation, at the end of last year, the Rosselkhoznadzor, at the suggestion of Business FM, conducted a survey on wine tourism and its development prospects. Here are some of his results.
When asked “Would you like to visit one or more Russian wineries?” 32% of respondents admitted that they have long dreamed of such a trip, another 32% stressed that they have not yet, but are planning, and 22% said that they have already visited one or more wineries. And only 14% said that they had not been to wineries and did not plan to. By the way, it is curious: to the question that followed, do you understand grape varieties, a smaller part (34%) answered yes — in the sense of distinguishing cabernet Sauvignon from pinot noir, and a large part (66%) – no, in the sense that people consider themselves newcomers to the world of wine.
The participants of the Rosselkhoznadzor survey named Kuban as the most attractive region from the point of view of enotourism (29%), to which Crimea lost quite a bit (25%). Next are the valley of the Don River (Rostov region, 18%), the Lower Volga (Volgograd region, 15%) and Dagestan (13%). But the five most famous wineries in the country (which, most likely, the respondents would like to visit first or have already visited) were Massandra, Zolotaya Balka, Abrau-Durso, Chateau Taman and Chateau de Talu.
As told BFM.ru The general director of Chateau de Talu, Elena Kurkova, most wineries at the design stage lay down the possibility of a tourist component. That is, they understand that it is necessary not only to build a factory, but also, according to all international standards, to attract guests to the winery. “The story here is not only about tastings, but more about immersion in wine culture, in the diverse world of winemaking, which is especially little known to Russians. In the case of the Chateau de Talu, we see that the restaurant and tasting complex (both the restaurant and the wine library) play an important role in promoting the product.
Elena Kurkova, General Director of Chateau de Talu, “Today wineries unite and create whole routes (such as the “Wine Roads of the Bosporan Kingdom”), which allow the guest to visit wineries, explore terroirs, get acquainted with the architecture and history of farms. There are also single tickets that give the right to visit a number of wineries at a discount. The state has really turned its attention to the development of wine tourism, and a corresponding bill has appeared providing for the formation of domestic “wine roads”. The construction of hotels in the territories of wineries will bring us to the international level, farms will have more offers for consumers, this will contribute to closer contact of the guest with the wonderful world of enogastronomy, as well as the promotion of the brand “Russian wine” and the formation of consumer loyalty to domestic products. A possible law allowing wine advertising will also strengthen the position of the Russian wine brand and expand the possibilities of wineries in their positioning. The bill will multiply the interest of Russians in the industry, and additional stimulation of domestic tourism and popularization of the region’s opportunities will affect the growth of the number of guests at wineries, presumably by half. We support all these initiatives, actively comment on them, and wait for certain decisions to be made.”
In principle, enotourism is, albeit a special one, but still an integral part of a much broader tourist destination called “rural tourism”, which was enshrined in Russian legislation not so long ago. According to the experts of the Rosselkhoznadzor, in the near future this type of tourism will attract up to 7 million tourists a year, 60% of whom will travel independently through rural areas.
According to Vasily Kopiski, co—owner of the Kopiski family’s Bogdarnya estate, rural tourism is a really growing market with huge potential. “Its forward movement primarily stimulates the development of road communication — toll roads and transport logistics in general. It is also worth noting the desire of people to touch, to join the rural lifestyle, nature and the peace that accompanies the countryside. Our guests from large megacities always especially note the silence and measured lifestyle in our estate: here people slow down, “disconnect” their heads from everyday worries,” the expert says.
But there are also factors of the opposite effect. “The development of rural tourism is hindered, in particular, by people’s fears related to uncertainty about the availability and quality of services provided. That is, there are stereotypes that rural tourism is far from hotel standards. But this is not the case, and we are proof of that. And from the point of view of entrepreneurship, it is worth noting the long payback period, high loan rates. But high—quality infrastructure that meets the modern needs of guests is not cheap,” recalls Vasily Kopiski.
Vasily Kopiski, co-owner of the estate of the Kopiski family “Bogdarnya” “Speaking about the economics of projects in the field of rural tourism, among the most financially capacious, resource-intensive, difficult to implement, in short, the most problematic components from all points of view, I would first of all call a critical shortage of qualified personnel, which will only worsen in the near future. In service, and even more so in hospitality, personnel is our everything. Then there are long payback periods and high risks associated with factors that do not depend on the entrepreneur: from weather conditions to public sentiment. The business unit associated with the highest financial risks and the highest cost is the restaurant. There is a high salary fund for chefs and employees, as well as product turnover associated with pronounced seasonality. Of course, I agree with those who believe that rural tourism, or at least some of its areas, should be highlighted as a special line in the list of recipients of preferential loans determined by the state. But, it seems to me, the name “preferential” is not quite correct: it’s just that the state should be interested in the development of domestic tourism and support it. There are many tools for this: lowering loan rates, subsidies, assistance in promoting the direction by covering it in the media — the list can go on and on.”
