Ingushetia and the Caspian coast of Dagestan will soon join the North Caucasus tourism cluster, probably followed by the Stavropol Territory and Chechnya, Ahmed Bilalov, CEO of the Resorts of the North Caucasus, said at a press conference in Moscow today.
He says that inclusion of Ingushetia and the Caspian coast will be decided will be discussed in 3 months. Usually studies of all aspects take 5-6 months.
Experts say the role of the Stavropol Territory in tourism development will be resolved no earlier than in April 2012. Mineralniye Vody has a more complicated situation, it lacks investors.
Chechnya started resort construction slightly earlier. Together with the other regions it is belived to become a single tourism cluster.
Specialists believe that the North Caucasus could compete with the Alps, Eastern Europe, the Pyrennes. Krasnaya Polyana had three projects introduced: Gazprom made an elevator, Potanin realized his project, Karusel realized own one. Tourists would not visit places with only 3 elevators or 21 and 20 km of skiing routes. They want at least 150 km and high service level and logistics.
The North Caucasian tourism cluster of 2011-2020 in Russia's south includes construction of 5 world-class resorts: Lagonaki (Krasnodar Territory, Adygea), Arkhyz (Karachay-Cherkessia), Elbrus-Bezengi (Kabardino-Balkaria), Mamison (North Ossetia) and Matlas (Dagestan). They will have a total of 898 km of skiing routes, 179 elevators, rooms for 89,000 visitors and a daily capacity of 150,000 visitors. The project would open over 330,000 workplaces.
