The Development of Business Tourism in Russia. Часть 1

A business trip is a journey made somewhere and back again for a variety of business purposes in one's working capacity. [1] Nowadays 250 000 people make business trips daily. Business travel plays a crucial role in the development of the national economy of any country. As every year business, cultural and scientific relations between the regions and countries are becoming more intense the development of the national economy and its integration into the world market is inconceivable without the development of the sphere of business travel.

To define "business travel" experts often use an English term, an acronym - MICE, which precisely reflects the structure of this kind of tourism and includes Meetings / Incentives / Conferences / Exhibitions.

All in all, the sphere of business travel is very versatile. More than 73% of its volume is so- called corporate travel when businessmen participate in events held by industrial and commercial corporations.Business tourism also includes incentive tours - trips organized by companies to motivate employees, mainly engaged in the promotion and sale of the goods produced by the company. Business travel aimed at the participation in congresses, conferences, seminars for the purpose of discussion political, economic, scientific, cultural, religious and other topics, make up about 16% of the business travel market in the world. And finally, 11 % of business travel are trips to trade fairs, exhibitions and participation in their work. Business communication, exchange of technology and information, search for new markets and partners for investment and common projects to promote companies through PR - actions, training, and implementation of corporate culture - all this is included in business tourism. [6]

The necessity of the organization and operation of corporate travel, as well as the numerous activities in the field of business tourism has created a powerful service industry. Business tourism infrastructure includes exhibition and congress centers, business hotels, business aviation, billing system, advanced technologies, thanks to which businessmen regardless of their location are able to work, control and lead their businesses.

The concept of business travel is quite new and very few travel companies offer business tours as a separate line of tourism service. A world tour - flow of business travelers is 25-30 %, in Russia - less than 20 %. For instance, in the year 2010 the number of business travellers to Russia was 4.4 million. According to foreign experts, in 2020 the number of international business trips will increase three -fold - from 564 million to 1, 6 billion a year. Business tourism is becoming one of the most profitable industries in the world tourism industry. The turnover of the sector will increase by 5 times - from $ 400 billion to 2.0 trillion. Business in Russia is strong enough centralized in large cities, that is why 60% of all business travelers come to Moscow and Saint Petersburg. [2]

To create the infrastructure of inbound business tourism some steps have been made in recent years in Moscow and regional centers. Numerous business hotels and business centers have been built, calendar of congresses have been expanded, exhibitions, forums and other business events have been organized. Not only many large international exhibitions on various industries and areas of production, but also conferences and trade fairs for the widest range of visitors are carried out in Russia. They accumulate a lot of specialists from Russia and abroad. Russia follows the lead of many countries across the world and almost every year holds one or another international forum. [3,4,5]

Among the major market players in business travel in Russia are “Intourist”, “Epic Travel“, “Elios Travel”, “Business Center Planet Tour”. Large Western corporations - American Express, Rosenbluth, Euro Lloyd, Carlson Wagonlit also function in the RF. Private sector comprises companies that specialize in business travel, booking tickets and hotels. They are “Aero Club “, “Inna Tour “, “Andrews Travel House”, “Infinity Travel” and others.

Large industrial and cultural centers such as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Samara, Togliatti, Sochi, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Vladivostok and others are increasing the number of conveniently located congress hotels (usually Category 4 * and above) equipped with everything needed for business and congress tourism, and the old ones are upgraded, taking into account business needs.The situation in the regions is much worse.

А. С. Юшкова
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