Interest in cruise routes in Siberia, Baikal and the Far East has been growing since 2018 among both Russians and foreign tourists, but so far the infrastructure in the region does not meet the requirements of travelers accustomed to comfort, said Rishat Bagautdinov, head of Russian cruise company VodohodЪ.

"Our main business is organizing river cruises in the European part of Russia, but since the end of 2018 we have seen a constantly growing demand among both Russians and foreign clients to expand the geography. We have been asked to start moving towards Siberia, Baikal and the Far East," the head of the company told the Eastern Economic Forum - 2021.

In this regard, "Vodohod" in 2020 launched an expedition "five-star" cruise on the Yenisei River, which was created mainly for foreign tourists who wanted to see Siberia as it is, "without the fine, without the sham," he explained. Later in 2021 the company carried out the first tour along Baikal using a hovercraft.

According to Bagautdinov, the company aims to "take" affluent tourists aiming for 4-5 stars to Baikal, but so far the region's infrastructure does not meet the preferences of capricious travelers. "We understand that since it is our core business, our development on Baikal is the construction of cruise vessels. But due to peculiarities of Baikal area we can build there only small cruise vessels with capacity from 40 to 50 people", - he said, adding that such vessels combine several functions at once: accommodation and meals, mobility and possibility to show clients places of Baikal not accessible from the shore.

"If we speak about classical cruises in the Far East - when the port of embarkation and disembarkation for Russian tourists is in the country - then there is no possibility to launch a cruise in such classical sense" - said the head of "Vodokhod".

He explained that at the moment such cruises either start or end in the USA, Korea, Japan or Norway, which means obtaining a visa for the Russian tourist. Besides, the lion's share of such cruise calls at Russian Far Eastern ports is mostly expeditionary, and their cost ranges from $500 to $1,500 per day.

"If we talk about the prospects for the development of cruise passenger traffic in the Far East, it is certainly a derivative of the state of the coastal infrastructure. It is first of all about checkpoints, coastal transport, food, accommodation. If a vessel with 5 thousand passengers arrives in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky tomorrow or today, it will be a collapse, because it will take half a day, if not a day, just to go through the checkpoint. Besides, more than 100 buses will have to be delivered at once", - he said, adding that only development of the coastal and tourist infrastructure will allow to develop this direction of tourism in the region.

Made in Russia // Made in Russia

Author: Karina Kamalova