Travel Notes

This is Not Your Mother’s Intourist

A travel agency turns 70

Russia’s veteran travel agency Intourist recently turned 70. At a formal celebratory ceremony in Moscow’s Sovin-center hotel, Intourist Presi-dent Alexander Uryupin said the company hosted 222,000 foreign tourists in 1998 (down from 240,000 in 1997). 

While many local tour companies have been hard hit by the recent financial crisis, Uryupin said that Intourist “has not lost out from the increase in dollar/ruble rate, because our clients pay in hard currency and we pay [our costs] in rubles.” And yet, Uryupin noted that “it is not a secret that there is no queue of tour-ists lining up to go to Russia ... one needs to work hard to attract them.” 

The biggest source of In-tour-ist’s clients is Great Britain, followed by Ger-many, Asia and Spain. The volume of US tourists, Ur-yu-pin said, ranks them 5th or 6th for Intourist. This data on declining US travel to Russia is in keeping with that offered at a recent Moscow seminar on the subject.

Dine Like Pushkin

The Central House of Literary Scholars (Tsentralny Dom Literatorov — commonly known here as CDL) used to be open only to members of the high and mighty Union of Soviet Writers. Now, however, it is open to all. But this is not to say CDL has lost its elite character.

The street on which the restaurant is located — Povarskaya — has been considered a street of “high society” since the times of Peter the Great. CDL’s building, which was built more than one hundred years ago as the home of Countess Olsufieva, has hosted many VIPs, including Emperor Alexander II. Since it became the House of Soviet Writers in 1932, it has played host to such personages as poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, painter Ilya Glazunov, film director Nikita Mikhalkov, Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin and Yuri Luzhkov. All have dined at CDL.

CDL’s exquisite interior allows its guests to visit long lost pages of history; the ancient mansion mesmerizes with its elegance: carved oak, Boticelli sculpture, 19th century Venetian mirrors... You can also climb the ancient wooden stairs (built without a single nail!) to the apartments of the countess. Here, under the magic light of mahogany chandeliers (crafted in 1910!), you can enjoy an intimate private dinner near the lively flames of the fireplace...

This ambiance of course once fed poets’ creative urges. But the true source of inspiration here is the superb cuisine. The menu of this club-restaurant preserves old Russo-French traditions. Many recipes — some 200 years old! — have been rescued from the count’s library. Thus, you can now savor unique Russian meals like Veal Orlov, Salmon Tsar Nicholas, Quail Golitsyn, all of which go very nicely with good old Russian kvas with horseradish!

What is more, in addition to traditional Russian meals, CDL will treat you to all the delicacies Alexander Pushkin sang praise to in his verse: the truffles, the Limburger cheese and Strasbourg’s. Connoisseurs may wish to order CDL’s special Pushkin menu, prepared on the occasion of the poet’s bicentenary. Here is how the poet himself described this feast in his immortal Yevgeny Onegin:

He arrives — the cork goes flying up,

Wine of the Comet fills the cup;

Before him roast beef, red and glory,

And truffles, which have ever been

Youth’s choice, the flower of French cuisine;

And pate, Strasbourg’s deathless glory,

Sits with Limburg’s vivacious cheese

And ananas, the gold of trees

Surely Pushkin’s magic lines have you salivating. For Alexander Sergeevich was not only a great poet, but also had a well-trained palate and was a distinguisHed gourmand. And CDL can make this “magic” come true. Tempted?

Then call (095) 291-1515 or (095) 290-1589 or visit the website at www.cdlrest.com. CDL is open from 12 a.m. until midnight. Address: Povarskaya, 50 / B. Nikitskaya, 53. Open every day. Reservations recommended. Mastercard, Visa and American Express accepted. Nearest metro: Barrikadnaya.

Where Have All the Americans Gone?

Changes in Russia drop US travel by 30%

U.S. travel agencies doing business with Russia are having a difficult time, but prospects for the next millennium look good. This was the conclusion at a recent US-Russian seminar in Moscow devoted to US travel to Russia and organized by the Russian Association of Tourist Agencies and the  American Tourism Society. 

David Parry, President of Academic Travel Abroad and a participant in the seminar, cited some alarming statistics: in 1995 over 305,000 Amer-icans visited Russia. In 1996 that number had dropped 10% to 277,000; in 1997 it fell by another 14% to 238,000. Data for 1998 is not yet available, but Parry told Russian Life he expected to see a similar drop. What is more, Parry said the travel business to Russia in 1999 is down over 30% vs. 1998. Mean-while, from 1995-7, there has been a 15-20% increase in American travel to Europe. The number of annual US travelers to Russia is now equivalent to the number of Americans traveling to Sweden or Costa Rica. 

