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WTTC Predicts Tourism Boom in Russia
The World Travel & Tourism Council presented a report for the Russian Government and the Federal Tourism Agency yesterday forecasting Russia to regain the role of a leading tourist attraction before 2015. The Russian tourism industry will be developing twice as fast as in the European Union, according to the Council’s prognosis. Russian tourist officials doubt that the industry is growing at this pace, though.
The World Travel & Tourism agency spent some $5 million to conduct research on tourism industries in 174 countries. The organization’s president Jean-Claude Baumgarten noted that demand in tourism “should be viewed in terms of global economy”. This is what the analysis was based on. The shift from industry standards to the global economic evaluation led the WTTC to the conclusion that tourism in Russia is underestimated.
The Russian tourism industry will grow 6.4 percent in the next ten years to account for 9.1 percent in the national GDP by 2016, compared to 3.1 percent in the EU, the report reads. Jobs in tourism will add 1.5 percent every year as in the EU, according to the forecast. Tourism will provide 7.7 percent jobs in the market by 2016, against 13 percent in the European Union. However, the Russian tourism industry will be growing faster than in the EU overall, the WTTC claims.
The organization called Russia’s state expenses on tourism “inadequate for the needs of the fast developing industry.” The state will put some 256.2 billion rubles in the industry by 2015 with the total investment of public and private funds coming to 2,621.1 billion rubles.
In 2006, tourism accounted for 7.8 percent of the GDP, compared to 11.8 percent in EU countries. The total of 863,000 people are currently employed in tourism. The figure is likely to reach 5.2 million by 2016, under the WTTC’s forecast.
President of the Russian Tourism Union Sergey Shpilko, lambasted the report lamenting that inbound tourism in Russia fell 16 percent in 2005, according to official data, while the growth in outbound tourism slowed down to 3.5 percent. Russian officials were also skeptical about the report. “The Council predicts that the share of tourism in Russia will amount to 7.8 percent in 2006. The Federal Tourism Agency estimates it at 3.5 or 4 percent,” Natela Shengeliya, the deputy head of the state agency, said. They suppose, however, that the research correlates with the Russian state strategy on the development of tourism on the whole.
Darya Nikolaeva
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 22, 2006
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