Health tourism trends, striking cases of regional development, news of auto tourism and other topics of the business program on March 19

The second day of the MITT 2025 exhibition has ended, which was remembered by participants and guests for its rich business program events and presentations of countries and regions at the stands. We share the main results.

Panel discussion "Health tourism for the most effective vacation. Trends in industry supply and growth forecasts for 2025"

The discussion was moderated by Mikhail Danilov , Medical Director, Association of Health Tourism and Corporate Health.

As part of his report, the expert presented industry dynamics and explained the reasons for the 6.4% increase in 2024 in the number of guests and 1.9% in the number of overnight stays. The reasons include:

// Reorientation towards domestic tourism instead of outbound tourism
// Preference for sanatoriums in the home region
// Government support: promotion of domestic tourism
// Growing demand for health-conscious holidays
// Improving the quality of health resort services and renovation of individual sanatoriums
// Development of new forms of health products and expansion of the audience
// Growing demand for anti-stress recreation

As the speaker reported, the total volume of the health tourism market in the Russian Federation amounted to 7.67 million guests per year.

Next, Mikhail Danilov cited industry trends and consumer trends, based on data from a survey of AOT members:

// Maintaining demand for traditional forms of spa treatment
// Increasing demands on the quality and efficiency of medical activities
// Growing demand for quality diagnostics
// Growing demand for personalized programs
// Expanding the age range of the audience
// Increasing the proportion of "family guests" (with children)
// Reduction in length of stay, growth in demand for short-term trips
// Increase in the share of weekend trips.

The expert also spoke about demographic factors and the consequences of population aging:

// Increasing the average age of working (potential employees)
// An increase in the proportion of employed, economically active persons aged 45–59 years and, possibly, older persons
// Increase in the number of potential guests of the sanatorium.

The audience also learned about possible options for potential consumer demand and development of industry supply taking into account the SCL:

// Maintaining active performance (integrative medicine, biohacking, etc.)
// Prolonging professional longevity in middle and old age
// Effective treatment of chronic diseases in middle and old age

As the speaker reported, according to tour operators, in 2023, there was a shortage of places in popular health resort destinations (KMV, Krasnodar Krai, Belokurikha) = 47%, sales depth for 5-6 months = 95%. According to Rosstat, the occupancy rate in the Russian Federation in 2023 was 47.5%.

Mikhail Danilov identified the most likely reasons for uneven loading in the industry:

// Absence of some SKO on the commercial market.
// The mismatch between the offer of individual housing and communal services and consumer demand: worn-out stock, low level of service, lack of promotion on the commercial market (zero marketing) and sales service, lack of leisure.
// Insufficient number of accommodations (rooms) and associated services (treatment and food) of the required level.

Possible solutions include:

// renovation of worn-out buildings
// service process reengineering
// activating the entry of health resorts owned by government departments and regions into the market
// construction of new facilities.

“The transformation of demand creates new forms and strategies of health products, such as a multidisciplinary sanatorium with additional services, a specialized single-disciplinary sanatorium, a boarding house with treatment, a thermal center, a country clinic of preventive medicine, an anti-stress hotel, a fitness hotel,” added Mikhail Danilov.

Elena Kiseleva , a partner at Strategy Partners, gave a presentation at the session . She reported that over the past 10 years, the offers on the health and wellness tourism market have been replenished with new forms; health and wellness tourism centers have been opened primarily in Stavropol Krai, Krasnodar Krai, and Moscow Oblast.

Among modern SKO, classic sanatoriums make up about 40%, related formats and Wellness/Medical hotels – 37%. More than 20% is occupied by a new format – clinics with accommodation, including preventive medicine clinics.

As the expert emphasized, new SKOs are distinguished by high-quality room stock and infrastructure, the programs depend on the profile of the facility. Also, new formats have a higher average bill in contrast to classic sanatoriums. At the same time, the occupancy rate of modern SKOs is higher than the market average, which indicates their demand.

Olga Zakharova , Deputy General Director of the Urban Economy Division, ANO Agency for Strategic Initiatives for the Promotion of New Projects, took the floor at the discussion .

Expert's theses:

// It is important to invest in real estate, improving the infrastructure of health centers
// Focus on prevention, change of approach – from “disease-centric” to “health-centric”
// Successful sanatoriums receive 35% net profit, the payback period is 10-12 years.

Olga Zakharova identified 4 main trends:

// Transformation of long old age into active maturity
// Development of an urban complex environment around health centers
// Demand for Women's Health Support Programs
// Local product as a basis for the development of the wellness industry and health practices.

Sponsors and partners: Sber (Title partner), Mantera Group (General partner of the business program), Association of health tourism and corporate health (Partner of the section "Health and medical tourism"), Association of auto-motor tourism and caravanning (Partner of the section "Caravanning") and others.

Session "Safe Harbor of the Tourism Business 2025: Analysis / Finance / Figures"

In addition, the Sber Arena hosted a session titled "Safe Harbor of the Tourism Business 2025: Analysis/Finance/Digital". The session was moderated by Konstantin Markov , Executive Director, Center for Industry Expertise "Tourism" of Sberbank .

