By Vestnik Kavkaza
In Februaryб the first mountain-skiing line opens in Armkhi Resort in Ingushetia. According to the head of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, it is a historic place – in the history of the Soviet Union there were only five places for re-adaptation of spacemen who returned from space. Today a resort is being constructed here, for “our residents can spend vacations at home, people from Altai come to the Caucasus, people from the Caucasus visit Altai. Only in this case we will integrate and understand each other and beauty of our country,” Yevkurov says.
The chairlift on Armkhi is 650 m, the line itself is 1200 m, but it is planned to construct five more lines, including lines of a more difficult and a less difficult category. “There is a big drawback there,” Yevkurov states. “One is lifted to the top and quickly rolls downhill. We need more lines. This season skiing is free of charge. Later we plan that skiers will pay 500 rubles per day.”
A room in the hotel costs 3 thousand ruble today. We want to decrease prices down to 2 thousand. “Moreover, we will organize places for “holiday-makers” in a cave on hammocks. We will provide them with necessary conditions – grills for barbeque, washing places, tents for two and four. People can come to us, buy a place and live. If they have their own tents, you’re welcome!
Along with restaurants we will construct a series of small hotels on the top and down the line. Investors are construction 3-4 kinds of saunas.
We have several family hotels. We want people who come for the first time return to us with their friends, relatives and live in the same family. We have studied experience of Switzerland, Austria, Turkey, and other destinations. For example, in Courchevel there are more tourists in summer than in winter because people come there not only to ski, but also to breathe pure contain air. But our advantage is that we have a lot of historic monuments. One can not only walk and breathe, but also watch beauties. The mountain-skiing line is our brand. We want attract people for summer through the mountain-skiing line. We revive Soviet horse and walking routs. The idea of the North Caucasus resorts is not a single resort in Ingushetia, all kinds of routs are looped. For example, tourists who left Mamison in North Ossetia can cross Ingushetia and head to Chechnya and then to Dagestan. These routes are connected to each other. The resorts existed in the Soviet times, we will restore them and build new.”
“Of course, architectural monuments are our advantage. We also count on historical, cultural, health and religious tourism. You know that the oldest Orthodox church on Russian territory is in Ingushetia,” Akhmet Palankoyev, member of the Council of Federation and head of the Akropol Group, states. “Our company began construction of the resort six months ago. We had no problems with transportation and fulfillment of the constructing plan. Our border patrol let pass people with business trip certificates. (In Ingushetia there is a frontier zone in the Dzheirakh region). As for tourists, they will have special certificates and come to the resort according to the certificates; they will be escorted from the airport or the railway station.
In six month under a close control by the head of the republic we constructed the chairlift, the line, three swimming pools, one of them is with a diving tower, a restaurant for 600 people on the top, a Rent-a-Ski, a clothes shop. There are plans to construct the other line in spring; in a perspective there would be one more chairlift and 5-6 lines. However, we want this resort be not only a sporting facility, but a resort for family vacations.”
We cooperate with the Federation of Mountain-Skiing Sport. Its experts examined our lines and stated that the lines are suitable for competitions and match international standards.
It takes 20 minutes to get from Vladikavkaz to Armkhi, and about one hour from the airport in Magas to the resort.”
“The North Caucasus for us is indeed a special place, because after the breakdown of the USSR the mountain bases turned out to be abroad. I mean Medeo in Kazkhstan, Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan, and so on,” Denis Pankratov, double Olympic champion, says. “Russia did not have any bases at a medium height between 1300 and 1800 m. Nothing like this was built in the Urals. In the North Caucasus there were only two spots at 1300 m - in Dombay and Tyrnyauz, but those pools were built back in the 1960s. By now they are not used for professional sport. The conditions are not very good. If Ingushetia wants to develop it, we will be happy with 25m pools at 1500-1600 m. Of course, we are interested in the chemical preparation of the water and the heating system. Interestingly, the swimmers will not interfere with the skiers because the swimming season is November, before the ski season, and February-March, when the season is over. And summer. This is the time when the swimmers use these bases. For whom will it be built? For the Russian national team and for the regional teams. Because now all the regional teams go to Issyk-Kul or to Bulgaria. But this money can be spent in the North Caucasus.”
“It is important now to break the stereotypes that it is dangerous there, that people are not hospitable, that the service is bad,” Akhmed Bilalov, Head of "Resorts of the North Caucasus", states. “Krasnaya Polyana in Sochi also started from one lift, where people got stuck for hours. That was 7 years ago. But now we see what it became. When one sees these efforts, the government and the business want to develop it. As for the infrastructure, the choice is wide. Apart from large ski resorts like Courchevel, there are many small ski resorts. Davos does not count as a ski resort but as a place for international forums. In fact it is a medium-size resort. For the regional population of Ingushetia it is a sufficient resort. And I hope that with available instruments of state support we will develop the infrastructure. You know that the state subsidizes those who want to build. There are also guarantees of cheap financing. I believe that this is very important from the point of view of destroying negative stereotypes. That the head of the region personally deals with it, although he has many other tasks to which he has to devote his attention. When we started all this in St. Petersburg there was talk that Ingushetia is not safe enough for this. You know, now, yes, but in 8 years, when everything will be covered by resorts and skiers, those who did not get involved will regret it. It changes attitudes. I hope that Ingushetia will become and important point of the tourist map, and not only of the Caucasus. You know that there is more money in the tourist industry than in oil and gas. You see that many countries invest in tourism, counting on this. For instance, Turkey invested 100 billion dollars in its coast. We hope that our work will also be effective and productive, and in a few years we will see a wonderful resort. As a former sportsman, not as famous as Denis, but as a vice-president of the Olympic Committee, I can also confirm that we barely have any bases. Our sportsmen need to train abroad, and this is not very good, because it means that the training tips that our coaches use are revealed, because the money is spent abroad. Our task is to create a resort that can be used throughout the year, that is maximally diversified.”
