GlobalPORT-2011 «St.Petersburg — the Sea Capital of RUSSIA. Sea Tourism»

III International Conference "Sea Tourism" in St. Petersburg

On the 7th of July, 2011 in St. Petersburg the III International Conference «Sea Tourism» was held within the framework of the project “Saint Petersburg - the Sea Capital of Russia” supported by the “United Russia” Party.This year's conference was attended by over 350 participants from 34 Russian regions and 10 foreign states.

Such issues as the solution of state regulation and support of boating problems that are included in the federal target programme "Development of domestic and inbound tourism in the Russian Federation (2011-2018 years)" were discussed at the plenary and working sessions of the conference. Representatives of the regions and foreign countries shared their experience of sea tourism, told about the problems and how they are solved.

In addition the issues of the domestic shipbuilding industry and the Russian passenger fleet, upgrading of coastal infrastructure, not only for shipping, but also for river boats, as well as the development of yacht tourism in Russia were raised.

One of the central topics of discussion was the introduction of "72 hours". An important direction of this regime development will be his introduction to such regions of the Russian Federation, as the Republic of Buryatia (Lake Baikal), Chukotka, Russia's Black Sea coast.

In the opening speech t, "St. Petersburg - the Sea Capital of Russia" Project Coordinator, Member of the Supreme Council of the Party "UNITED RUSSIA", State Duma deputy, the Arctic explorer and the first vice-president of the Russian Geographic Society Artur Chilingarov noted the progress that has been achieved by the work of the Project "St. Petersburg - the Sea Capital of Russia". Artur Chilingarov said, “The revival of ferry service in the Baltic was an important event. The number of cruise tourists has increased by 300 thousand. Visa-free entry to Russia for passengers of cruise liners played the key role. The decision that was taken by the Government of the Russian Federation provided a favorable stay regime for cruise travelers and had a huge impact on the attractiveness of Russia for tourism".

Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Viktor Olersky announced the planned measures for the development of Russian shipping, such as expanding of the scope of activity of the Russian International Ship Register (RISR) at all types of ships (sea, river and mixed "river-sea" navigation), built at the Russian shipyard after January 1, 2010, exemption from income tax in respect of the implementation of the operations of ships registered in the RISR, as well as the income from coastwise navigation, rating of a zero VAT on freight received with the vessels renting for a while (time charter) during the international transportation. Victor Olersky noted that the implementation of planned measures would involve the vessels under the national flag of the Russian Federation, create economic incentives for fleet renewal, including the river one, and provide additional tax revenues of $ 18.4 billion rubles to budgets of all levels (2011 - 2016 years), including tax payments from wage fund of crew in the operation of newly built vessels will be about 1.1 billion rubles. (2011 - 2016 years). Also additional revenue from tonnage tax (state tax) on the registration of newly built ships in the RISR and growth of the domestic fleet competitiveness in the market of international transportation can be expected. "One workplace on the ship will create up to fifty workplaces in related sectors of the economy", Olersky said. “In general, all these measures will strengthen the mobilization potential of the country”, Deputy Minister of Transport of Russia said.

Deputy Minister of Regional Development, Alexander Viktorov touched on the issue of the development of tourism in the regions, and noted that Russia "has great potential, especially in the development of river and sea tourism. We have programs in the South Federal District, the North West and the Far East”. Such an important issue as the development of cruise tourism on the highway of the North Sea Route wasn’t ignored. " In the future the tourist market in the Arctic should become an important and integral part of the national tourism market and an important component of the tourism market of other countries of the Arctic region", Viktorov said. He was supported by the report of the Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Murmansk oblast Victor Gorbunov, telling about the plans to transform Murmansk to the center of the Arctic cruise tourism. Gorbunov told about the main problems impeding the development of cruise tourism in the Murmansk port and announced the development prospects of Murmansk as a center of Arctic tourism.

An important statement was made head of the Federal Tourism Agency Alexander Radkov, "Now we are on the threshold of the adoption of the Federal target program for the development of domestic and inbound tourism. Such a program will be adopted in Russia for the first time in history. The amount of funding will be about 330 billion rubles, including 96 billion rubles from the federal budget".

Much attention was paid to the consideration of regional projects of the tourism industry. In addition to the Murmansk region, the projects were presented by such regions of the Russian Federation as Buryat Republic, Chukotka Autonomous District, Astrakhan, Vologda, Ivanovo, Novgorod regions and Republic of Karelia.

Annual Conference "Sea tourism" is supported by the Ministry of Sport, Tourism and Youth Policy, Ministry of Transport, the Federal Tourism Agency, Federal Agency of Sea and River Transport, the Federal Water Resources Agency, the Federal Migration Service; The Federal Agency for the Development of the State Border Facilities, Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, Federal Agency for Fisheries.

The result of the III International Conference "Sea Tourism" will be resolution, which will include all suggestions for improving Russian legislation for the further implementation of tourist and recreational potential. Resolution will be sent to relevant ministries and agencies to improve the legal framework in the area of sea tourism.