Unveiling the Mechanisms of the Nation's Largest Tourism Program

The Russian government has approved a state program for tourism development, focusing on the "Great Volga" project. This ambitious initiative aims to transform tourism in regions still in the early stages of development, offering a unique blend of landscapes, cultures, and experiences.

Led by Daniil Veretennikov, the head of the project, the "Great Volga" unites nine distinct types of landscapes, from the taiga to the desert, providing opportunities for water tourism and showcasing the rich cultural-ethnic diversity of the regions.

The mission of the "Great Volga" is twofold: to slow down tourism for sustainable regional development and to replace the concept of "seeing it all at once" with thoughtful and prolonged familiarization with the place. This shift towards less-known but promising locations is expected to increase revisitability, encouraging tourists to return to the territory to discover new, interesting locations.

Grigory Solomin, managing partner of the project and analytical company "New Land", emphasizes the importance of a seamless user experience. He envisions tourists enjoying great hotels without having to leave them to navigate broken streets.

Experts from "New Land" have applied a cluster approach, identifying 60 zones for priority development within the 12 priority development zones, known as macroterritories, for tourism. Each zone has a concentration of attraction points within a 45-minute drive. The "Great Volga" is one of these macroterritories, covering regions from Tver to Astrakhan.

More than 22,000 tourist attraction points are located on the "Big Volga" macro-territory. However, the search results do not currently provide information about the prioritized regions within the "Große Wolga" project for developing tourist infrastructure and slowing tourist flows to promote sustainable regional development.

The Volga regions are currently associated with "fast" tourism due to overloaded infrastructure in popular locations and a concentration of tourist flow in major cities and regional capitals. If the strategy is successfully implemented, tourist flow is expected to increase by 51% by 2030, reaching nearly 40 million trips per year.

The regions of the "Great Volga" boast a rich cultural heritage, with over 11,000 cultural and educational attractions and nearly 19,000 cultural heritage sites. This project promises to redefine tourism along Russia's majestic river, offering a more sustainable, immersive, and enjoyable experience for tourists.