Analysis of the Hospitality Programs Impact on the Performance of Hotel Business Entities

Today, Russian-Chinese tourism relations are of great importance for both states. China is one of the largest and most promising tourism allies for Russia and many countries of the world. However, Chinese citizens often experience problems traveling to Russia due to differences in mentality, poor knowledge of foreign languages, and lack of accommodation that could meet the needs of Chinese tourists. That is why the China Friendly program was launched in 2014. China Friendly is an all-Russian project for adapting tourist service facilities to the requests of tourists from the PRC. The program participants, in turn, are promised a colossal increase in the tourist flow from China. This paper examines the impact of the China Friendly program on hospitality businesses. The purpose of the work was to determine how much the receipt of the certificate will affect the growth of tourists from China to the hotels of the Azimut chain. We analyzed the performance of a number of hotels of the Azimut chain, both with the China Friendly certificate and without it. We also analyzed the costs that hotels bear to obtain a certificate and to constantly maintain the requirements necessary for the presence of the China Friendly quality mark. It was found that the very existence of the certificate does not directly affect the increase in the number of guests from China. The dynamics of the increase in tourist traffic above the all-Russian indicator was demonstrated by those hotels that used all available means to attract mass Chinese tourists. To increase the number of guests from the Middle Kingdom, they participated in tourism exhibitions, contacted travel companies from China, and offered discounts for accommodation. And the certificate of the China Friendly program is a mark of distinction, an advertising and marketing tool for promoting a hotel on the tourist services market.