Russia and CIS states expand tourism cooperation

BAKU, Azerbaijan – Russian tourists made about 15.5 million trips to the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States uniting former Soviet republics, the head of the Russian Federal Agency for

BAKU, Azerbaijan – Russian tourists made about 15.5 million trips to the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States uniting former Soviet republics, the head of the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism (Rostourism), Alexander Radkov, told a meeting of the CIS Council on Tourism, held within the framework of the International Economic Forum for business leaders of the CIS member states, APA reports quoting Itar-Tass.

โ€œThe past year ended successfully. Russians made about 15.5 million tours to the CIS countries – six percent more than in 2012,โ€ Radkov said. โ€œIn their turn, citizens of the CIS countries made about 20 million trips to Russia. The tourist flow has grown year on year by ten percent.โ€

โ€œThese are very good figures which indicate that Russians have started being interested again in traveling to the CIS countries,โ€ he said.

Radkov stressed that โ€œin order to increase the tourist flow between Russia and the CIS states, it is necessary to create a common information space, to make up a single calendar of events which are held in the CIS countries and may be interesting for touristsโ€.

โ€œIn this regard, it is especially important to adopt a strategy for the development of tourism inside the CIS, which stipulates cooperation on a number of issues connected with the development of the tourism industry,โ€ he said.

โ€œIt is necessary now within this yearโ€™s Year of Tourism in the Commonwealth of Independent States which features dozens of events that we focus on addressing our common problemsโ€, Radkov told participants in the forum.

He suggested organising a cinema festival in one of the CIS countries as well as a festival of culinary tourism, which might be very popular in the CIS, considering peopleโ€™s interest in wine tours.

โ€œWe could create [television] programs to discuss problems of transport availability, classification of hotels and visa issues in the CIS countries,โ€ he said adding that they should be interesting and understandable for viewers.

Radkov recalled that one of the major events of the Year of Tourism would be a conference in Russia devoted to the development of tourism and the creation of new tour itineraries across the CIS countries.

This year was declared the Year of Tourism in the Commonwealth of Independent states. This decision was taken at the meeting of the CIS heads of state in Minsk on October 25, 2013. One of priority tasks was elaboration of a joint development strategy in the travel industry up to 2020.

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Linda Hohnholz

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