Экономические науки /13. Региональная экономика

Barlybaev A.A., Nasyrov G.M.

Bashkir state university

Sibajsky institute (branch), Russia

Agrotourism in Bashkortostan:

preconditions, problems and prospects

One of the priority lines in the economic development of Russian agrarian regions is a strategy of diversification that assumes the addition of new branches of specialization to the traditional branches of grain farming, cattle breeding, horse breeding, and sheep breeding. Agrotourism (rural tourism) can serve as one of the so-called new and promising branches.

One Russian region where rural tourism has huge prospects for development is the Republic of Bashkortostan. Bashkortistan’s tourist industry is a comparatively young but, at the same time, developing branch of the economy. Despite the region’s huge natural recreational potential, its growth rates are insufficiently high. The somewhat low appeal of the region to Russian and foreign tourists is associated with a poorly developed tourist infrastructure, the discrepancy between prices and the quality of offered services, and the dearth of information on the region’s recreational possibilities and tourist attractions.

The southeastern part of the republic, which is known for its complex and picturesque landscapes; its multitude of rivers, lakes, and streams; its caves; its wide variety of vegetation; and its historical and natural monuments, seems the most promising area for developing different kinds of tourism.

Factors favorable to the development of different kinds of tourism and the creation of resorts and spas are a temperate continental climate; a large number of mineral springs that are every bit as good those in the Caucasus; therapeutic sapropelic muds; crystal-clear lakes famous all over the world; and Bashkir honey and kumis.

Nowadays, many vacationers who want to see the world reach for primeval nature and the indigenous cultures of different peoples, thereby, as a rule, placing high demands on services and the way they are offered.

The Bashkir Southern Urals is very attractive in this respect, being the cradle of the Bashkir people and their original culture. It is known for preserving its primordial traditions and the nation’s original culture and way of life, and this provides a particularly good base for the development of rural tourism.

At the moment, several dozen agrotourist farms are operating in the republic. We studied five of the bestknown ones, located in a mountainous wooded zone of the republic, the Burzyan and Beloret areas, a substantial portion of whose income (40% and above) comes from tourism. Four of the farms offer agrotourist activities as a sideline, and only one is registered as a peasant farm.

All of the above farms offer a standard package of agrotourist services (accommodation, meals, guides, visits to a public bath) and additional types of service (excursions to the Bashkir National Park and the Shulgan-Tash Reserve, visits to historical and natural monuments, organized hunting and fishing, and so on). A farm can host up to ten people at once.

Vacationers are offered cozy spacious houses, wholesome home-cooked food, and entertainment (horseback riding, boating, barbecuing in open country, and so on) – everything that might be conducive to having a fine rest and creating psychological comfort is offered to tourists.

Some farms have their own apiaries and can offer honey and other beekeeping products (i.e., propolis and royal jelly). The income brought in is basically reinvested in farm development (purchasing horses, goats, and necessary housewares) and in expanding the range of services., In addition to residents of the republic and nearby regions, vacationers include tourists from other CIS countries, Estonia, Denmark, Germany, Poland, and Slovenia.

In general opinion of the farm owners surveyed, agrotourism brings in decent income; unfortunately, however, the stream of tourists is not constant, being of a seasonal nature and limited only the summer period, though it is also possible to host vacationers the year ‘round. The owners of the above agrotourist farms offer an extremely wide spectrum of services with minimum negative impact on nature. All of them have entered into close cooperation with the local Kapova Peshchera tourist excursion firm, which advertises their services and provides them with organizational, informational, and consultative support.

One of the farms we surveyed was the Druzhba. It is quite a large farm, located in a mountainous wooded zone of the Republic of Bashkortostan and specializing in dairy and meat production. In operation since 2002, it has 30 hectares of land and nearly 70 head of cattle, including 50 milk cows. Its economic activities are very diversified and include provender milling, horse breeding, beekeeping, and the rendering of agrotourist services. There are some boats and catamarans, along with the other accoutrements needed to go rafting on the upper White River. The farm’s market for agricultural products (milk, sour cream, cultured milk products, meat, honey, kumis, and so on) is vacationers and the inhabitants of nearby settlements. Fifty percent of the farm’s income comes from agricultural activity, while the second half comes from rendering tourist services (accommodation; meals; fishing; hunting; gathering berries, mushrooms, and herbs; rafting; horseback riding; sightseeing excursions; skiing; snowmobiling; and so on.).

Druzhba is oriented toward year-round reception of agrotourists and follows a flexible price policy for its services: the client pays as much as he thinks his vacation is worth, based on his own possibilities and opportunities. At the height of the summer vacation season, the number of visitors can be as high as 20 people per day. This creates a certain amount of tension the farm’s economic activities, due to its family character and the need to perform agricultural work.

To discover the potential demand among city dwellers for such services as agrotourism, and to determine the agrotourist potential of the region’s countryside, we carried out a sociological survey that involved 145 urban and 139 rural families from nine areas of the Bashkir Republic [1,2].

