Экономические науки/ Региональная экономика

PhD student D. Vasilieva

Buryat State University, Ulan-Ude, Russia

Main directions of sustainable tourism development in Baikal region

The tourism industry is of vital importance to Baikal Region. It creates significant economic, environmental and social benefits for the Region, creating employment and economic benefits, supporting regional development, providing recreational opportunities for local residents and communities, and is an essential element of the Region’s identity.

The region has outstanding natural landscape qualities and through supporting product development and delivering customer expectation working together we can establish Baikal region as a world-class destination in which our visitors receive a good quality of service, where products and services exceed tourist expectations. This will maximize the long-term economic and social benefits which sustainable tourism can bring to the region.

By Rupublic of Buryatia President Vyacheslav Nagovitsin’s executive order year of 2013 was proclaimed a year of Tourism in Buryatia. Diversity of social events, conferences and meetings are scheduled for this year in order to encourage investment to the tourist objects and discuss ideas on possible ways of development tourist industry within Republic of Buryatia. Realisation of scheduled program will begin with “Opening week” which is held from February 11 to February 17, starting from celebration of Buryatia national holiday “Sagalgan”, meeting of New Year, taking place at Main Square of the city [1].

Republic of Buryatia is one of the richest in natural recourses and cultural heritage region of Russian Federation, thus promotion of tourism in the area is not only in local government concern, but also a part of national strategy of stimulation inbound and domestic tourism.

To my point of view, main work in promotion Baikal Region on national and world arena has to be done in destination management:

1. Destination Development: The pursuit of a type, style and level of tourism that contributes to the social, cultural, political and environmental sustainability of a place to live, to work and to visit.

2. Destination Marketing: The promotion of tourism both within and outside a destination to attract and influence visitors.

3. Destination Management: The pursuit of strategies and practices that promote balanced, sustainable administration and management of the destination.

There is recognition that the Tourism sector of the Baikal Region has the potential to further improve the product and subsequently has the ability to increase the financial contribution to the region’s economy.

To establish Baikal region as a world-class destination in which our visitors receive a superb quality of service, where our products and services exceed their expectations we have to reach below listed objectives. This will maximize the long-term economic and social benefits which sustainable tourism can bring to the region.

First of all, increase the volume of Visitors to Republic of Buryatia. Ensure the product offering meets the needs of target markets. This will be achieved through conducting a detailed product audit to ensure that ‘the product’ of Buryata is in line with customer’s needs and expectations and will include an audit of accommodation providers, visitor attractions, the landscape, cultural offerings and key sectors within the industry. The audit will also benchmark Republic of Buryatia against other competing destinations to evaluate practices and approaches that may assist in our region attracting more visitors and extending the traditional seasonality of tourism in the region.

Second, increase the visitor average spends. Extend dwell time, increase spend opportunities and ensure quality of visitor experience reflects/exceeds market expectations. More effective marketing, packaging and promoting of the region’s existing and new products such as Baikal lake winter and summer tours, Ethnical tours, including Buryat, old-believes and Cossack’s settlements, ecological tours, etc; cultural and creative products will be undertaken; and encouraging collaborative working between tourism businesses. Visitor information services will be evaluated to ensure that visitors, when making decisions on their holiday destination and once they have arrived, have access to information on what the region has to offer to entice them here and prolong their stay and spend.

Third, fulfill the potential of people. Enhance skills base of tourism workforce, create jobs and change dynamics of employment in the tourism sector, encourage personal investment in the tourism sector.

The skills base of the people who work within our tourism industry play a crucial part in the customer perception of the region. This coupled with having the hospitality sector viewed as one that has real employment and career opportunities for the workforce within Republic of Buryatia, provides the industry through this strategy, a real opportunity to raise the skills base. Working with appropriate training and skills organizations and education establishments will enable the customer service skills to be heightened. The aim is to increase visitor satisfaction, provide employment opportunities and a career path for the region’s workforce and encourage investment into the Tourism Industry.

Forth, optimize the mutual benefits for community and Industry through Tourism.

Ensure the wider social community, its representatives and the tourism sector work in tandem, to reinforce the importance of the community element of the tourism experience is recognized and ensure the wider community fully understands the benefits achieved through a vibrant tourism economy.

The aim of creating a region wide campaign on ‘Tourism is everyone’s business’ will enable communities throughout the region to recognize the value that tourism plays; not just financially into the region’s economy but also in support of the infrastructure within many of our communities – whether it being the village shop staying open throughout the year due to the tourism spend or the employment opportunities for the local workforce. Tourism plays a key role in maintaining the vitality of local communities. The campaign will enable this to be clearly recognized and appreciated within the region’s communities, towns and villages.

Fifth, tourism to be a well supported cornerstone of Republic Economy. Ensure collaboration, joint working and advocacy investment in tourism, collaborate and work jointly on accessing public and private sector funding, ensure targets are prioritized to make best use of scarcer resources.

Funding for product development, whether premises or the landscape, will undoubtedly be challenging over the next few years; collaborative methods of working will enable ‘cocktails’ of funding to be developed for identified and prioritized capital and revenue projects.

Sixth, have a better informed Industry. To improve market intelligence, improve access to and circulation of market intelligence, to create and maintain opportunities for better collaboration and cohesion.

Taking into consideration current state of things, realization of above stated strategy will involve years of hard work from different levels of the Government, community and private sector. Situation in the region is also exacerbated by national touristic issues that keep the number of tourist in Russia low. Main problems Russian tourist sector is facing on the national scale are: expensive hotel services, undeveloped transport infrastructure, low service quality, problems receiving a visa. On regional scale main obstacle in achieving before mentioned goals will be – remoteness from the capital, where the main stream of tourists arrive, high cost air and railway transportation, scarcity of well trained managers within tourist field, sever climate condition, especially during winter season. Recognizing that we have those problems is already a step towards solving it. Facing those challenges, Government with collaboration with private business and local community in order to establish Republic of Buryatia as a hot spot for tourist around the globe have to develop a concrete plan of actions in a due time and this year, being a “Year of Tourism in Republic of Buryatia” might be a right time to do so.

Literature

1. Открытие года туризма и Сагалгана 2013 пройдет с небывалым разахом [electronic recourse] // Tourism and Recreation In Biryatia. Republican Tourism Agency [Official website] URL: http://baikaltravel.ru/year_tourism_main/ (дата обращения: 10.02.2013).