Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, the head of the Federal Tourism Agency, blamed the problem on long periods of visa issuing, the large number of required documents, failure to promote the country's image abroad and infrastructure problem.
"We stand for a parity visa regime with other countries and any measures to ease the issue of visas always increases the number of tourists," Strzhalkovsky said.
He said the traditionally large influx of tourists from Poland would shrink due to the visa regime recently established between the two countries. He said that the number of persons coming from former Soviet republics formally as tourists, but actually as labor migrants, would also decline.
Foreigners mostly visit Moscow and St. Petersburg, Strzhalkovsky said. Last year, 2.9 million foreign tourists visited Moscow, or, 17% more than in 2003. The number of tourists coming to Smolensk in western Russia, the Vladimir region northeast of Moscow and the Tula region south of Moscow had increased. These regions offer a developed infrastructure and the number of comfortable small hotels, popular among tourists, is rising.
The Federal Tourism Agency says Russia should develop event-driven tourism to invite as many tourists as possible to various festivals, concerts, championships and other events.
From 2006, Russia intends to publish a calendar of events in its various cities. This will help small cities invite tourists to their hotels, Strzhalkovsky said.
