Issues of development of tourism industry and formation of new tourist routes in the republic were discussed at the visiting session of the Committee on Economy, Investment and Entrepreneurship, which was held today on the basis of the Volga State University of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism. Besides, parliamentarians considered the Report on results of activity of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Tatarstan for 2022, the bill on modification of the republican law on development of small and medium business, and also a number of federal bills.
The meeting of the profile committee began with consideration of the Report on activity of bodies of executive power of the Republic of Tatarstan for 2022. The 183-page document was submitted to the State Council by the Rais of the Republic of Tatarstan and is now under active discussion in the committees. Each committee is reviewing the Report in terms of its core competencies.
The Report provides detailed information on all the key areas of the republic's social and economic development and looks at the key areas of economic development through the prism of implementing the goals defined by the national projects," said Lutfulla Shafigullin, Chairman of the Committee for Economy, Investments and Entrepreneurship. "Tatarstan retains a leading position among Russia's regions in terms of the main macroeconomic indices. By the volume of the gross regional product Tatarstan ranks sixth (last year's GRP was over 3.8 trillion rubles), the volume of industrial production and agriculture - fifth, the volume of construction works - fourth, capital investment and housing construction - sixth, retail trade turnover - seventh place".
Oleg Pelevin, First Deputy Minister of Economy of the Republic of Tatarstan, delivered a keynote speech on the issue. In particular, he noted that the imposed sanctions and external restrictions, of course, have a significant impact on the republic's economy. Nevertheless, enterprises are searching for new supply chains and markets. There are comprehensive measures of state support for business. For instance, last year the republic's budget-funded businesses were allocated 40 billion rubles in soft loans, and more than 83 billion rubles were allocated to support small and medium-sized businesses.
Last year, industry, construction and agriculture made the bulk of the republic's GRP. The year-end industrial production index was 106.6%. The republic's economy attracted over RUB 880 billion in investments. In agriculture, the republic harvested a major grain crop in 2022 and produced 2m tonnes of milk for the first time in its history.
Last year, more than 4,000 facilities worth RUB 122 billion were built and extensively renovated as part of the implementation of national projects in the republic.
The deputies took note of the report on the activities of the executive bodies of the Republic of Tatarstan for the year 2022. The Presidium of the State Council was recommended to include this issue in the agenda of the next meeting of the Parliament.
The main issue on the agenda was the prospects of tourism development in the republic and new tourist destinations, as well as training of personnel for this industry.
Tourism is a complicated system of interconnected sectors and one of the most profitable businesses in the world, ranking third after oil export and car sales," said Lutfulla Shafigullin. Zero VAT on hotel services was introduced, and a number of programmes and incentives for businesses are in place, so interest in tourist facilities is growing. The situation with domestic tourism in the republic is also positive, but it's clear that there are huge reserves for improvement, and that we are at the beginning of the road to establishing domestic inbound tourism routes.
Last year the tourist flow in the republic amounted to more than 3.7 million people (an increase of 12% as compared with the previous year). According to this index Tatarstan occupies the 7th place among Russian regions and the first place in the Volga Federal District.
As Chairman of the Committee on Tourism Sergei Ivanov said, Tatarstan is actively involved in federal programs of state support for the tourism industry. Mainly they concern the development of infrastructure. So, last year support was provided to 19 republican projects of modular accommodation (out-of-town recreation facilities) that are being implemented in 9 regions of the republic. 13 projects from eight districts received subsidies to purchase travel equipment.
At present, the programme on creation of beach areas is being launched, and, as Sergey Ivanov said, Tatarstan counts on support of at least 18 projects in this field.
The head of the Committee mentioned increasing the number of tourist routes among the main tasks for the near future. Already today, apart from well-known ones - Kazan, Bolgar, Sviyazhsk, Elabuga - Chistopol, Tetyushi, Arsk, Mamadyshsky district and other municipalities of the Republic are of great interest among tourists.
Sergey Ivanov paid special attention to implementation of the project "Great Volga Route" that unites all cities of Volga Federal District, is represented by both river and bus and railway routes.
During the discussion, the Deputy Marat Galeev drew attention to the need to enhance the digital transformation of travel services to ensure that new routes are quickly digitised and information is kept up-to-date. Besides, according to the deputy, digital services should be expanded (hotel booking, transport accessibility analysis to the sites, etc.).
Separately the parliamentarians dwelt on personnel training for the tourism industry. Rector of the Volga State University of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism Rafis Burganov said that currently the university prepares about 4 thousand students in 41 areas of training being "not just an educational institution, but also the largest venue for event tourism in the country.
"Even in the difficult pandemic year of 2020, the university hosted more than 170 sporting, youth and tourism events, and in the first quarter of this year alone we have already hosted 17,000 guests," he said. "All this creates unique conditions for training practice-oriented specialists for the tourism and hospitality industry.
The university is actively involved in the WorldSkillsRussia programme and is a specialised competence centre for the tourism industry (tour operator and travel agent activities). The university already has a silver medal in the 2021 and 2022 National Finals in the competence "Tour Operator Activity".
According to Rafis Burganov, the demand for personnel in the tourism industry today is great. "The shortage of personnel in the industry is the main challenge of today," he stressed, "in addition, new requirements are imposed on the competences of those who are already working in this sphere. Therefore, as part of the implementation of the national project, it was decided to create a Centre for the Development of Human Resources in the Tourism Industry in our republic. The University developed the programme "Management of Development of Tourism Territories: a Project-Based Approach", which aims to help regions and individual territories to form effective teams, capable of developing the implementation of successful projects.
Today the university also offers secondary professional education programmes in addition to higher education. However, as the rector stressed, there is still a problem with the allocation of budgetary places.
Summing up the discussion, Lutfulla Shafigullin said that a working group tasked with preparing all necessary legislative initiatives for the tourism industry and related sectors has been created at the federal level. In particular, work is underway to create a regulatory framework for specific areas - rural, environmental, medical tourism. Regional legislation may be amended in this regard.
Also at today's meeting, a report on the work of the Committee on Economy, Investment and Entrepreneurship from October 2019 to April 2023 was presented. It has become a tradition to review the reports of the relevant committees on the legislative work done and the oversight issues considered during the convocation. During the reporting period, the Economy, Investment and Entrepreneurship Committee held 49 meetings and considered 204 issues, including 56 control issues. 29 republican laws in the sphere of activity of the Committee have been passed, 76 draft federal laws and legislative initiatives of the subjects of the Russian Federation have been considered. A detailed report on the work of the Committee will be presented at the next meeting of Parliament.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Republic of Tatarstan Rodion Karpov, First Deputy Minister of Digital Development of Public Administration, Information Technology and Communications Ilya Nachvin, representatives of educational institutions and programmes preparing personnel for the tourism industry also took part in the meeting of the Committee on Economy, Investments and Entrepreneurship.
Press Service of the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan
