How To Bring Life To Small Towns Of Russia?

All small towns in the world have similarities – people know each other, pace of life is slower than in large cities. Usually, living in small towns is nice. Is that true for Russia?

Let’s take Kasimov as an example. Nature alone could bring tourists to the city during summer. Volga river with sand beaches is gorgeous. There is enough local food to feed an army. There are also some sights and the town has interesting history of being both Russian and Tatar (half of the population is Christian, half is Muslim and they live well together). There is also an amazing samovar museum, one of a kind. That museum alone would’ve been a focus point of attracting tourists. People who live there do handcrafts, they would’ve sold souvenirs.

Why all that is not happening? A) 350 km is not far, but try to drive there! Road is terrible! SUV, driven by an experienced driver, gets there in 4-5 hours in Summer. Once I went there with a bus of media people in February during a snow storm and it took us 8 hours to get to Kasimov. B) The State does not support small business. Local people may have wanted to open shops or cafes or B&Bs, but taxes on small business are huge and procedure is complicated. That discourages people from launching new businesses. C) there is no marketing support for this tourist destination. Tourists are simply not aware of it!

Any Best Practices in Russia?

Very few. The best “model case” is Uglich – town that was unknown for ages, but then somebody rebranded it to become a home town of Russian Father Frost. Now, there are hotels and restaurants there and it is not easy to book rooms/tables during the high season.

I believe that at least 1/10 of the small towns in Russia could be branded, promoted, helped with infrastructure etc. People, who live in these small towns will get jobs and will be more happy, State will get it’s share in taxes.