Mobilities and the Experience Economy
The term mobility refers to ability of movement from one place to another. Mobilities and the experience economy play a major part in the events industry. This is because during an event there are many movements taking place, such as people travelling to an event, or equipment being transported from one place to another. The mobility could determine whether or not an event is successful. Nevertheless the experience economy also plays main part in events, as it determines whether an event is successful or not. It is based on the experience the customers have, and whether or not they feel the event was enjoyable (Elliott and Urry, 2010).
Russia is the world’s largest country by land; therefore it has many world heritage sites (Centre, 2016). Furthermore Russia is so big that the climate varies according to the where in Russia the area is situated in. Even though Russia has the biggest land, the population is not as high due to the collapse of Soviet Union; therefore the place isn’t too crowded so there is plenty of space for tourist. This shows that Russia would be a great place to host a festival. This website will further explore the strength and weaknesses of Russian tourism and if Russia is suitable to host a cultural festival.
The aims of this website are:
- To give an insight on Russian tourism.
- To show whether or not Russia is a viable destination for a festival
- To demonstrate Russia’s natural and cultural resources, and the transport within Russia.
Travel Flow
The number of international tourist has continuously grown throughout the years leading Russia to be ranks in the top 10 for the top spenders in the international tourism (UNWTO, 2016).
The main tourist that usually visit Russia internationally are from china, over one million Chinese tourists visited Russia in 2014. (Russia Beyond the Headlines, 2016).
Furthermore Russia was ranked in the top 10 tourism destination in 2015, which shows that Russia is a popular place to go on holiday (UNWTO, 2016). Also, even though Russia stayed as number ten and did not move up, the number of tourist has increased which shows that Russia is improving on its tourism management.
Domestic travel trends
The number of domestic tourism within Russia has increased in 2015 by 1.3 million people, compared to 2014. Furthermore, the number of people travelling from internationally has decreased by 31%. (The Moscow times, 2016) This shows that people rather stay in the country instead of travelling to a whole new place. The increase in domestic travel could be linked to the recession that Russia is close to enter. Russia is in a slump right now and is getting closer to enter recession. Therefore the domestic travel could have increased due to the fact that people cannot afford to go on holidays internationally therefore they decide to stay in the country.
The leisure time available for Russians has increased since 1990, so Russians now have more free time to spend on holidays. They now also have 10 days of in January which they can spend on leisure. Some activities that have increases in Russians free times are golf and yachting, also other activities such as canoeing and camping. The car ownership continue to rise and therefore this increases the number independent holiday within the country such as camping. (Boniface et al., 2016)
Transport
Russia’s railway services need huge improvement (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2016). As seen in figure two, Russia’s transport links compared to other countries is very weak.
Nevertheless, Russia has the world longest rail way line called the Trans-Siberian that was build in 1891 and took 15 years to complete. It links Moscow to Vladivostok and is still operating. However, other transport links in Russia like airport are very strong. Russia is ranked the top 5 of countries with the most airports, of 1218 last recorded in August 2016 (WorldAtlas, 2016).
The biggest airport in Russia is in Moscow, therefore most international tourist would fist arrive to Moscow (WorldAtlas, 2016). The fact that there are ample amount of airports in Russia shows that the country is able to receive a large number of international tourists.
Due to the fact that Russia has a large land, many areas of Russia such as Siberia are only accessible by air; therefore the large number of airport comes useful in Russia. (Boniface et al., 2016)
However, there are many transports within Russia to use. There are public transports such as buses easily accessible. There are also ferry ride available in cities such as Moscow that are located near river, this transport link would attract more tourist to the area. (Lonely Planet, 2016)
Resources, attractions and events
There are many attractions both natural and cultural that draw tourist to Russia. One of the main cultural attractions in Russia is St Petersburg. St Petersburg has many history behind it such as the fact that it was founded as the Russian empire in 1703, but also it is a beautiful city that tourist love to visit (Boniface et al., 2016). It also has events like the St Petersburg music festival.
Another cultural attraction in Russia is Moscow. The most iconic building in Russia is located in Moscow and it is the St Basils Cathedral. The city has now become “modern” with thing such as sky scraper and decorated station in order to keep up with the target audience and therefore attract more tourists to the area. Moscow has now over 10 million people both tourist and local.
