Rosturizm published on its website the withdrawal of the status of
the counter-terrorist operation in Kabardino-Balkaria, a situation that from
February virtually stopped the flow of tourists to the republic. The
regional Ministry of Sport and Tourism has already calculated that
this measure deprived Kabardino-Balkaria of at least 90,000
tourists, reports Turdom.ru.
From January to September, the republic received only 59 thousand
tourists, while during the same period of the lasted last year the
number of tourists stood at 130 thousand (and more than 193 thousand
for the entire year ). According to the representative of the regional
Ministry of Sport and Toursism Makhti Otarov, these figures might
return as early as in 2012, while the forecast for this year suggests
only a maximum of 100 thousand tourists. He added that despite the
regime of the counterterrorist operation, the Elbrus region will get
two new hotels this year.
By the way, according to observations of local hoteliers, tourists
have a keen interest in their ski resorts "Loyal customers are very
pleased with the news, we received a lot of calls," said the
administrator of the hotel "Elbrus" Isolde Tetueva. According to the
interlocutor, hoteliers will have to exert much effort to correct the
"misunderstanding, which scared off tourists."
Deputy Director General of "Jet Travel" Maxim Pristavko said that
there are already some bookings for the Elbrus region is, but the
number of tourists if rather small. According to him, people often
call to ask about the situation at the resort. Nevertheless, Pristavko
believes that the season would be on the level of the last year, just
the maximum sales period will move further as compared to the previous
seasons.