Autotourism: good roads are both an incentive and a brake on the development of the direction
According to Kommersant, the Ministry of Economic Development, on behalf of the head of state, has developed and will send to the government a concept for the development of automobile tourism until 2035. The document provides for the synchronization of the development of the main autotourist routes in the country with the plans of road builders, as well as the provision of tax preferences, subsidies and other benefits to businesses as part of the creation of infrastructure for autotourists.
“Representatives of the tourism industry supported the initiative, calling the development of campgrounds a key area. The Ministry of Economy, in turn, talks about the need for a sharp expansion of the motorhome rental market. Experts insist on the need to allocate roads to major tourist sites in a separate category and maintain them at the expense of the federal budget. President Vladimir Putin instructed the Cabinet of Ministers to develop a concept for the development of motor tourism in May 2023. The document is ready and will be submitted to the government in the near future, Deputy Head of the Ministry of Economy Dmitry Vakhrukov told Kommersant,” the newspaper writes.
Now, according to the expert, autotourism is developing chaotically and fragmentally. There are separate programs for the repair and construction of roads and gas stations, but they are almost not tied to tourist sites. Roadside hotels are built, as a rule, in the interests of truck drivers and in places where there is the most traffic. The task of the concept is to synchronize all these processes.
According to the assessment of the Ministry of Economic Development and independent experts, cited by Kommersant, 22-23 million motorists travel on Russian roads every year, and according to the estimates of the Russian Union of Travel Industry, there could potentially be almost twice as many — 42 million people. According to VTSIOM surveys, 39% of Russians have made tourist trips by car over the past five years. The development of the direction can bring the tourism industry an additional 250 billion rubles a year — such forecasts were presented by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko in June.
The prospects are almost dizzying, however, as Alexander Gendelsman, an expert at the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Russia, managing partner of the ZONT Hotel Group, emphasizes, the history of autotourism is complicated. “There will be no auto tourism without good roads, on the one hand. On the other hand, if there are good roads, car tourism will decrease, as people will stop less in cities on their way to the final destination. This will no longer be auto tourism, but one of the ways to move,” the expert explains his position.
According to his observations, today auto tourism is developing strongly, mostly due to the geopolitical situation and closed airports in the south of the country. “In fact, this is a forced development, not an organic one. As soon as the airways open, we will see a decline in car travelers. Although the roads are really getting better, new toll highways are opening up, and for many Russian tourists traveling by car, especially with family, is a great option to save the budget and direct it to the same vacation upon arrival,” Alexander Gendelsman believes.
Alexander Gendelsman, expert of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Russia, managing partner of ZONT Hotel Group “Again, the better the roads, the further a person can drive along them, therefore, one of the types of accommodation facilities (motel) becomes less relevant, since tourists prefer to stay in urban hotels where they can combine rest with sightseeing. For example, on the way from Moscow to Sochi, people choose Voronezh or Rostov-on-Don, through which a comfortable expressway runs, to stop for the night. But if we still talk about the economics of the motel, then the most important thing is to choose the right place. To do this, it is not just necessary, but necessary to do a preliminary audit, conduct marketing research of territories. If everything is done correctly and the place is really suitable for a motel, then the costs will pay off and everything will work like clockwork. And if the place is chosen unsuccessfully, then nothing will help. The economics and costs of the motel itself are clear and simple: there are many modular and prefabricated solutions on the market that do not require any huge investments. I would single out only one difficult task — to find and retain staff. The motel format implies a decent distance from the settlement, so you need to decide in advance where you will take people from and how they will get to work.”
In principle, Alexander Gendelsman calls the motel a small business, for which there are enough support measures. “If new incentives are introduced uncontrollably, we will see an increase in the number of motels not because of the development of auto tourism or the highway network, but because of the desire to receive additional benefits and loans. I would consider targeted support of motels from the state in the framework of designing and creating new federal highways, when objectively the distance between settlements is quite large, for example, 1,500 kilometers. In such cases, a motel should be built for every 500 kilometers to provide drivers with the opportunity to relax on long trips. All this is embedded in the construction or reconstruction project as a traffic infrastructure, along with gas stations,” the expert is sure.
If we expand the topic of motels to the hotel business in general, then it is worth noting zero VAT. “This is a really effective support measure, but it seems to me that its period could be extended. The average investment payback period of the hotel is at least 10 years, and the zero rate is valid only for the first five years. The second, no less important, is preferential loans. Government Decree No. 141 applies only to construction and renovation, I would add the purchase of an object with renovation obligations: there are many objects in Russia that someone would be happy to buy, renovate and open a hotel. As for grants, this is not an objective story. Give the business a comfortable tax regime and a loan rate, the business will do the rest itself,” Alexander Gendelsman believes.
Yachting tourism: about beautiful ideas and harsh reality
Even 10-15 years ago, it was considered that in Russia the popularity of yachting tourism is approximately equal to the popularity of ski tourism in Ethiopia. However, today, no matter what large—scale coastal project you take, it certainly mentions the creation of marinas, at least at the level of an idea. Moreover, we are talking not only about some “New Anapa” with its 17-kilometer sea coastline (God himself seems to have ordered the organization of several yacht parking lots with all the infrastructure), but also, for example, about Kazan, where Russia’s largest river marina system should appear.
