“The FIFA World Cup, which was held in Russia in 2018, contributed to the growth in the number of foreign tourists in the country's cities, in particular in Moscow. The capital's infrastructure is ready to receive more guests. Moscow may enter the top 10 cities in the world in terms of growth rates of tourist flow by 2025. The number of tourists in the capital will grow by 1.4 times, to 31.8 million arrivals per year, including from far abroad - twice, to 5.9 million people. The contribution of tourism to the city's economy in this case will grow to 6-8%, and revenue will double to 1.5 trillion rubles. All this is possible if you promote Moscow and create a city brand," follows from the report "Beauty Among the Runners: Moscow on the World Tourism Map."
Why don't they go?
In order to assess Moscow's current competitiveness and its attractiveness for foreign tourists, the company conducted a survey of 3,500 potential travelers. Including those who had never visited the Russian capital before. Interviews were also conducted with more than 70 representatives of business and the expert community.
According to the company's research, out of 15% respondents who named Moscow an interesting city to travel to, only 5% are ready to plan a trip. "The reasons can be divided into two conditional groups - prejudices ("unsafe", "far to get to" and "expensive") and structural barriers ("negative geopolitical image", "difficulty of obtaining a visa" and "language barrier"). However, impressions of Moscow can outweigh the negative effect," the report says.
Safety and prices are beyond competition
According to Ivan Kotov, Managing Director of BCG, Moscow ranks higher in the Numbeo rating of the safest cities for 2018 than New York, Paris or London, and the average cost of a stay in Moscow is 1.5 times lower than in most comparable cities. “Prejudices and stereotypes will disappear if the problem of insufficient information among potential travelers is eliminated,” he added.
The company believes that Moscow still belongs to the group of cities with untapped potential. “The growth of inbound tourist flow to Moscow in 2012-2017 was only 1.3%, which is significantly less than that of the leaders in terms of tourist visits - Delhi (28%), Tokyo (20%) and Dublin (10%), London (5.1%), New York (2.4%),” the report says.
How much does promotion cost?
As noted by BCG, in large cities that attract many tourists, there are special offices or agencies working on building a brand. Their expenses can range from $14 million in Paris to $172 million in Singapore, or from 0.1 to 1% of the city budget. Moscow's expenses for these purposes in 2017 amounted to $2 million, or 0.02% of the city budget.
“It is necessary to create an agency to promote Moscow and develop a city brand, a slogan – “Moscow is a safe and inexpensive city that is easy to get to.” All countries can be divided into priority ones for promotion – such as Germany, Italy, France, the USA, Israel, China, South Korea, India and Thailand. As well as countries with untapped tourist potential – the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Great Britain, Japan, Iran, Turkey, Australia, Canada and Brazil,” the study says.
The main thing is visas
According to BCG, one of the most effective measures to increase the flow of foreign tourists to Moscow will be the easing of the visa regime. “On average, according to international studies, the simplification of the visa regime between individual countries leads to an increase in incoming tourist flow by 40%,” the company explained. Experts suggest introducing “visas on arrival” for tourists or a 72-hour visa-free regime, similar to what is in effect for cruise ship passengers in St. Petersburg, as well as issuing specialized visas to those who arrive in Moscow for treatment or study.
Let us recall that the Ministry of Economic Development, Rostourism and other agencies are working on the possibility of introducing electronic entry visas in regions of Russia popular with tourists. The experiment may begin in 2020 with Moscow and St. Petersburg. Currently, such visas are valid only in the Far East. From July 1, 2019, foreigners will be able to obtain an electronic visa to enter the Kaliningrad Region.
What else needs to be done
Among other measures that need to be taken to popularize the capital among foreign tourists, experts named the promotion and formation of a tourist brand for Moscow, as well as the creation of a strategy for tourism development and market monitoring.
“The strategy should be documented and updated regularly. The management model is multi-level, which implies the distribution of tasks and coordination between the city administration, the agency, and other government agencies involved in tourism in the country. For example, the administration is responsible for financing, and the agency is responsible for marketing. In addition to traditional sources, digital geoanalytics tools, social media analysis, citizen and tourist surveys, price monitoring, and regular inspections of the condition of facilities can be used. It is important to coordinate the calendar of events, festivals, etc. with European and neighboring countries in such a way as to ensure the influx of tourists during the most favorable periods of school holidays and holidays,” the study says.
Other necessary measures include increasing the availability of air travel, including low-cost flights, creating a tourist information system, increasing the number of hotels (including hostels), improving the quality of service and increasing the number of tourist attractions.
"By detailing each step to the level of specific initiatives, we can begin implementing them today. Provided these initiatives are implemented comprehensively and consistently, Moscow can significantly improve key tourism performance indicators and push aside world leaders," BCG believes.
According to the Moscow City Hall, at the end of 2018, there were 1,646 classified hotels in Moscow with a total of about 80,000 rooms. According to Booking.com, there are more than 250 inexpensive accommodation facilities in the capital, such as hostels and aparthotels.
BCG is an international company specializing in management consulting and business strategy consulting. It has a network of more than 90 offices in 50 countries and has been operating in Russia since 1992.
Source: tourism.interfax.ru
