On the Upper Volga, navigation is not over yet. On cruise booking sites, offers to travel along the Volga on a comfortable motor ship are available for the whole of October and even at the beginning of November.
True, there are a lot of cruises among these offers now, shorty, as the representatives of the tourism industry call them, that is, for weekends (two nights) or for three or four nights. On the other hand, some of them offer such good discounts, especially for luxury and premium motor ships, that traveling along the cold autumn river and the same cities on the route does not seem at all inappropriate.
For example, a cruise from Moscow with a call to Uglich, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan on a new four-deck motor ship (built in 2019 and, they say, comparable in terms of amenities with a five-star hotel) is sold at a 57 percent discount – from 48.51 thousand rubles from person. A weekend voyage from Moscow to Myshkin and back on a four-deck boarding ship has fallen in price by 52 percent, that is, the cost of a seat on it starts at 19.3 thousand rubles.
But a similar “weekend” cruise from Moscow to Uglich and back, despite a 51% discount, will cost at least 37.5 thousand. But there are also cheaper options for other cruises – from 17.99 thousand rubles.
In general, in all the Upper Volga regions, the 2021 cruise season is assessed as quite successful, especially when compared with the disastrous last year, when the first river liners sailed along the Volga only in July. Despite the fact that there have been no foreigners at all on ships for two years due to covid restrictions, and they provided a very significant volume of tourist traffic.
According to the Department of Tourism of the Yaroslavl Region, at the beginning of September, cruise ships entered the cities of the region – Yaroslavl, Rybinsk, Tutaev, Uglich and Myshkin – more than 1550 times, which is more than 600 calls more than in the pandemic 2020. Accordingly, 204 thousand cruise tourists have visited museums and other display facilities in the region. In Kostroma, according to the regional department of economic development, as of October 1, 393 motor ships moored, bringing 57 thousand travelers to the ancient city.
“River cruises are traditionally popular. They are a convenient and informative type of recreation, an opportunity to get a lot of vivid impressions without leaving your comfort zone,” says the acting director. Director of the Department of Tourism of the Yaroslavl Region Vladimir Lysenko.
And so that there are even more “river tourists”, it is necessary to put things in order not only on the water, but also on the shore. By November 15, a concept for the development of cruise tourism will be presented to the government of the Russian Federation. Regions of the Upper Volga, to which multi-decked motor ships provide a significant volume of tourist traffic in the warm season, hope that the implementation of the concept will help to solve, first of all, existing infrastructure problems.
If, as a rule, everything is convenient and well thought out on motor ships, this does not always happen on the shores to which the liners dock. For example, in Yaroslavl, tourists run the risk of injury without even having time to go out into the city, because the tiles on the dock are “shaking”.
Read the full text in the next issue of Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
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