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Upmarket hotels weather industry downturn
Published: 12 January, 2010, 12:11
Edited: 13 January, 2010, 13:34
The Moscow hotel market has been one of the fast growing markets in the world. A huge deficit of rooms and rising demand has allowed existing hotels to monopolize but the crisis may have had some positive effects.
You don't even have to scrap visas, just return them to sensible price levels. Once the Russian government outsourced their visa system in the UK, prices doubled. Although the expat/business community have had to swallow the increases, they have had a huge effect on tourism. It's unlikely that Russia will scrap visas unless the EU reciprocates for their citizens. Ironically the UK has also now outsourced their visas system now, it seems the trend is to make travel harder and more expensive for everyone. It's hard to see how this helps increase tourism income, which must be substantially more than the money saved through visa outsourcing.
Enrique Russia can make billions of roubles from tourism but the real shame is not just about Visa problems but the lack of affordable middle range hotels.
Nick, there is no need for reciprocity when it is a good business. It doesn´t matter if the E.U. Schengen Area ask for Visa to Russians because the level of income and the level of Tourism in both areas is different. The E.U. Schengen Area already has a very developed Tourism industry and income levels are three times as high as the Russian. But for Russians, scrapping the Visa system to the E.U. Schengen Area would mean the entry of several billion Euros in the Russian market. But, I agree with Sarah that the offer (good middle range Hotels) should increase as it is happening in Sochi. Vladivostok could see an incredible increase of Tourism as it is the most European City in the Far East, something "exotic" in the eyes of hudreds of millions of Asians from Japan, Korea and China.
Visas for E.U. (European Union) countries should be scrapped. That would increase the level of Tourism to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kaliningrad and Volgograd (Stalingrad) The best would be an agreement with the Schengen Area of the European Union so it would be enough for member states citizens from those countries to show an identity card when travelling to the Russian Federation. That would increase much the level of Tourism towards the Russian Federation. Also, for countries like the UK (part of the EU but not part of the Schengen Area), U.S.A., Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, New Zealand and Swtizerland (high income countries) showing a passport should be enough.