On March 5, the Moscow City government held a meeting of professionals in the tourist and hotel industry as well as an expanded session of the Coordinating Council for Tourism. During the session, which was headed by Iosif Ordzhonikidze, deputy mayor of Moscow for international and external economic relations, the results of the previous year in the hotel and tourist industry of Moscow were totaled and current issues and matters were resolved. According to Ordzhonikidze, last year was very revealing for Moscow and Russia’s hotel industry as a whole.
Tourists visiting in 2006 numbered 3.723 million, which was a 7% increase on 2005. According to estimates provided by international rating agencies, as cited by Ordzhonikidze, by 2020, the number of tourist, including foreign tourists, could rise to 15-20 million. “At this time in Moscow, there are more than 203 hotels able to accommodate around 68,000 guests, but, by 2010, there should be another 370 hospitality facilities able to accommodate around 120,000 guests. All of this is accounted for in the general plan for building hotels in Moscow,” says Ordzhonikidze. According to Ordzhonikidze, the construction of two- and three-star hotels is the top priority, and the number of rooms should be 67% of all hotel rooms by 2010. Boris Averyanov, first deputy chairman of the committee for external economic activity of Moscow, added that by the end of the year, another 17 mostly three-star hotels should be built in the city. As of today, according to Averyanov, there are around 20 hotels under construction, another 20 are at the design stage, 26 others are in the process of receiving permits, and more than 140 hotel projects are at the pre-design stage. “We plan to turn the country’s capital into an international tourist center by 2010,” confirms Averyanov. Andrei Krivoshein, president of the state company Moskva, broached the issue of staffing and personnel on the hotel market. He suggested creating a joint company not only to regulate the activity of all hotels, but also to resolve the shortage of personnel. Nikolai Solovev, president of the Mostourhotel association, continued on this topic, noting that personnel set to work in a new hotel must not be “rookies,” indeed, they should be graduates of special hotel hospitality schools. According to Solovev, there should be a framework of professionals to develop the next generation of hotel personnel. Nikolai Kalugin, general director at the Budapest hotel, touched upon a topic just as pertinent when speaking about the issues of investing in the reconstruction of old hotels and the construction of new ones. Indeed, in using the reconstruction of the Budapest hotel as an example, Kalugin spoke about how further use of the hotel is under question. According to Kalugin, the hotel’s owner having signed an investment contract with the city is causing massive headaches today. In fact, during the hotel’s reconstruction, a contract was signed, stipulating that 70% of the space would belong to the owner and 30% would belong to the city. As a result, the city and the owner are still not able to divvy up the hotel’s premises and, accordingly, the right of ownership on the hotel remains unregistered.
/ Source: Commercial Real Estate
|