In addition to cultural attraction, there are many natural attraction that attract tourist to Russia such as the Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world (World Heritage centre, 2016). The lake Baikal is over 1600 meters in depth. From this it is estimated that the lake Baikal holds the fifth of the world’s freshest water. In 1987 the lake has become protected from any developments (Boniface et al., 2016). Another natural attraction that Russia has is the climate. The climate varies according the seasons and the area of Russia. So this means that Russia can be an all year round holiday area as the seasons are able suit each holiday type. For example winter in Sochi is great for skiing, but summer in a place like the black sea shore is great for a summer vacation. Another natural attraction is the Volcano of Kamchatka, this is well know active volcano, which tourist like to visit therefore it is great for tourist attractions (World Heritage Centre, 2016).
Russia has many events throughout the year that is able to attract both domestic and international tourist. Some examples of events Russia are the Russian winter festival. The Russian winter festival is a festival that celebrates the holiday coming and passing. The festival goes on from December 25th to January 5th, and celebrates the New Year. It is very popular. Another example of an event is the Moscow music spring festival. Furthermore another popular event is the St Petersburg beer festival (World travel guide, 2016).
Sochi Winter Olympics 2014
An evaluation of the countries tourism/events
Russia has many strength and weaknesses in terms of tourism. Russia has very big land as it is one of the largest countries that exist. So this means that there are many places to choose from when considering planning a festival. Also this means that there are many areas to explore, and due to the fact that there are quite good transport links such as buses, tourists are able to move around the large area (Lonely Planet, 2016). Russia was the host of winter Olympics 2014; therefore Russia has the image of winter tourism in Sochi. This could be further developed by focusing more on the winter tourism such as the ski resorts. Also Russia has many events like festivals already taking place throughout the year, which shows that there is a demand for it. Nevertheless, the festivals are usually not internationally known therefore there is an opportunity to expand on the international festival market in Russia.
On the other there can be some weakness when it comes to tourism in Russia. For example as mentioned before the railway transport links are weak compared to other countries, therefore this could affect the number of tourist wanting to travel around Russia as other public transport like busses might not be convenient for them as railway transport would be, because railway transport are usually faster and tend to be less crowded then public buses (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2016). Another weakness is that Russia requires a visa to enter the country from many countries such as America, UK and most part of Europe (Vfs.global, 2001). This could put people off from wanting to visit Russia, as it could cost them extra money and could take them extra time to gain the visa. A threat from this could be that people would not want to get a visa just so they can attend a festival in Russia and therefore they might look for an event in a country that is more convenient for them to get to.
Key Recommendations
Russia would be a great tourist destination area and it would be very suitable to host a festival from there. There are already well know and popular places in Russia such as Sochi, Moscow and st Petersburg that would be a great place to host it from. It is important that the events is hosted from city that is already well know to tourist as they are more likely to hear from it. Also the seasons is very important as well, because even though in summer Russia might have a great weather, in the winter Russia can be very cold which could be uncomfortable to stand in for too long at a festival. So there are many things to consider before setting up the festival. But overall Russia already has many event and festivals taking place that has been successful in the past, so it proves that there is a demand for this kind of event tourism.
Conclusion
To conclude, Russia has many cultural and natural attractions that result in tourist being attracted to Russia. Different areas of Russia can be easily accessed due to the high number of airport, and the public transport within the country is also quite simple due to the easily accessible buses, metros and ferries. Nevertheless, some people might still be put off from coming to Russia due the fact that visa is required in order to enter the country. People might not want to spend extra money or time on getting a visa. However this can easily be solved now days, as if you decide to book with travel agent, they tend include visa in the price and therefore make it easier for tourist. Therefore, Russia would be a great place to host the festival from and it would be a great opportunity to further increase the tourism in the country.
Reference list
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UNWTO (2016) World Tourism Organization. Available from http://www.e-unwto.org./doi/pdf/10.18111/9789284418145 [Accesed 10 Dec. 2016].
Vfs.global. (2001) Russia Visa Information - UK - Visa Types - Visa free regime. [online] Available at: http://ru.vfsglobal.co.uk/visa_free_regime.html [Accessed 11 Dec. 2016].
Weed, M. (2008) Olympic tourism. 1st ed. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
WorldAtlas. (2016) Countries With The Most Airports In The World. [online] Available from http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-highest-number-of-airports-in-the-world.html [Accessed 10 Dec. 2016].
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