English Summary: Mountain Ski Industry: on the way to development

Фото: журнал "Горнолыжная Индустрия России"

Development Prospects for the Mountain Ski Industry in the Russian Federation, the forum organized within the framework of the annual Moscow Ski Salon in October of this year, was supported by the Russian Ministry for Sports, Tourism and Youth Policies and attended by more than 120 experts, representing the Ministry for Sports, Tourism and Youth Policies, RosTourism, Soyuz-Expertiza, investment and management companies, by managers of design and construction firms, equipment suppliers and managers of mountain-ski resorts.

In his speech, Andrei Gavrilov, the deputy head of a department at the Ministry for Sports, Tourism and Youth Policies, elaborated on the measures proposed by the Ministry to ensure further development of mountain-ski tourism in Russia. These measures were devised on the instructions of the federal government in the form of a complex plan.

"Despite the continuing crisis, domestic tourism in Russia has been growing. The number of tourists is getting close to 32 million". Mr.Gavrilov emphasized that creating the conditions for successful development of domestic and inbound tourism remains a priority for his Ministry. Accordingly, bearing in mind that mountain-ski tourism becomes one of the prospective areas, the Ministry has devised a development program for the nation's mountain-ski and tourist complex. In particular, this complex of measures provides for an analysis of the legislative base for the construction and operation of mountain-ski complexes and making amendments to technical norms and rules regulating such construction and operation.

Prospective measures comprise finding sites for construction of new mountain-ski tourist facilities with an infrastructure meeting all modern requirements, analyzing the possibility of setting up complexes on the territory of parks and natural reserves. A plan for a thorough selection of recreation areas and a calculation of anticipated socio-economic impact from their operation has already been compiled. In the opinion of Andrei Gavrilov, successful development of such projects would be only possible with the government support. "Apart from government funding, we need favorable legal and financial regimes to be in place. We need serious changes in the existing tax regulation, passport and visa regime, customs and land legislation".

The existing practice of land allocation and the use of tax incentives for mountain-ski resort operators has to be analyzed by experts.

"We have to remember", says Andrei Gavrilov, "that the international mountain-ski industry has a 100-year old history. We are only in the beginning of the road". This postulate was confirmed by Natalie Saint-Marseille, a representative of Cluster Sim, an amalgamation of the French mountain-ski industry enterprises. In France, the world's leader in terms of inbound tourism, mountain-ski sports emerged back in the 1920s. All investments, made in the industry today, are renewable, i.e., used for improving the already existing slopes. With some €300 allocated to improve the French mountain ski infrastructure in 2008 alone, a lot of attention is paid to the issues of energy-supply and skiing safety, while the basic development trend in the industry relates to creating conditions for a year round resort operation and for family recreation.

The use of the best domestic and international practices is viewed as an important component for further development of mountain-ski tourism in Russia.