“The problems,” Parry said, “are related to the great changes in Russia.” The war in Yugoslavia is also negatively affecting travel to Russia. The good news, however, is that, by 2010 the number of  Amer-icans at peak travel age (55-67) will have grown by 43%; by 2020 the US population aged 55-74 will be almost double what it is today.

Moscow ranked 6th in a list of the world’s most expensive cities recently published by the Swiss agency Corporate Resources Group (CRG). CRG’s reports are regularly used by governments and companies to set salaries for employees working abroad. CRG analysts study 200 different price indices in 150 world cities, including housing, water, electricity, food, clothing and entertainment. St. Petersburg was ranked 10th last year and slipped down to 14th this year. The least expensive Russian city on the list? Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad). It ranked 149th. As a point of reference, London ranked 8th.

Kalmykia’s entrepreneurial and adventurist president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, pushed the republic’s parliament to pass a law on gambling that will turn the newly-built Chess City into a Russian Las Vegas. “Without your IMF, Kalmykia will turn into a Russian Nevada,” Sevodnya daily commented. Chess City, located in the Kalmyk capital of Elista, was built to host the recent International Chess Olympics. 

Moscow’s three-star Belgrade hotel is on the auction block in May, in an effort to raise $20 million.  At present, the 430-room hotel caters to travelers looking for modestly priced room (a 2-room suite at the Belgrade goes for $65; about 95 % of the hotel’s guests are Westerners). Yet the Moscow Times speculated that the auction is not likely to bring in too many bidders. In addition to the $20 million investment, the winner would be expected to invest millions of dollars in upgrading the hotel to international standards. Inter-es-ting-ly, hotel Director Yuri Molod-chenko admitted that about one-third of reservations have been canceled since the war in Yugoslavia started. Guests, he said, “are apprehensive” about the hotel’s name. “Psychologically, many American and European guests appear to be picking more neutral-sounding names.” 

Moscow plans to turn the Moskva hotel into a modern congress-hotel. The hotel’s courtyard will be covered and a 1200 seat congress-hall will be added on the first floor. The cost of reconstruction is estimated at $200-$250 million. Meanwhile, the Moscow city government seeks some $1 billion in foreign investments to renovate city hotels like the Intourist, Ukraine, Pekin, Buda-pest and Rossiya. All the hotels will be turned into joint stock companies to allow for the direct investments.

Russia’s airlines have retired 2,735 planes and helicopters in the last six years, ITAR-TASS news agency reported, citing data from the Russian Federal Aviation Service. During the same period, the companies purchased 32 new aircraft, 19 of which were helicopters. The scrapped planes included 237 large jets. Another 3,400 aging aircraft, including 518 large jets, are to be retired in the next nine years. 

Aeroflot-Russian Inter-na-t-ional Airlines has announced a summer schedule with in-creased traffic on its most popular routes, both domestic and international. The number of weekly flights to the west coast of the US will be boosted from five to seven, with new flights to Los Angeles and San Fran-cisco. There will also be additional flights to Chicago and Toronto. 

THINKING OF BRINGING your cool new handheld GPS device on your next trip to Russia? Sounds like a great idea. But think again. Use of a GPS device in Russia without prior approval may result in confiscation of the device and/or the user’s arrest for espionage – it happened to an American in December 1997. Cell phones also cannot be brought into Russia without prior permission, in the form of a pre-existing agreement for service from a local cellular provider and a letter of guarantee sent to Glavgos-svyaz-nadzor (fax 7-095-238-5102) – also the organization which certifies GPS equipment.

Cosmos Turns 20

Moscow’s Cosmos hotel celebrates its 20th anniversary this July. Built in 1979 by a French firm to house visitors to the coming 1980 Moscow Olympics, the hotel is in an ecologically clean district of the city, next to the exhibition center formerly known as VDNKh.  The four-star hotel has 1718 single and double rooms, 53 deluxe suites and 6 apartments. The 23rd floor of the hotel has been completely renovated this year in connection with the anniversary and the renovation of floors 24 and 25 will be completed soon. A single room costs $90, a double room $110.

One in Ten Million

New Zealander Andrew Knowles and his wife Karen chose to stay in the Ukraina hotel after arriving in the Russian capital from Beijing. It was a fortuitous choice. The couple became the hotel’s 10-millionth guest and received a free tour of the Golden Ring Cities via Intourist. The Ukraina hotel, one of Moscow’s famous “Seven Sister” skyscrapers, has 34 floors and 1017 rooms, and is able to accommodate 1,600 guests.