The resort infrastructure all over the country is all the worse with wear-and-tear, and its updating goes at a snail's pace. The spas are not too quick to provide vital conditions for vacationing and sanatorium treatment, said the President.
In a monopoly grip and with outdated managerial ways, Russian health resorts offer accommodations at bloated prices despite very inferior services. "We Russians have nowhere to go vacationing in our home country."
President Putin spoke up for overseas investment in Russian resorts.
He highlighted pivotal aspects of efforts to improve the vacation business and make it competitive. "These are, in particular, an up-to-date vacation industry to set up, its infrastructure to improve, landholding issues to settle, and investment to attract-from the overseas, too."
The federal government is debating an idea for special economic zones to be established in areas with many health resorts, said Mr. Putin as he called State Councillors to take stock of the prospect, with due consideration for previous bungles and setbacks in similar endeavours.
The State Council has an ad hoc team on the matter, and it has spoken up for special economic zones, he added.
Health resorts are entitled to stringent environment-protection arrangements, which rules out industrial production big enough to bring major profits. That is one of the burning issues, pointed out the President.
The State is in duty bound to do its bit for improving public health through spa cure-and it has a good chance to do that bit. "Better public health is among our key objectives, and the state cannot afford to keep aloof to it."
Closely linked to the matter are vacation costs, another issue Vladimir Putin offered for the council agenda.
"I am looking forward to practical ideas on how to make sanatorium treatment affordable," he said. "Federal duties in that field have been explicitly determined for today and, I deem, the top priority has been correctly appointed. That is children's vacationing."
The President buttressed his point with statistics. An annual average half a million kids have sanatorium treatment or reside at holiday hotels, with parents paying no more than 10 per cent of the actual accommodation costs.
Accommodations for limited-abilities persons-including industrially disabled and World War II veterans-are purchased on Social Insurance Fund money.
"However, a majority of Russian households cannot afford spa treatment at full accommodation costs," emphasised Vladimir Putin.
He switched to tourist industry to say that Russia has every opportunity to develop into sightseers' paradise. "This country possesses vast resources for tourism from end to end-from Kamchatka [on the Pacific] to St. Petersburg, and from Pskov and Novgorod [in Russia's northwest] to the Krasnodar Territory. It has everywhere a tremendous cultural, historical and natural potential. Yet we are using a mere 20 per cent of this, on expert evaluations."
As before, tourists prefer well-trodden itineraries. "They spend a mere third of what they do in, say, European countries-they have no chance to make spending, what with out embryonic tourist service infrastructure."
Meanwhile, "tourism can eventually make our most dynamic economic sphere, and promote progress in other economic fields-transport, communications and consumer services."
The President called the conferees to take stock of obstacles to the development of tourist industry, and see what is to be done to make it a lucrative part of the national economy.
