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As BANKO discovered, ‘Ukraine’ is not the only Moscow hotel which is expected to be handed over to new owners. In the beginning of the next year, 20% of ‘Cosmos’ hotel shares, which also belong to the city, will be sold. The buyer is still unknown.
Specialists believe that if Moscow hotels are bought by foreign organizations, reconstruction into hotels of a higher category will follow. A similar course will be taken with some other accommodation buildings which are now in the process of reconstruction. For example, ‘Rossija’ hotel is at a stage of preparation for dismantling planned for the summer 2006. The terms of erecting a new building is not yet set. ‘Moskva’ hotel which is now being built is expected to open its doors by the end of 2006. Where ‘Intourist’ used to be, a new hotel will be erected in a year or two.
Meanwhile, according to the majority of tour operators, new 5 star hotels cannot solve the problem of the lack of accommodation. There is a deficit of 3* hotels, most popular with tourists. ‘The cost of building a 3 star or 5 star hotel is similar but the return is higher with the latter for obvious reasons. So we are experiencing the lack of budget hotels’ – says Leonid Lemyish, a specialist of building projects in the department of hotel chain development of ‘Intourist’. According to him, the only solution is the introduction of special government programs which will create conditions for privileged land allocation for building economy class accommodation facilities.
