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Federal Agency for Tourism Head Oleg Safonov attends business breakfast “Caspian Transport and Logistics Complex: Potential for Trade, Economic and Investment Cooperation”

28 February 2017

Federal Agency for Tourism Head Oleg Safonov attended the business breakfast “Caspian Transport and Logistics Complex: Potential for Trade, Economic and Investment Cooperation” on February 28, 2017. The event was organized as part of the Russian Investment Forum 2017 by the Russian Ministry of North Caucasus Affairs and Russia’s TASS news agency jointly with Joint-Stock Company North Caucasus Development Corporation. The breakfast was attended by Minister of North Caucasus Affairs Lev Kuznetsov, Deputy Minister of Transport Viktor Olersky, Deputy Minister of Economic Development Alexander Tsybulsky, heads of the regions of the North Caucasus Federal District, North Caucasus Development Corporation CEO Sergei Kharitonov and other representatives of the executive authorities, business and public associations. 

Federal Agency for Tourism Head Oleg Safonov noted the great tourism potential of the Caspian Sea coast.

Given the high demand for summer beach vacations among Russians and the shortage of beaches at warm seas, the Caspian Sea could potentially take on more than 1 million tourists a year if the available resources are utilized effectively. However, the lack of the necessary tourism infrastructure such as hotels, malls and marinas, among other things restricts the development of beach tourism in the region.

As part of the federal target programme “Development of Domestic and Inbound Tourism in the Russian Federation (2011–2018)”, the Republic of Dagestan plans to establish two tourism and recreation clusters on the Caspian coast – the Golden Sands and Golden Dunes tourism and recreation clusters. The projects have a total cost of almost RUB 1 billion. Extra-budgetary sources will be used to fund 70% of expenditures on the projects.

Hotel complexes, sports and recreation facilities, waterparks, marinas for yachts as well as supporting infrastructure will be built as part of the clusters.  

“In addition to creating comfortable conditions for tourists, stimulating the socioeconomic development of Russia’s Caspian regions, creating jobs and improving the local population’s quality of life, the construction of the tourism and recreation clusters along the Caspian coast will also improve environmental situation in the region. Modern support infrastructure will reduce environmental pollution and the development of organized recreation will help to minimize the damage that tourists vacationing in the Caspian as ‘unofficial holidaymakers’ inflict on the natural environment”, Safonov said.

Besides its warm beaches, the Caspian region also offers amble opportunities for the development of cruise and yacht tourism. At present, such types of recreation are virtually unavailable on the Caspian Sea coast in contrast to the Black Sea and Baltic coasts, however work is under way to fix this.

Based on agreements reached at sessions of the Caspian Summit, the Russian Ministry of Transport along with the Federal Agency for Tourism is looking into the organization of cruises in the Caspian Sea and the use of public-private partnership mechanisms to meet this objective. The agenda includes developing infrastructure for passenger stations and checkpoints at the ports of Makhachkala, Derbent and Astrakhan as well as the establishment of a cruise operator in the Caspian Sea.

Construction on the Lotos, Russia’s first domestic cruise ship in the last 60 years, was launched in Astrakhan in August 2016 with President Vladimir Putin in attendance. Officials are considering the feasibility of using this ship for cruises from Moscow and St. Petersburg to the Caspian Sea with visits to the main Caspian Sea ports.

The development of cooperation with Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Iran as well as the organization of cruises with visits to Makhachkala, Derbent, Astrakhan, Baku, Anzali, Turkmenbashi and Aktau should also provide a significant contribution to realizing the tourism potential of the Caspian Sea.

This is a very promising solution in terms of developing inbound tourism, in particular from Iran, which is viewed as an important source of tourist traffic to the Russian Federation. Over the first three quarters of 2016, the number of Iranian tourists who visited Russia increased by 72% compared with the same period of last year. The relevant federal executive authorities of the Russian and Iranian governments are currently coordinating a draft agreement on visa-free group trips between the two countries by Russian and Iranian citizens. The signing of this agreement promises to even further enhance Russia’s attractiveness for Iranian tourists.

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