Vladimir Kulikov, Head of Public Sector Products at SberAnalytics, gave a presentation entitled "Portrait of a Modern Tourist. How Travelers' Preferences and Opportunities Are Changing."

According to him, the growth of tourist flow in 2024 continues, but the growth rate is declining (162 million tourist trips in 2024).

Seasonality in the distribution of tourist flow is being transformed. Russians have begun to travel more often for the New Year holidays, and July is therefore becoming the peak month for tourism. Tourist mobility of the population is increasing (11% increase in the average number of trips made by tourists in Russia).

Tourist trips around Russia are becoming more and more intense – about 25% of all trips were on composite tourist routes, including visits to several cities or regions. More than 50% of composite routes included a visit to a regional center, which is the main entry point to the region. A third of tourist trains are made to small and medium-sized municipalities (an increase of 2 percentage points).

The growth of population income plays a key role in the growth of tourist flow. In 2024, tourists spent more than two trillion rubles on trips (+11.2%). More than 42% of all tourist expenses are made by residents of the capital regions: Moscow, Moscow region and St. Petersburg. In 2024, tourists made more than a billion purchases using cards (an increase of 31%).

Strategy Partners partner Elena Kiseleva highlighted the main problems for attracting tourists to new points of attraction:

// Insufficient transport links to key tourist centres.
// Underdeveloped tourist infrastructure.
// Low level of general amenities.
// Low awareness of the target audience.

~10-15% – expert assessment of the provision of cultural, educational and natural attractors with tourist infrastructure in the regions of the Russian Federation.

In conditions of limited resources for the development of tourism infrastructure, the most effective is the cluster approach to territorial development.

Maria Masenko, Head of the Department of Industry Expertise Center "Tourism" of Sberbank PJSC, shared a presentation on the topic "State support measures in tourism".

The expert identified the following support measures:

// Preferential lending (RF Government Resolution of 09.02.2021 No. 141).
// Zero VAT rate for KSR (Tax Code of the Russian Federation, Article 164).
// Provision of land plots without tender (Land Code of the Russian Federation, Article 39.6).
// Grant “Agrotourism” (RF RF dated December 16, 2021 No. 2309).
// Co-financing of the construction of supporting infrastructure (RF Government Resolution of 19.02.2022 No. 218).
// Residency in the SEZ (Federal Law of 22.07.2005 No. 116).
// Unified tourist subsidy (RF Government Resolution of 24.12.2021 No. 2439, Appendix No. 17).
// Zero VAT rate for tour operators (Federal Law of the Russian Federation of July 31, 2023 No. 389).
// Preferential lending program for SMEs (Federal Law of the Russian Federation of July 31, 2023 No. 389).

Sponsors and partners: Sber (Title partner), Mantera Group (General partner of the business program), Association of health tourism and corporate health (Partner of the section "Health and medical tourism"), Association of auto-motor tourism and caravanning (Partner of the section "Caravanning") and others.

Session of the Kommersant conference at MITT "Growth points for the development of tourism infrastructure in small cities"

The moderator was Amalia Akopova , creative producer, author and host of “House is Good!” on Moscow FM, editor-in-chief of programs on federal channels, lecturer of the Russian Society “Knowledge”.

Among the speakers at the session dedicated to the development of small towns was Natalia Pletnikova , head of the transport solutions center of the Modern Transport Technologies Group. According to the expert, the goal of a small town wishing to develop its tourist attractiveness is to increase the tourist flow and increase the average bill of the region.

The speaker then spoke about three categories of auto tourists and their characteristics:

// Large tour groups: need souvenirs and food, little free time, need to organize leisure activities.
// Average: more free time, need food, do not need leisure activities.
// Families: need accommodation, food, souvenirs, leisure activities, a lot of free time.

Expert statistics:

// 75% consider a car as a priority transport for travel
// 30% are “non-supporters” of car tourism, the reason being the lack of a personal car
// 77% are ready for multi-modal travel, consider traveling not only by personal transport
// 93% are ready to get a new experience of traveling in motorhomes.

The tourist infrastructure, as Natalia Pletnikova emphasized, should be built for a separate event and for each day, and include:

// convenient transportation
// place for eating, including for children
// souvenir products
// the main reason for visiting
// clear support program
// confidence in safety
// unified event management.

The expert also put forward several proposals to business representatives:

// Institutional Federal Investor Needed
// To meet mass demand, the concept of developing auto tourism needs to be refined in terms of focusing on camping sites in tourist areas and increasing the availability of tourist transport for small and medium groups.
// It is necessary to launch a pilot project in a test region.

