The Russian government will carry out construction projects for five
new ski resorts in the North Caucasus Federal District (NCFD). The
total cost is estimated at 451.44 billion roubles, reports Kommersant.
The President's envoy to the NCFD, Alexander Khloponin, is planning to
involve such giants as Sberbank, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Citi and
Allianz in the project.
A working group recently finished drawing up a resorts concept, within
the framework of the tourist zone of the North Caucasus. Mountain
skiing resorts will be built in Matlas (Dagestan), Mamison (North
Ossetia), Arhyz (Karachay-Cherkessia), Lago-Naki (Adigeya) and Elbrus
(Kabardino-Balkaria).
The budget for this project is 4 times that of the Olympic one, though
it is planned that only 60 billion of the 451.5 billion will be
allotted by the state, in general the project will be financed by
institutional and private investors.
At present North Caucasus mountain skiing resorts are visited by only
4000 tourists annually. It is expected that this number will increase
to 5 million tourists a year after the new ski resorts are built.
