Buying souvenirs

Souvenir goods are among the most important components of attracting the tourists and heightening their interest in a particular city or a tourist event. EcoTourism EXPERT talked to Gennady Shatalov, Chairman of the Board of the Region PR, Public Relations Development Fund, and a founder of the Russian Event Awards - the national prize in the event tourism - about the development of this market and its prospects for 2025.

- Tourist souvenirs are an essential attribute of almost any trip. What can be said about the development of this market, what are its prospects?

- The domestic market of souvenirs for tourists is ten years old today. A decade ago, when we started the ‘Souvenirs for Tourists’ competition, people could see goods pretending to look like souvenirs of a ‘Russian Style’, but made in another country. We know that a lot of souvenirs were made in China.

Some companies keep on using Chinese manufacturing facilities, but this usually happens when large quantities are needed or the goal is to reduce the cost of production. But, for example, Yakut or Buryat craftsmen import plain porcelain, and as we see, they paint the porcelain pieces by themselves, taking into account the national motifs, culture, make them for a certain upcoming event, and so on.

- Practically everyone brings local souvenirs from trips. Especially authentic ones!

The anthem of our competition of souvenirs for tourists has a line that everyone really likes, “A souvenir is the crown of the whole trip”. Today, it is not just a part of any trip, in my opinion, it is the most important part.

- Why is it so?

- I recently summed up the results of my travels during the year. I visited 46 cities, 30 regions, and I visited some places three or four times. And many of my trips were connected with several regions at once. In each of the regions, I took part in some tourism events and, of course, I was simply overwhelmed with emotions.

When arriving in any region or returning from any place, a souvenir helps to keep memories, experiences, and emotions. This is typical of a human being to forget the earlier events when next events come. But at the end of the trips, you arrive home, and the souvenirs you bring become the ‘trigger’ that brings both emotions and memories to you again.

The memories come through the souvenirs that people keep. Souvenirs allow the memories to be materialized and preserved, as well as be deeply ‘frozen’ and resurrected again. And at the same time, of course, they serve as an element of promoting the area.

- The prospect of taking materialized memories home with you is very important, isn’t it?

- We are not talking about prospects, although it is clear that the market of souvenirs for tourists is very promising. Its development and future are connected with the growing tourist flow to the regions. We see the figures recently announced by Deputy Prime Minister Chernyshenko, and they are about different regions. And, of course, almost every tourist wants to buy something that helps in remembering the trip.

- I would like to mention that some souvenirs are quite expensive…

- Having conducted the latest research in 2024 when we interviewed representatives of the tourism business and the general public, we saw that the money tourists spent on purchasing souvenirs increased by 2.5 to 2.7 times.

It’s not that people are ready to pay a lot of money for souvenirs, I’d rather say that they are always ready to buy souvenirs. There was just little supply of souvenirs in the market. And now, there is a supply of high-quality souvenirs for tourists almost in all regions.

- Are there any problems that hinder the development of the market of souvenirs for tourists?

- It can be said that there are, practically, no problems limiting the development of this market today.

The fact is that the raw materials or materials the manufacturers use for making their goods are available locally, and in most cases, they do not need to import them from other places.

Perhaps, in some places there are problems with shopping floor space, the availability of sufficient quantity of shops, but new stores - may be, not many of them - are still opening.

In a word, there are no huge problems. Although, of course, it would be nice if regional and municipal authorities helped more in promoting the souvenirs for tourists. But this is not a problem, this is a normal story typical of souvenirs and many other goods for tourists.

However, it is being solved, the dialogue with tour operators and souvenir manufacturers is getting better. So, in general, this is a growth point rather than a problem!