Taras Fomchenkov
for EcoToutism Expert 
In the next two years, the number of river and sea cruises in Russia should increase and they should become more affordable - such goals were set by the Concept for the Development of River Tourism approved in 2022 and defining the vector for the industry development until 2024.
The Concept assumed that in the next couple of years, cruises in Russia would become more affordable and attractive to Russian tourists. The first step to be taken to achieve this goal was to increase the number of sea and river cruises in the country. In addition, it was planned to develop the cruise tourism infrastructure and improve measures of state support for enterprises involved in its creation.
The route network of Russian cruises was to be expanded through adding some new destinations to the existing ones, including those in the Arctic, Siberia and the Far East. And of course, new excursion programmes would have to appear.
It is worth noting that one of the goals of implementing the Concept should be doubling the cruise tourism market by 2035.
There is a real potential for this. Today, the cruise tourism is one of the fastest growing segments of the global tourism industry. In 2019, the number of travellers preferring cruising amounted to 26.8 million people (up 3.2 percent compared to 2018), while the Russian segment accounted for 500 thousand people only.
Of this number, more than 60 percent of the Russian (domestic) voyagers at the beginning and end of navigation season (in May, and from September to October) are over 60 years of age. In the summer months (from June to August), up to 50 percent of tourists are families with children and grandchildren of preschool and primary school age, and elderly couples make 30-40 percent. At the same time, statistical and market studies show that the younger tourist category has recently been increasing, which is due to the thematic cruise programmes offered and, in general, due to a higher popularity of this type of travelling.
However, half a million river and sea travellers are still a very small number. This is partly due to the rather high price for river cruises, which, in fact, is part of the ‘all inclusive’ system with additional excursions while their ships anchor. Today, it is better to book cruises in advance, although even in this case, the cost for some popular destinations can be very high.
For example, cruising for 5 days along the Volga River from Nizhny Novgorod to Moscow and from Nizhny Novgorod and visiting Yaroslavl, Myshkin, Uglich, and Kostroma could cost 49,000 roubles per person in 2022, and there were no vacant cabins left for mid-July. It could be a little cheaper to cruise from Moscow to Kazan in July (about 30,000 roubles per person), but all the cabins had been already sold out. However, the voyagers could enjoy an 11-day cruise along the Yenisei River last year, the cost of which was 542,000 roubles per person!
The cost of sea cruises on average was even higher. So, if you wanted to book a six-day cruise from Rostov-on-Don in the summer of 2022 and visit Novorossiysk and Anapa in August, then it could cost 85 thousand roubles per person.
In a word, the concept of the river and sea cruise tourism development was really required.
One of the main trends in recent years in building cruise ships has been the shift to larger and more comfortable cabins with fewer passengers on board. A modern passenger (cruise) ship can accommodate from 130 to 200 voyagers with accommodation in four-star and five-star cabins (from 18-20 square metres to 30-40 square metres with individual balconies), the Concept noted.
The authors of the project for the cruise market development in the Russian Federation think that those areas are particularly promising where large rivers like Volga, Oka, Kama, Yenisei, Ob, Irtysh, Amur, and others flow and which have a sea coastline line the Republic of Crimea, the St. Petersburg, Arkhangelsk, Kaliningrad, Murmansk, Sakhalin regions, Kamchatka, Primorsky, Khabarovsk territories and other subjects of the Russian Federation.
At the same time, all cruises on the rivers of Russia were provided by only a hundred of two-, three- and four-deck ships built back in the Soviet period. The average age of river cruise ships is over 45 years old.
There are also problems with the personnel for this tourism segment.
The Concept was elaborated within the framework of the Tourism Development Strategy in the Russian Federation until 2035.
Navigation will start soon. It will show if something has changed in the cruise tourism segment during the year.