Sergey Slabunov , an entrepreneur in the creative and event industry, park manager, eventor, restaurateur, and tourism and territorial development expert, spoke about the limiting factors in the development of local tourism . These factors include:

// insufficient information support for locations, products, routes. Systematic marketing of domestic tourism has not been implemented;

// there is no single information field for government agencies and tourism market participants;

// Most facilities do not provide a minimum set of services for tourists;

// insufficient product research: price and value, content, target audience compliance, guest journey, staff, packaging, atmosphere. In conditions of low competition and demand, individual elements of the tourism product lose quality;

// ideological aspect: there is no work to popularize the native region at the level of schools and universities.

All these factors have a detrimental effect on the investment attractiveness of the region.

Afterwards, the speaker proposed solutions to the identified problems, including digitalization of the industry, a marketing strategy taking into account the characteristics of the target audience, development of a block of events, inventory of objects, changing the format of the TIC, implementation of a tactical media plan for the summer with local traveling bloggers, work with the local population (including the creation of a subordinate organization for school tourism).

Sponsors and partners: Sber (Title Partner), Mantera Group (General Partner of the Business Program), Monchegorsk (Partner of the Business Program), Travelline (Partner of the Travel Tech Section), Ostrovok (Partner of the Business Program), Altai Republic (Mountain Partner), Sevastopol (Partner of the Plenary Session), Tbau (Partner of Drinking Water), Chuvashia (Region-Partner of the Plenary Session) and others.

Expert session "Autotourism and ecotourism: synergy for nature conservation"

Natalia Kostenko , State Duma deputy, deputy head of the State Duma Committee on Tourism and Development of Tourism Infrastructure, National Association of Auto-Motor Tourism and Caravanning: “Auto-tourism is still associated by some of the population with a detrimental impact on the environment, so we are creating a program with an emphasis on the environmental aspect of this type of travel . ”'

The speaker noted that there are general rules for visiting national parks, but each has its own situation - some have parking areas, trails, and the necessary signs, while others do not have such important elements and tourists do not know at what point they cross the territory of the national park.

The second problem is that the sites for auto tourists are used by truck drivers, which ultimately affects the comfort of travelers.

The third problem that the expert highlighted is the low level of service for car tourists at gas stations. In addition, there are no waste disposal points - a problem of maintaining an environmentally friendly environment.

Svetlana Antonova , founder of Charysh Partners LLC, spoke at the expert session . The audience learned about bio-eco-settlements: a settlement with a population of up to 1,000 people that independently provides itself with food, electricity and heat, and also disposes of its waste using technologies that imitate natural processes. Such settlements are planned to be located on territories from 1 to 10 thousand square kilometers. To create bio-eco-settlements, it is proposed to use modern biotechnology, local resources and off-road or off-road transport. This will provide residents with everything they need and solve the problem of uniform development of the territory of the Russian Federation.

The discussion of the development of bio-eco-settlements in Russia is taking place within the framework of the preparation of the national project "Bioeconomics". The main driving factor of this movement, as the expert noted, is the Kurchatov Institute.

The program of integrated and uniform development of bio-settlements, according to the speaker, can become the key to Russia's leadership in the socio-economic space and can help solve the demographic problem. Such a model of the country's development allows for the most efficient use of available resources - area, environment, etc.

Another speaker was Olga Filipenkova , First Deputy Minister of Economic Development of the Altai Republic.

As mentioned, the Republic is visited by over 2.7 million tourists annually. The region has developed a concept of auto tourism, and the auto route “Discover your Altai: a dream trip” has already been prepared, available on the region’s website. The length of the year-round route is 1,050 km, it is designed for five days.

Sponsors and partners: Sber (Title partner), Mantera Group (General partner of the business program), Association of health tourism and corporate health (Partner of the section "Health and medical tourism"), Association of auto-motor tourism and caravanning (Partner of the section "Caravanning") and others.

Expert session "New tools for increasing the index of tourist attractiveness of regions, marketing strategies of destinations"

The session moderator is Veronika Kovaleva , a PR/marketing expert in the restaurant industry. The floor was given to Ekaterina Sumenkova , project manager of the Urban Economy Division, Agency for Strategic Initiatives of the Russian Federation. She spoke about the initiative "Gastronomic Passport of the Region", in which more than 60 regions have agreed to participate to date.

It is precisely such projects, as the speakers stated, that allow the identity and originality of the region to be conveyed. The importance of transforming approaches in secondary and additional education, the need for training programs for guides and gastrotourism specialists were also noted. One of the successfully implemented examples is the "Taste Lessons" project for schoolchildren in Kaliningrad.

Samvel Sarukhanyan , General Director of the Mriya resort, Republic of Crimea: “To form a destination, infrastructure is needed to develop projects, ensure a flow of guests and conditions for business.”

Sponsors and partners: Sber (Title Partner), Mantera Group (General Partner of the Business Program), Monchegorsk (Partner of the Business Program), Travelline (Partner of the Travel Tech Section), Ostrovok (Partner of the Business Program), Altai Republic (Mountain Partner), Sevastopol (Partner of the Plenary Session), Tbau (Partner of Drinking Water), Chuvashia (Region-Partner of the Plenary Session) and others.

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Results Of The Second Day Of The International Exhibition Mitt 2025.