PANAJI: First Deputy Speaker of the parliament of the Russian Federation, Ivan Melnikov, has offered to convene a round-table to make proposals to improve the availability of new and safe tourist destinations for Russians. Cuba, South Vietnam and Southern China top the list of such destinations, but India is not being discussed as a safe destination for Russian travellers, sources said. Obviously, this will have an impact on Goa too.
This is after Russia has banned flights to Turkey and Egypt due to geo-political reasons. Both Turkey and Egypt used to get a very high number of Russian tourists every year. In 2014, the cumulative number of Russian travellers in Egypt and Turkey amounted to 7 million, while only 2 lakh Russians visited India. Clearly, there is a lot of potential for Goa and other parts of India to get Russian tourists due to geo-political events, but as of now India isn’t in the list of destinations being considered by Russian government as an alternative to Egypt and Turkey.
At the round-table, Russian government will meet the representatives from travel industry, including airlines and official delegates of few friendly countries in order to analyse how to provide cheap holiday destinations to Russians.
Over last decade or so, the flow of Russian tourists to Goa improved considerably. The beach areas of Morjim and Ashvem depend entirely upon Russia as a source destination for tourists. The last decade also saw a corresponding improvement in infrastructure in terms of better roads in Morjim area. However, prices multiplied too. A decent room in a guest-house on the beach in 2009 was available for Rs 200-300 per night, but now it is not less than Rs 1,000, while the quality remains the same.
High prices in Goa has been a concern for sometime now. A sea view, AC room in Vietnam comes for around Rs 700 per night but in Goa a similar room wouldn’t cost less than Rs 1,500.
"Before the crisis in 2014, Goa was on the wave of growth in terms of the attractiveness for Russian tourists. When I asked what was most attractive in Goa for Russians - the majority indicated its atmosphere and friendliness. Then, no one cared about the prices and the Russians came back here again and again." says the head of Russian Information Center, Ekaterina Belyakova.
The crisis began in 2014 with the devaluation of Ruble. Then Transaero Airlines, which used to bring 50% of Russian tourists to Goa, went bankrupt.
