Travel Notes

Easyjet to Moscow

European budget carrier Easyjet has started flying to Russia. Flights from London’s Gatwick to Moscow’s Domodedovo airport start at $85 for a one-way flight. The company will also fly to the Russian capital from Manchester, with rates starting at below $80. The London route is also served by Aeroflot, Transaero, and British Airways.

Bad Image

Russia’s negative international image is hurting its inbound tourism. At a travel conference held in Moscow in early April, Mantas Kaluina, senior research analyst for Euromonitor, said that western concerns about Russia’s visa bureacracy, security, infrastructure, and quality of tourism services is depressing demand.

In 2012, some 26 million foreign tourists visited Russia, yet most came from the “near abroad” – neighboring countries that were once part of the USSR. Nearly half came from Ukraine (6 million), Kazakhstan (3 million) and Uzbekistan (2 million). Just under one million came from Germany, a number which is not expected to rise over the next five years. Tourists from China numbered over one million.

Meanwhile, travel of Russians abroad spiked 9 percent over the past year, and annual growth is expected to rise 10 percent per year over the next half-decade.

Romanovs at 400

Many Russian museums are hosting exhibits this year to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the Romanov dynasty. Mikhail Fyodorovich ascended to the throne in 1613 at the age of 16, ending the so-called Time of Troubles.

The Russian History Museum on Red Square is hosting back-to-back exhibits that focus on the first and second half of the Romanov’s 304-year reign. “The Beginning of a Dynasty” opened at the end of March and will run until the end of June, exhibiting various Romanov-related artifacts from all over the world.

In St. Petersburg, from April to mid-June, the Russian Museum will display the museum’s vast collection of 150 paintings and other articles that depict the dynasty, starting with the epic work by Grigory Ugryumov: Invitation to Mikhail Romanov to Ascend the Throne. Ugryumov painted this work at the end of the eighteenth century for the Mikhailovsky Palace, where, incidentally, the exhibit is being held.

More modest exhibits dedicated to the Romanovs can also be seen in the art museums of Omsk and Yekaterinburg, where Russia’s last tsar and his family were murdered.

History Museum

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Russian Museum

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Free Tours

The City of Moscow is introducing free tours to popularize the capital and “show its human side” to both tourists and residents. Called “Getting out into the City” (Выход в Город) the program boasts daily pedestrian, bus, and even bike tours. At press time, tours were being promoted for Moscow’s historic Hippodrome, the area surrounding the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and the Ordynka neighborhood, where emissaries of the Golden Horde settled in the thirteenth century.

vihod-v-gorod.ru

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To the Provinces

Western chains will be opening more hotels in Russian cities this year. Marriott added a five-star hotel in the center of Novosibirsk, and Hilton launched a Garden Inn in Ulyanovsk. The Novosibirsk hotel was built by a local businessman who secured a 30-year agreement with Marriott to manage the location. The hotel will have 175 rooms with an average price of €160. In Ulyanovsk, the centrally-located Hilton will have 176 rooms.

In March, the Seventh Congress of Indigenous Minorities of the North, Siberia and the Far East congregated in Salekhard. Over 600 participants from 44 groups gathered to discuss common issues and concerns, from economic development and environmental dangers, to diminished use of indigenous languages.