According to the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR), domestic tourism traffic increased by 10% in 2022. Although this figure is lower than experts’ forecasts, market players are convinced that vacations in the remote regions of Russia will continue to gain popularity. Forbes Life explains why Russians prefer Kamchatka, Altai, and Taymyr to travels abroad, what the new travel trends are, and why prices for vacations in Russia are becoming the new luxury.

Change of Course

In recent years, domestic tourism in Russia has undergone a number of shocks. First, a pandemic changed how Russians view vacations and travel. Then, people began to more frequently choose vacations in their home country, particularly due to the many COVID restrictions that continued to be in effect in numerous states.

Following the beginning of the special military operation*, due to the closure of air connections with many foreign countries, the instability of the currency market, and the withdrawal of Visa and Mastercard systems from Russia, more and more Russians opted to travel within their own country. According to the head of Rostourism, Zarina Doguzova, during the summer of 2022, the number of people who spent vacations in Russia exceeded not only last year’s figures but also those of the pre-pandemic period.

When planning a trip, people began to pay more attention to destinations such as Kamchatka, Altai, Taymyr, Mineralnye Vody, Baikal, Karelia, and Kaliningrad. This is explained partly by the closure of many airports in the southern part of the country, and partly by the fact that Russians want to have new experiences. Kamchatka authorities estimate that in 2022, the number of vacationers in this region will increase by 25% compared to pre-pandemic figures. Authorities in Kislovodsk, a resort located in the mineral waters of the Caucasus, also reported an increase in the number of tourists last year.

“Last year, the resorts in the Krasnodar Territory were the most popular. Kazan, Karelia, Altai, Buryatia, Kamchatka, Dagestan, and the Chechen Republic also ranked among the most sought-after destinations,” said the press service of the travel agency Fun & Sun.

“Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Kazan remain at the top of the ranking of Russian travelers, according to statistics from the travel agency Russpass and the head of the Moscow City Tourism Committee, Evgeny Kozlov. – At the same time, we see that tourists are interested in remote regions, for example, Kamchatka. The case of the Tyumen region is interesting: many tourists have rediscovered spa vacations in this region where hot springs are located.

The growth in demand for travel in Russia has also been influenced by improvements in infrastructure in the regions. Although some destinations, such as the Taymyr Peninsula in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, still need funding and tourism development, positive changes are underway. For example, the Altai Territory will receive more than 446 million rubles from the federal budget in 2023 specifically for the development of tourist clusters and the creation of engineering and transport infrastructure.

“In recent years, the demand for vacations in Kamchatka has continued to rise: there are fewer and fewer foreign destinations, and fewer and fewer places in Russia where Russians have not yet been, so they want to see something they have never seen before. That is why Kamchatka has become a very popular region for tourism investment. While in 2017, as an operator of tourism projects for the investment fund Ream Management, we were the first to undertake the reconstruction and subsequent development of the territory in this region, other major investors and market players have recently begun to enter Kamchatka. As a result, the region has become more comfortable for vacationers, and more and more modern hotels are appearing here,” explains Lubov Brodach, operations director of the Fantalis group, which manages the Laguna Spa hotel in Kamchatka.

New Luxury

Vacations in the remote and previously unpopular regions of Russia are not synonymous with a low level of service and are often not an economical option. “The activity is evolving and taking into account customer needs. With the arrival of Moscow and federal management companies in Kamchatka, we can talk about a high level of service and adherence to service standards,” says Mr. Brodach.

According to ATOR, the prices of excursions in Kamchatka have increased by 10 to 15% compared to the summer of 2022. This applies to the cost of accommodation and excursion programs, as well as airline tickets. However, according to experts’ forecasts, this does not lead to a decline in demand for vacations in this region.

“I think all hotels will be full and airline tickets will be scarce. It will be expensive, but we will see modern youth, the wealthiest people of our country, and tourists from other countries. If you want to go to Kamchatka in the summer, you should think about it now, as it will be extremely difficult to set off spontaneously,” predicts Lyubov Brodach.

A similar situation has developed in other increasingly popular destinations for travel in Russia. For example, the cost of accommodation for tourists in the Republic of Altai has increased by 30% compared to 2021. According to the Deputy Minister of Natural Resources of the Republic of Altai, Elena Yalbacheva, the flow of tourists to the hotels in this region will exceed 2.5 million people in 2022.