Mikhail Mishustin: “We plan to allocate a total of almost 400 billion roubles to developing the industry over the next five years. As a reminder, about a quarter of a trillion roubles were already allocated from the federal budget during the same previous period.”
Mikhail Mishustin’s opening remarks:
Mikhail Mishustin holds strategic session on tourism development
Mikhail Mishustin holds strategic session on tourism development
Mikhail Mishustin holds strategic session on tourism development
Mikhail Mishustin holds strategic session on tourism development
Colleagues, good afternoon.
Today we will discuss the current stage of tourism. The president has identified the development of this sector as one of the pressing priorities.
The hospitality industry undoubtedly concerns millions of our citizens. Every year, they visit new places, learn about the traditions of various peoples, and become acquainted with their unique history and distinctive culture.
We can see a steady positive trend in tourist flow. This applies not only to domestic tourism but, equally importantly, to outbound tourism as well. Overall, over 90 million trips were made last year. Over the first eight months of 2025, growth has reached almost 5.5 percent.
This trend could gain momentum in the near future. Last week, at the Valdai Forum, the president announced that Russia is preparing to introduce a reciprocal visa-free regime for Chinese citizens.
Our main goal is to make travel as safe, comfortable, and accessible as possible, taking into account the special needs of the elderly and families with children.
In order to implement this, up-to-date airport complexes are being built, the highway network is being expanded, rail passenger service is being improved, and the number of river cruise routes is increasing.
Of course, the appearance of Russian cities is being actively renewed. More beautiful, comfortable places and public spaces are appearing. The hotel industry is also developing.
Communal infrastructure is being modernised. All regions of the country are paying special attention to transport accessibility and logistics. Cultural institutions in small towns are becoming centres of attraction.
The head of state has set a goal of increasing the tourism industry’s share of GDP to 5 percent over the next five years. Last year, this figure was just under 3 percent. To achieve this target, we must, of course, step up our efforts. We must revise our approaches where necessary and develop additional effective solutions.
We plan to allocate a total of almost 400 billion roubles to developing the industry over the next five years. As a reminder, about a quarter of a trillion roubles were already allocated from the federal budget during the same previous period.
All support measures are included in the relevant national project that was launched in 2021. This year, we continued to implement it in an updated format.
We are helping the regions to create new points of attraction. We are creating the required infrastructure for major tourism clusters, and we are helping build modular hotels.
As instructed by the President, we have launched large-scale projects to establish all-year-round resorts on the Black Sea and Sea of Azov coasts, on the Caspian and Baltic Sea coasts, in the Primorye Territory and near Lake Baikal. They will accommodate up to ten million people annually.
These are our plans.
To incentivise business operations, we subsidise loans for building hotels, parks, alpine ski resorts and water parks. This programme alone will make it possible to attract about two trillion roubles’ worth of investment in the next six years.
Last year, the industry received investment worth 1.1 trillion roubles, a three-fold increase on 2021 when our initiatives had just taken off the ground.
This made it possible to greatly expand accommodations. During this period, about 55,000 new hotel suites were completed across the country.
I would like to note that the state completely fulfills its obligations regarding various supporting tools. It is important that private businesses continue to keep their promises; all planned facilities should be completed on time, and our people should obtain high-quality and affordable services.
It is necessary to closely monitor all projects.
Colleagues,
The industry’s sustained development calls for involving virtually all economic sectors, including transportation and the industry, culture, agriculture and education. All agencies should coordinate their efforts in this field.
Let us now review programmes and projects supervised by you and evaluate preliminary results. Let us decide what else should be done to make Russia one of the most tourist-friendly countries.