The Kazan Plan is the only example of such an ambitious project in central Russia. With the involvement of investors, 17 large river infrastructure facilities are planned to be built in the historical core of the city: 11 city marinas, a city yacht club, several guest parking lots on the Kazanka River (with a per-minute mooring fee). It is assumed that the city marinas will be formed from floating pontoons for vessels from eight meters to 12 meters, the capacity of such floating marinas will range from five places (with the possibility of expansion) to 100 places. For winter storage and maintenance of ships, the project provides for the creation of a shipbuilding cluster, where it is also possible to place the production of boats of various classes.
During the work, 12.2 kilometers of coastline will be landscaped and 1,450 modern mooring places will be created. The implementation of this concept will make Kazan the Volga Region center of water tourism and will cause the growth of this tourist destination throughout the region.
According to the information resource “All marinas are yacht Ports of Russia”, which Olga Shebzukhova, head of the Alliance Marine Development group of companies, refers to in a conversation with TASS, as of the summer of 2023, marinas in Balaklava and Gelendzhik were at different stages of construction, reconstruction and design in Russia, four pilot projects were developed in the Sochi area, marinas in the Far East and Lake Baikal have been announced at the design stage, and this is not yet a complete list. However, as emphasized in an interview with BFM.ru Marina Egorova, an architect and urban planner, head of the Empate architectural bureau, in the yacht tourism segment, good intentions and beautiful ideas do not always pass the test of harsh reality.
Marina Egorova: Back in 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that we need to develop water sports, including yachting. And in 2021, the “Concept of yacht tourism development in the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030” appeared. Today, Russian plans include the construction of 21 marinas for 10 thousand yachts on the coast of the Black and Azov Seas, and the creation of a system of river marinas in Kazan, and much more. However, there are a number of problems in the arrangement and subsequent operation of marinas — from the inability to purchase a yacht on lease, because there is no necessary insurance system, to the specifics of the Water Code, which prohibits the construction of gas stations, because they can disrupt the ecological balance; from the fragmentation of the rules, which are different in each region, to insufficient state support for entrepreneurs. But, for example, in Croatia, 40 marinas were built in 10 years, and it was with significant government support within the framework of the coastal development program: 70% of the money came from the state, 30% from business. For clarity of calculations: the marina for 260 berths in the city of Rijeka cost 55 million dollars. Therefore, I think we need a separate state program that will take into account the specifics of the construction of marinas with their special technical conditions, engineering facilities, principles of lease and operation of coastal zones and water space, and so on.
If I am an entrepreneur and still want to build a marina, then…
Marina Egorova: If we are talking not only about sports, but also about business development, then everything should start from the “200 places” mark on the scale – only then marina begins to somehow repel the invested investments and bring good income. In addition to the places, technical infrastructure (electricity, water supply, service and repair center, medical center, and so on) and leisure and entertainment facilities (a beautiful landscaped embankment with hotels, restaurants, a conference center for business, and the like) should appear. In general, the marina is two—thirds infrastructure and only a third, actually, parking spaces. That’s when the accompanying development, in particular, residential, is immediately pulled up here — after all, the price tag per square meter “overlooking the marina” is 30 percent higher. As they say, yachtsmen look from the water to the shore, developers look from the shore to the water.
And do we have enough interested people so that everything starts from the “200 places” mark
Marina Egorova: Well… In the UK, according to expert estimates, about 20% of the population is engaged in yachting in one way or another, less than 1% in our country. Statistics, of course, are tricky, but as of 2021, there were about 15 thousand Russians involved in yachting. And there could be an order of magnitude more — both athletes and tourists. Only even very good, but local, small-town clubs like the one that exists on the Pirogov reservoir are not enough for this. The coastline of Russia has a length of about 40 thousand kilometers, and we need special conditions for construction loans so that full-fledged yacht clusters appear both in the Caspian Sea, in the Far East, and on the largest rivers and lakes of the country. And here, I would advise you first of all not to pay attention to the reconstruction of old facilities and not to existing zones where the embankment has already been formed, the surrounding buildings are quite dense, and suddenly everyone decides that it is necessary to “cut in” the marina as well. No, it is better to create yacht clusters from scratch — then you can competently place infrastructure facilities on them and make the territory attractive for subsequent development.
Of course, in addition, we need to develop shipyards for the construction of Russian yachts and houseboats, the expert notes. “An important aspect is the creation of a network of marinas with the ability to conduct route races and simply travel from one city to another, which will immediately affect the scale of yacht tourism. And we also really need to develop children’s sailing, because it is these children who will become owners and customers of the yacht business in the future,” Marina Egorova sums up.
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As for the “subsequent development”, the marinas seem to be such a powerful magnet for him that we will talk about this separately and in more detail later.
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