Solve a Problem of Spa Tourism in Russia
The average age of sap customers in 30- 50 years. About 40% of guests are regular clients. The most popular seasons are spring (When chronic health problems are acute) and summer (period of holidays and traditionally preferable season for travel in Russia). Spas offer tremendous discounts in winter, but because of low occupancy many summer conveniences do not pay back, and hence are not available. As Russian spas now have to face competition in the national market with outbound trips, standards of comfort will have to be urgently introduced at spas – to improve design and to upgrade services. This idea of introducing quality standards and quality marks was discussed within the Ministry of Health from March 1999, along with the idea of introducing new educational standards and new spa professions. Congress Tourism is being considered as a reason-able product of spas (at the moment about 80% of all major events in Russia are brought to Moscow, while resorts will tailor more reasonable prices and environment for the meetings).
From the middle of the 1990s, there were four objectives on the Agenda of resort and spa associations and regions:
4
Resorts and spas are to energetically take individual and corporate initiative to define ways of commercializing their business, making it profitable, as there is no return to the old command system of planning management, and distribution
Resorts and spas are to vary their products, including the products of adventure tourism, eco-tourism, congress tourism, as seasonality, low incomes and limited leisure time resources result in inadequate occupancy rates
Associations of resorts and spas are to create reservation procedures and marketing based on Information Technologies, those are to be of two types: providing for information and data bases and providing for trade
Associations of resorts and spas, together with research centres and education bodies are to create a bank of medical and spa treatment methods, which are most popular, so that this bank could be the foundation of the core product development.