Russia could create a national online hotel booking platform, RIA Novosti and CNews.ru reported last week, citing Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky. “There are plans to create [such a] system. Now we are looking very actively for business partners who can create a Russian analog to Tripadvisor or Booking.com,” Medinsky said at a Public Chamber session in Moscow.
The minister said creating a system of that type is not a task for the government but, nonetheless, the Culture Ministry is ready to provide financial support for the project. “For some reason, business hasn’t really taken this up, but there are a lot of claims to a booking network like Booking.com,” he added.
Booking.com already does have at least two analogs on the Russian market – Ostrovok.ru and Travel.ru (formerly Oktogo.ru) – startups that were initially backed by Western investors.
“We actively support this government initiative,” Sergei Fage, founder and CEO of Ostrovok.ru, told CNews.ru. “Booking systems are one of the key segments of Internet business, both from a commercial point of view and from the point of view of national security. In the current political situation, this segment should be controlled by local companies.”
Recently, the Russian government inspired the creation of Sputnik, a national search engine. It took years to bring the project to fruition, but the site was finally launched in May.
