Target Tourist Groups in Russian East

Russian Far East is more often called not only a promising area of economic growth and interaction with countries of the Asian-Pacific Region, but also a tourist area. At present the Far East is mostly attractive for active, ecological tourism, people come here in search for pristine corners of the planet. However, such a kind of tourism is still more popular with foreigners than Russian people, and its development can significantly improve economy of the Far East regions.

Prerequisites of development of another direction — cruise tourism — exist in Khabarovsk and Kamchatka Territories of the Far Eastern Federal District. A peculiarity of this kind of tourism is cruise accommodation: one cruise liner can accommodate several hundreds or thousands tourists. At that, the entire required infrastructure (living quarters, restaurants) is present on board a liner.

In the latter case the target audience most loyal to cruise tours is Europeans. According to the European Cruise Council, while in 2010 Europeans made up 21% of all cruise tourists, as early as 2013 their share on the international cruise market amounted to 33%. A greater share of cruise passengers is represented by citizens of Germany, USA, France, Great Britain, Austria, Italy, and Spain.

It is not by chance that cruise tours in the Far East, in particular, along the Amur River, mostly attract German tourists. According to specialists, annually more than 1.5 thousand German citizens at the ITB Berlin register for tours along the Amur.

The second largest and, one should note, main target group of tourists in the Far East are citizens of trans-border regions. First of all, these are China, Japan and Korea. At that, one should take into account peculiarities and mentality of each country. For example, Chinese tourists are oriented at cognitive tourism to a greater degree than Korean and Japanese ones, every third tourist from China goes abroad to rest, while among the Japanese and Koreans — only every fourth. It is noteworthy that fewer Chinese undertake business trips, while activity of Korean and Japanese travelers in this sector is higher [1].

Chinese tourists are indeed the most promising, rapidly growing target group on the tourism market. According to a report of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), active growth of outbound tourism in China is explained, primarily, by rapid rates of the country’s economic development. Growing incomes of Chinese citizens will lead to changes in the consumer behavior pattern and, consequently, rising expenditure on vacation and travel. According to the tourism organization, on average, till 2020 the tourist flow from China will annually increase by more than 12%.

Apart from trans-border and European tourists, the Far East can attract inland tourists. However, there will be a rather small share of citizens of Central Russia in this group, owing to expensive air travel. Based on comparable prices, Russian tourists prefer beach holidays abroad.

For more information please see “Russian and World Market of Tourism” by Intesco Research Group.

The given figures were calculated by analysts of Intesco Research Group based on official statistics.

 

Based on data of the research work by D.G. Mirzekhanova “Delivering of Tourism Product within Trans-Border Territories (on the example of Khabarovsk territory)”