Guiding Lines: From Water Parks to Ice Palaces and Movie Halls

The experience of previous years shows that nearly half of market operators close their offices in the period from Dec. 30 to Jan. 15. Some head to the mountains to ski, other swim in indoor pools or play tennis on their countryside estates. For those who stay in the city there are also plenty of leisure facilities available.

Moscow is the city that never sleeps, which is why it is often likened to New York. Quite often you can hear foreign tourists, including travelers from New York, praising the Russian capital for a wide choice of entertainment it has to offer.

Nevertheless, Moscow does feel a shortage of leisure facilities. There is no Disneyland here as in Orlando, no oceanarium as in Miami, Florida, which is Madonna’s favorite holiday destination. Madonna herself is a rare guest in Moscow and the local public is not spoiled by her shows. Thus, for most Moscow residents a bowling game, a cup of coffee at a Coffee House store and a movie watched with friends in a local theater are a traditional pastime, especially in winter. Fine arts exhibitions, drama, opera and ballet theaters aside, here we focus rather on paying leisure projects.

This year the capital will have some 160 movie theaters of various formats to offer. By the number of projects Moscow’s cinema companies may vie perhaps only with night clubs, cafes, restaurants and billiards rooms, judging by reports in the Afisha magazine (one of the leading entertainment publications in this country). It is no secret that all other leisure facilities operating in the city – bowling alleys, casinos, ice rinks and mixed-use projects are scarce.

Judging by the previous winter the January break in Moscow was not a dead season. In the past two years experts have even registered a tendency towards a decrease in difference between goods and services consumption levels in December and January, which they put down to growing individual incomes and more free time.

Ahead of the January 2006 winter break Moscow movie theaters had braced for influx of spectators. The Karo Film cinema chain staked on the film “Day Watch” and ordered a 20 percent higher supply of popcorn and beverages; employees were not even allowed to go home on weekends. Later Karo Film reported that attendance rates exceeded forecasts 1.5 times; instead of the expected 250,000 the movie was watched by 400,000 people. In the first ten days of this year cinema attendance rates grew by nearly 20% as compared to the same period of 2005; theaters’ takings accordingly grew approximately by 20%. Incidentally, Kinomax and Cinema Park companies have published their market analysis data showing that proceeds from operation of bars and other leisure facilities on the premises make up 50% of their total takings. Popcorn and beverage sales account for 85% of revenues of cinema bars.

So far it remains unclear what fate is in store for Moscow casinos and other gambling establishments, in particular, table games and slot machines. The law ordering relocation of the gambling industry beyond the city boundaries is in the offing. This last autumn, deputies of the city duma (legislature) called for new amendments to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation aimed at increasing maximum tax rates for gaming tables and slot machines. Market operators said the move spells the demise of the industry. In March 2006 the draft bill on government regulation of gambling and betting operations appeared, offering to reduce the number of casinos in Moscow to 50 outlets, which would leave the city with one establishment per 200,000 residents. In September further amendments to the bill were introduced. It was decided to ban gambling clubs on the premises of residential houses and not only in Moscow. Should the crackdown continue at such a pace the plan to move all gaming establishments to Ivanovo Region may soon become a reality.

Even the most innocent form of entertainment – skating, popular with people of all ages, not only with children as some may think, is not always available either as ice rinks are scarce, too. A skating facility in Gorky Park has always been seen as one of the few large open-air rinks available in Moscow. As regards indoor rinks Moscow has but a handful of such installations – either freestanding properties such as the ice palace Rus or the indoor rink Sozvezdiye, or skating rinks operating as part of mixed-use sports complexes operated by sports clubs.

One last hope remains – for large shopping malls most of which provide entertainment zones. A visit to a mall, especially on weekends, has already become a sort of a pastime. Along with Moscow residents consumers in other big Russian cities with population over 1 million seem to be developing symptoms of a shopping fever. Come to think of it, almost all leisure formats have already moved to shopping centers. The first to arrive were cafes, restaurants and movie theaters, followed by skating facilities, bowling alleys and even casinos (e.g. Atrium).

A Urals-based group Lider (Leader) has even pledged to build 12 shopping and entertainment complexes across the country, featuring year-round water parks. The project estimated to be worth $360 million is expected to pay back in five years. Each store will provide a water park measuring as many as 28,000sqm, whereas the total area of each mall will be 32,000 to 50,000sqm. The water park area will have a capacity to cater for 1,000 visitors at a time or up to 5,000 a day. Projected annual sales are estimated at $10 million. It is sad though that Moscow is not on the developer’s agenda. For, freestanding water park projects in the capital have failed so far. Who knows, maybe water parks operating at shopping malls could prove more popular, after all. Certain analysts believe that water amusement facilities are more typical of southern regions. But Moscow is the city where people are also very fond of swimming.

For the time being Moscow has a couple of uncompleted aqua parks – on Aminievskoye Shosse, a complex near the Chaika swimming pool, a water entertainment center in Moskva City, and one collapsed property. Also, there are plans to build a pool in the fitness zone of the new shopping mall Yevropeisky on the Kievsky train station square (2 Ploshchad Kiyevskogo Vokzala).