North Caucasian resorts will correspond to European standards
The project of tourism development in the North Caucasus often meets expected difficulties such as security concerns, which lead to low numbers of tourists interested in the region. Moreover, according to local police authorities, militant activities in the region are being financed by local businessmen and not from abroad.
Neverthless, Dagestan continues to develop its ski resorts, with some 450 billion rubles expected to be allocated for the project from the federal budget in the next 10 years. Alexander Khloponin, Envoy Plenipotentiary to the North Caucasus, assured that all necessary measures will be taken to ensure tourists’ safety. According to him, the opening of the resorts is scheduled for 2014-2015, and by then the federal authorities hope to stabilize the situation in the region.
Projects of North Caucasus ski resorts have recently been presented at the international MIPIM-2011 expo in Cannes. According to the presentation, North Caucasian resorts will fully correspond to European standards. Also, the ‘Resorts of the North Caucasus’ consortium has signed an agreement on technical consultations and co-operation with French Egis-OREX Loisirs Corporation. The ‘Resorts of the North Caucasus’ will become the first Russian construction company that follows EU construction standards. According to the company’s chief executive officer, they plan to create one of the best ski resorts in the world.
The ‘Arkhiz’ resort will become the flagship enterprise of the cluster; it is expected to open its facilities for some 750 tourists in winter 2011-2012. In 2013 the resort hopes to welcome some 2,000 people. The total investment value of the project is 6 billion rubles.
Pavel Martynov, exclusively to VK.
