The broadcaster linked to the Russian Defense Ministry proposes a new tourist program: eight days in the places where the Kremlin leader likes to relax between fishing and trekking
Siberian holidays. Because “anyone can feel like a president on vacation”. This is how the new tourist program that started in early July in Russia reads, as reported by the broadcaster Zvezda, linked to the Moscow Ministry of Defense. A ploy to Western sanctions, which blocked direct air links with Russia, and an invitation to follow in “Putin’s footsteps” in Siberia or by car in Central Asia.
As reported by Zvezda, the difficulty in obtaining tourist visas and complex, as well as expensive air routes, have led the citizens of the Federation and the institutions to ‘reinvent’ summer holidays by focusing on internal destinations and private means of transport. It is in this context that the ‘Siberian Holidays’ tourist program got underway. “Anyone can feel like a president on vacation,” said the head of the federal agency for tourism, Rosturism, Zarina Doguzova.
But let’s see what the package includes. The tour route – it is explained – takes eight days for a total of about 1,200 kilometers and winds through the places where Vladimir Putin likes to relax between fishing and trekking: the areas of Tuva, Khakassia and the territory of Krasnoyarsk.
The south of Russia, on the border with Ukraine and where famous tourist resorts are concentrated, is interested in the extension of the closure of 11 airports, which began with the so-called “special military operation”. Tourists are thus forced to travel by train, bus or their own car. While Crimean hoteliers are forced to cut room prices and are struggling with a drop in demand, Sochi – a city in southern Russia, located in the territory of Krasnodar on the shores of the Black Sea – “dominates for the accessibility of transport” , explained by the Russian tour operator Inturist. “Until mid-August, four and five-star hotels are almost sold out. Strange as it may seem, the hotels in the middle and lower segments are less in demand, ”said the operators.
To go abroad, many will choose to move with their own means. For Russian tourists traveling by car, the government removed all Covid restrictions starting July 15, a month after the same decision was made for trains and planes.
The problem with neighboring countries remains that of visas, noted the director of the Turpomoshch association, Aleksander Osaulenko: “A certain number of nations with which we have a visa regime have not resumed issuing them to Russian tourists”, he stressed. adding that probably the most popular destinations this year will be Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the regions claimed by Georgia and which have declared themselves independent with the support of Moscow, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
And as in other sectors of the economy, tourism is also looking at China: “If Beijing removes all its pandemic restrictions this year – Osaulenko predicted – then for Russian tourists, the People’s Republic of China could very well become a destination. popular”.
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