The tourist flow of Russians to the Caucasus - both in terms of domestic tourism in the North Caucasus Federal District (NCFD) and in terms of outbound tourism in the republic of the South Caucasus - is steadily increasing from year to year, the head of the Russian Federal Tourism Agency Oleg Safonov said, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza.
"We see positive dynamics in the North Caucasus. North Caucasus Republics are successfully implementing measures to develop a federal targeted program for the development of domestic and outbound tourism. Recently there was a meeting on the development of the NCFD as a tourist destination, and we see great prospects in terms of the development of ski tourism in the region, as well as cruise tourism in the Caspian region," he noted in the first place.
"Tomorrow I will arrive in Dagestan to attend a meeting on the 15th anniversary of the Hajj, we will also hold a meeting on the implementation of the federal targeted program in the Republic of Dagestan. For us, the North Caucasus regions are very important and promising in terms of tourism development. We are implementing all the necessary efforts for the development of tourism in the North Caucasus region together with the Ministry of Development of the North Caucasus," Oleg Safonov stressed.
The head of Rosturism drew attention to the significant growth of the tourist flow from Russia to Azerbaijan. "We have close ties with the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the flow of tourists to this country is constantly growing. We are also interested in creating intercountry tourist lines and we are actively working in this direction with our colleagues from Azerbaijan. In particular, this concerns the cruise lines in the Caspian, which will be unite both Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan," he pointed out.
"We have excellent relations with Armenia. The tourist flow to Armenia and from Armenia is also increasing. As for Georgia, there are certain difficulties with the implementation of tourist trips to this country now. We also negatively estimate the new initiative on signing the document on recognition of the territorial integrity of Georgia by Russian tourists entering the country. But the tourist flow to Georgia is quite big and it continues to grow," Oleg Safonov said.