On the basis of our sociological polling and interviewing, we learned that 48% (i.e., almost one-half of those asked) were acquainted with vacations such as rural tourism, while 26% knew nothing about it and the same amount (26%) had heard just a little about it.

When vacationing in the countryside, city dwellers are ready to spend nearly 150 rubles per day, per person (32%); from 150 to 250 rubles per day, per person (26%); and more than 250 rubles per day, per person (14%); while 28% of those surveyed found it difficult to respond.

Among all of the village inhabitants answering the questions, 16% were satisfied with their income; 39% were satisfied, but would also like to increase it; and 45% were not satisfied at all.

The majority of surveyed rural families (72%) expressed a perfect willingness to receive tourists for some time, 48% agreed to welcome tourists only in summer, 22% would do so only in winter, 20% would the year ‘round, and 10% found it difficulty to say. In addition, 31% of the villagers could receive vacationers for an indefinite period of time, 29% could for a week, 27% could only for a weekend, and 13% could for a month.

People wiling to be involved in agrotourism attach quite a low price for their services: between 100 and 300 rubles. Hence, 8% of the surveyed villagers priced the daily stay of a tourist in their house at approximately 100 rubles, 29% priced it at 200 rubles, and the remainer would ask no more than 300 rubles [1].

Thus, the potential demand for the above variety of tourism, the unique natural recreational resources, the accommodation conditions, and the rural families’ interest and desire to engage in agrotourism create the basic conditions and preconditions for the development of tourism in the countryside of the Republic of Bashkortostan.

At the same time, a formidable obstacle to active development of agro tourism in the region is the absence of institutions that could provide a normal legal, informational, consultative, financial, and economic base for this type of service.

Nowadays, regulatory and legislative acts that would help regulate individual aspects of agrotourist activity at the federal, regional, and local levels remain virtually nonexistent.

One peculiarity of the agrotourist market emerging in Russia is that it is being put together from scratch, without the central government’s participation.

There is no clearly defined and institutionally fixed state decision on supporting agrotourism, and there is no national program or financial support. The need to adopt federal and regional programs for the development of agrotourism is therefore emerging. There should be concrete measures to create material, technical, institutional (legal, social) bases for the development of rural tourism; mechanisms (organizational, economic, financial) for its support by state and local authorities; and other preconditions and conditions for creating a favorable atmosphere for potential agrotourism regions [2].

In the formation and development of rural tourism, there should be a special place for an agrotourism support infrastructure, which, in our opinion, would involve a set of state, municipal, social, and commercial bodies whose functional duties are the organization and regulation of agrotourism regions. This agrotourism support infrastructure, in our opinion, should include the following:

- Political, legal, and methodological means of establishing legislative frameworks for the regulation of agrotourism, based on a comprehensive program for the strategic development of rural tourism in municipal regions, and taking into account the competitive advantages and disadvantages of individual recreational areas. (The program should be based on a systematic, scientific approach that naturally contains recreational, economic, marketing, investment, personnel, social, ecological and political components).

- Financing, credit, and investment security (including possible sources of funding, methods of accumulation, and ways to effectively utilize them on the basis of already existing and replicated credit structures).

- Organization, consulting, advertising and informational support for the advancement of rural tourism; the creation of an agrotourist farm database; holding round table talks and seminars for the local population; training them; and sharing of the best experience of leading travel companies and agrotourist farms.

- Developing rural infrastructure (roads, rural improvement and development, and so on) on the basis of the private–state and private–municipal partnerships (e.g., extending long-term preferential credit for improving trails and rural roads through the efforts of private businessmen and agrotourist farms).

Departments for the economy of municipal areas (foundations) should provide jobs for experts in the development of the recreation industry. Such experts should analyze the state and problems of tourist industry development; advise and inform regions engaged in tourism on a wide range of matters of interest to them; supervise the observance of tourist legislation; participate in working out regional programs and pilot projects for the development of tourism; and organize the holding of regional and international seminars and symposiums on the problems of development, plus exhibitions, fairs, stock exchanges, and so on.

Important conditions for helping build the rural tourism now developing steadily and rapidly in Russia’s regions (including the Republic of Bashkortostan) are strategic planning and forecasting for comprehensive regional development, marketing, taking advantage of foreign experience and, most important, the active participation of the local population and local authorities in creating agrotourism in a region, and their coordinated joint efforts.

References:

1. Barlybaev A.A., Akhmetov V.Ya., Nasyrov G.M. Tourism as a Factor of Rural Economy Diversification // Studies on Russian Economic Development. – 2009. – Vol. 20. – No. 6, P. 639-643.

2. Barlybaev A., Nasyrov G. Agrotourism in Bashkortostan // Economics of Agriculture of Russia. – 2009. – No 3, P. 81-83.