How to Design a Resort for Locals as Well as Tourists

As domestic tourism surges across the country, a wave of hotel construction and renovation follows. One enduring trend is the redevelopment of existing hotels—and even sanatoriums. Is it truly possible to create a place that feels alive and sought-after not only by potential tourists but also by local residents? Anna Kulikova, architect and partner at FANTALIS Architects, shared her firm’s case studies with ‘kto tvoi gorod’ (which city is yours?).

Not Necessarily Trendy or Expensive

When investors and architects consider sanatorium redevelopment, the first thought is often a stylish new resort aimed at high-income travelers. But recent experience shows that not every sanatorium needs to become a five-star hotel for a premium audience. Sometimes, preserving its social function—and allowing the people who have visited for decades to keep doing so—is just as important. With the right approach, this need not conflict with the project’s economics.

We have spent over a decade working on tourism projects in Russia’s most remote regions. During that time, we have learned a simple but crucial lesson: a truly vibrant, living resort is about more than expensive rooms and exclusive service. It also requires accessible amenities for everyone—including local residents. It is this local audience that helps tourism properties avoid the budget-crushing seasonality that comes when visitor numbers are tied to climate and plummet during the less travel-friendly months of autumn and winter.

A Health Resort for the Community

Sanatorium Zhemchuzhina in Kamchatka has been operating since the early 1980s. Over four decades, tens of thousands of visitors have passed through its doors. For many, the place is woven into personal history. Elderly Kamchatkans came here for treatment, rest, and companionship.

When discussing the sanatorium’s future with the client, we considered two scenarios. The first involved a complete replacement of the buildings—a new, high-end resort with fresh infrastructure and positioning. The second was to preserve the site’s continuity and social significance, ensuring that after renovation it would remain comfortable and accessible to residents of all ages and income levels.

We chose the second path. Chief among our reasons: there are only two sanatoriums in all of Kamchatka. Given the age and health of many local residents, traveling to other regions for treatment is difficult. To close the facility and build an expensive resort in its place would mean depriving these people of their only opportunity to restore their health close to home.

Our solution was phased: first, renovate the guest rooms and reconstruct the thermal pool so that visitors could continue to come even during the main construction phase. At the same time, all infrastructure had to be adapted to serve the widest possible range of guests—from young couples and active tourists to families with children and elderly visitors.

For seniors, we designed detached guest houses with a shared common room where they could drink tea, watch television, or play board games together. We even thought through the cabinetry to prevent disputes: each guest has her own designated shelves and hanging space.

A Smart Economic Model

It might appear that the investor is losing money on a socially oriented project. In reality, the opposite is true. Eligible citizens—pensioners, veterans, people with disabilities, those with specific medical conditions, and mothers with children—receive vouchers for sanatorium treatment free of charge through their local clinics. The government pays for these through the Social Insurance Fund or the Ministry of Health. This system operates not only in Kamchatka but throughout Russia.

To give an example: a double room costs approximately 17,000 rubles per night. If two pensioners are staying, the government pays 8,500 rubles for each. The investor receives the same revenue as from a regular tourist—but without any expenditure on advertising or marketing.

Thus, the investor loses nothing. On the contrary, the project gains two distinct audiences: on one hand, high-spending tourists coming to Kamchatka for its exotic appeal; on the other, guaranteed occupancy through government programs. This is a smart, resilient economic model—one that also delivers enormous social benefit to the region.

A Resort for Locals

Our other Kamchatka project, the Laguna SPA Hotel, was also designed with local appeal firmly in mind. Kamchatka’s primary asset is its thermal springs. People have always loved bathing in them, but suitable infrastructure was lacking. Today, the property offers everything needed for genuine comfort—from standard double rooms to luxury four-bedroom houses with private thermal plunge pools. Several restaurants are now open. The project grew incrementally, expanding its room count from 50 to 250 over six years of operation. This phased approach allowed us to optimize investment and respond to real demand.

As a result, Laguna draws not only tourists but also local residents. After the bakery opened, people began driving 45 minutes from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky just for fresh bread.

Kamchatka is not only thermal springs and volcano views. It also has long, snowy, extraordinarily beautiful winters. We noticed that local families had few quality, modern options for winter recreation. So we added active winter amenities: an ice rink, tubing hills, and cross-country ski trails. Now residents of Petropavlovsk come for full-day winter outings, spending time comfortably and joyfully with their families.

This project demonstrates how important it is not to limit a place’s tourism potential to predictable scenarios. With its high-quality infrastructure and restaurants on par with Moscow standards, Laguna has become a destination for gatherings, celebrations, and simple relaxation—not only for tourists but for the people who live nearby year-round.

Architecture as an Instrument of Care

Why choose a social function when one could focus solely on high-profit projects? Because this, in fact, is the truly sustainable and forward-looking strategy.

First, it is a matter of social responsibility. Any investor entering a unique and fragile region like Kamchatka operates in close dialogue with local authorities. And the region has its own social imperative: to improve the quality of life for people who choose every day to remain and build their lives far from the country’s familiar economic and cultural centers, in a challenging climate.

Second, it makes clear economic sense. Guaranteed government payments for subsidized vouchers create a stable financial buffer for the project. This provides resilience against seasonal tourism downturns and supports confident, long-term development.

Working in Kamchatka has confirmed for us that architecture can be an instrument of care. Care for people’s rest, their leisure, their memories, habits, and ways of life. That is why we tried to think not only about floor plans and facades, but about how each space would be used: how two elderly women would share a wardrobe, where guests might gather in the evening to watch a series or play dominoes, what families with children would want to do on a winter day.

These may seem like small details. But it is precisely this approach that builds trust. A resort becomes familiar, legible—woven into the daily life of the region. Hotels, restaurants, and sanatoriums that welcome not only visitors from Moscow but also grandmothers from the next street over are places that people truly value, recommend to others, and return to again and again. We see this as a vital outcome of our work, and as the future of tourism—especially in remote regions: accessible, diverse, and above all, alive.

Source: https://ktogorod.ru/kulikova_kurorti