In 2022, a new program for the development of school tourism will be launched in Russia.

This was announced on Monday, January 10, by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

“The main goal is to acquaint schoolchildren with the history of their native land within the framework of small trips, so that they can learn a lot about what is very close.

We expect that this year more than 100 thousand fifth-ninth grade students will be able to go on trips, ”Mishustin said at a meeting with the Deputy Prime Ministers.

The authorities have already allocated 500 million rubles for the implementation of the initiative, and a total of 3.5 billion rubles are planned to be allocated for these purposes by 2024.

As explained in the government, the money will allow the regions to offset the cost of organizing travel.

This year, 18 subjects of the country should receive subsidies.

We are talking, in particular, about Adygea, Bashkortostan, Stavropol Territory, as well as Vologda, Kaliningrad, Kursk, Novgorod, Sakhalin, Chelyabinsk and Yaroslavl regions.

In the future, the geography of the program may expand, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko did not rule out.

“We expect that the cost of such trips at the expense of budgets of all levels will be at least 7 thousand rubles for each student, of which 5 thousand is a guaranteed amount from the federal budget.

Different entities have different approaches to co-financing.

And Russian schoolchildren will have the opportunity to go on a trip in the spring, ”added Chernyshenko.

According to him, citizens will be able to independently choose a tourist route, including excursions, hotels to accommodate schoolchildren.

In this case, the duration of the trip must be at least 24 hours.

Thus, the trip involves at least one overnight stay, Dmitry Chernyshenko emphasized.

Recall that in 2021, the authorities launched a children's cashback program.

As part of the initiative, parents could buy a ticket for children to summer camps and return 50% of the amount spent, but not more than 20 thousand rubles.

According to the Federal Tourism Agency, the Russians purchased more than 350 thousand such vouchers for 9 billion rubles and were able to receive about 4 billion rubles in compensation.

“We see that support for children and adolescents tourism in Russia is becoming more systemic.

At the same time, the new program has a pronounced educational emphasis.

That is, during such trips, schoolchildren will gain new knowledge and skills, "said Dmitry Gorin, vice president of the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RST), in an interview with RT.

According to the specialist, the initiative will be useful for tourism in general.

Gorin said that over the past two years, amid the coronavirus pandemic, the number of children's tourist groups has significantly decreased.

Meanwhile, the new program will increase the tourist flow and additionally load the infrastructure of the regions, the expert is sure.

“Thus, additional profit will be received by related industries - hotel business, restaurants, entertainment, as well as the catering segment.

That is, the program will have a positive effect on the economy of the region as a whole, "- said the vice-president of the PCT.

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Moreover, the initiative can have a positive effect on the level of employment in the regions participating in the program.

This point of view in an interview with RT was expressed by the head of the scientific laboratory "Quantitative Methods of Researching Regional Development" of the PRUE named after G.V.

Plekhanova Elena Egorova.

“Many regions, just the most interesting, are very far away, but tourism is much less developed there.

For example, Kamchatka, Sakhalin and the Urals have great tourism potential, but these regions are not always provided with the required number of jobs in tourism.

The new program will partially fix this.

It is necessary to train new guides, bus drivers, and the hotels will need additional staff, ”Egorova explained.

As Dmitry Gorin emphasized, the program makes it possible to send children on an educational trip with the benefit of the family budget.

At the same time, additional financing of the initiative from the state will not affect the state of the state treasury, says Nikolai Pereslavsky, an employee of the Department of Economic and Financial Research of the CMS Institute.

“A total of 3.5 billion rubles are allocated for the program.

Given the size of our budget and the fact that this year, due to high prices for energy resources, treasury revenues will be greater than expenses, such spending cannot be called burdensome, especially when it comes to children, ”Pereslavsky said in a conversation with RT.

Note that in 2022, the revenues of the Russian budget may exceed 25 trillion rubles.

At the same time, the level of expenditures is set at about 23.7 trillion rubles.