Less hotels, more places: what happens to the hotel business of Tomsk

TOMSK, Jan 21 – RIA Tomsk. The number of accommodation facilities in the Tomsk region in recent years, according to statistics, has decreased, while the number of beds steadily grows by 5-7% per year. About what is happening to the Tomsk hotel service market and where new hotels appeared – in the material of RIA Tomsk.

There are more tourists

Tourist flow to the Tomsk region, according to the regional department of culture and tourism, according to the results of 2018, grew by 3% compared with 2017 and amounted to about 710 thousand people.

"The main stream – is business tourism: participation in various conferences and exhibitions, university congresses, as well as business tourists of large industrial enterprises", – the specialist of the regional department Olga Rumyantseva told.

She added that over the last two or three years, there has also been an increase in organized and personal cultural and educational trips to the Tomsk region, not only from neighboring regions, but also from the central part of Russia.

"At the same time, residents actively travel within the region, attend organized event actions and tourist facilities. According to such tourist objects such as the village park "Okolitsa", "Semiluzhensky ostrog" and the tourist and cultural center "Lampsakov Village", the number of visitors increased by more than 50%", – notes the interlocutor of the agency.

Ambiguous dynamics

According to Tomskstat, there are 165 accommodation facilities for tourists in the region with about 8.3 thousand rooms. Meanwhile, according to Rumyantseva, the real number of organizations providing hotel services is over 300. This is with taking into account enterprises for which this type of activity is not the main one.

"There are also apartment offices which rent rooms. It’s difficult to establish their exact number. Some of them do not fall under the state monitoring of collective accommodation facilities. At the same time, they take away a part of hotel clients and significantly reduce the economic indicators of the industry", – she said.

In general, according to experts, in the region there is a reduction in the number of accommodation facilities. This happens, in particular, due to the fact that large enterprises get rid of non-core assets. And other players leave the market due to the inability to compete with illegal apartment bureaus and rising costs due to inflation.

Hospitable newcomers

"At the same time, the number of beds in the region is increasing by 5-7% per year. This is due to the fact that the accommodation facilities optimize their infrastructure. The number of hotels with small rooms and hostels is also growing, which are micro enterprises and are not fully taken into account in the statistical reporting. Their growth is about 5-7% annually", – says the agency’s interlocutor.

So, in 2018, in Tomsk, on Belents Street, 17, a hostel of the "Hostel RUS" company was opened in franchise. The company today is the leader on the hostels market in Russia. Also at the end of 2018, the first guests were taken by the Mirotel Hotel on Mostovaya Street, 32b.

"Just at the beginning of December, the "Scandinavia" hotel opened in Makushina Lane, 12. This object turned out to be very interesting. The hotel industry specialists worked on it. The hotel also has a restaurant", – explains the agency’s interlocutor.

According to her, the new hotels are small – 20-25 rooms: "But they are all very comfortable and provide high-quality services. For example, "Scandinavia" plans to get four stars. They already have the documents for the classification, and in the near future they must complete this procedure".

Also last year, two new hotels appeared in Kozhevnikovskiy district – "Vega" and "From dusk till dawn". Both are located near the entrance to the district center – the village of Kozhevnikovo.

Star accommodation

The number of "star" hotels in Tomsk is growing noticeably. Today, according to Rumyantseva, about 20 objects passed the classification process.

“We already have four four-star hotels – "Toyan", "Bon-Apart", "Magistrat", Xander. We hope that the new "Scandinavia" hotel will be added to the list after completing the classification procedure in early 2019", – she specifies.

"Three stars" in Tomsk were received by "Classic", "Rubin", "Tomsk", "Soyuz", "Siberia", "Siberia-Forum", "Oktyabrskaya", "Sport-Hotel" hotels, and in Seversk – "Atom" and Center for business cooperation and recreation "Tom" in the village of Kaltay. The category of "two stars" has the hotel "Sputnik" and "Mirotel" in Tomsk, "Taiga" in Seversk. The "Rainbow" in Asino and "Tomintech" training hotel in Tomsk received one star. "Sogdiana" hotel in Tomsk was classified into the category "without stars".

"There is no five-star hotel in Tomsk yet. But we don’t see an urgent need for such facilities. First, the price in such a hotel will be higher than in the "four stars". And our "four stars" hotels are more than worthy. And there is no need in new hotels. Now it is more important to bring the existing ones into compliance with the quality standards", – the expert concluded.