MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/. The updated national project on tourism will include an initiative to promote Russia as a vacation destination to foreigners, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said.

"The tourism sector has a chance to grow Russia’s constituent entities. What is important is that it opens up <…> opportunities for employment, for production in adjacent sectors," he said at a strategic session of the Russian government on national projects, adding that all tasks "should be included during the formation of the new national project ‘Tourism and hospitality’ that will follow the current one starting next year."

Among the tasks facing the sectors Mishustin pointed out "both the launch of new routes and destinations for trips and the promotion of Russia’s tourism potential abroad, beefing up the output of domestic products for this area."

"The key thing is to make traveling across Russia even more interesting and comfortable, both for our citizens and for foreign tourists, to provide an opportunity to get acquainted with our country, with its history, with unique natural wonders, and, of course, to enjoy high-quality service," the prime minister noted.

To make things easier for tourists, a government website must be established for the sector, Mishustin said. It "would unite all information about logistics, about places of accommodation, about places of interest, about services provided by guides that will help people plan trips," he noted. "Such innovative platform solutions and services should be actively introduced in other key sectors as well," the PM added.

Overall, to grow the sector the government is addressing infrastructure improvement as it grants loans to build hotels, ski resorts and year-round resorts in nine regions, Mishustin said. "They will become sort of points of attraction for vacationers at the seaside, as well as on Lake Baikal," he said.