Tourist flow in Primorye has grown by a third, which makes it difficult to find affordable housing during the season, head of the Ministry for the Development of the Far East Alexei Chekunkov told Izvestia on the sidelines of the International Economic Forum (SPIEF) on Thursday, June 16.
“Of course, our tourist flow has grown by a third, Primorye is showing a very serious increase. Like any drastic phenomenon, there are also negative sides: prices have risen sharply. During the season it is almost impossible to find a hotel at affordable prices either in Primorye or Kamchatka. Demand creates supply — there are a lot of projects, not only large-scale projects like Three Volcanoes in Kamchatka, we see dozens of small and medium-sized projects, the so-called camp sites. On the one hand, this is good, it also forms employment in medium and small businesses, gives people good services and, in general, this is diversity, ”he said.
Chekunkov noted the diversity and quality of recreation in the region, including in such interesting places as the Kuril Islands. He emphasized the special natural wealth of the Far Eastern lands, drawing attention to the need for infrastructure development.
“We have everything that you can imagine in the bowels, but transport does not reach everything, not everywhere there is energy in order to extract these resources. <…> And vice versa: where there are already roads, there are already power lines – there it is necessary to build new border crossings. Both Transbaikalia and Buryatia have valuable minerals such as copper, tin, lead, zinc, and so on. We are obliged to extract, process and sell on a high market everything that our fathers and grandfathers have explored. It is criminal not to implement it now. And I think that a good foundation has been created for this to happen, ”said the head of the Ministry for the Development of the Far East.
On June 9, Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed to increase the maximum amount of tourist cashback for trips to the Far East to 40 thousand rubles. The Russian leader instructed the country’s government to consider this initiative in October last year.