Translated material
Working on rest
The Ministry of Economic Development has identified a shortlist of candidates for special tourist zones
Having met until late yesterday, the Interdepartmental Commission for the selection of applications for the creation of tourist and recreational zones selected them, but in slightly larger quantities than planned. According to the plan, there should have been two or three such zones, maximum five. But after a heated discussion, seven were selected out of 18 applications under consideration. “We drew a line under seven applications, but did not put an end to it” - with these words the head of the commission, Minister of Economic Development and Trade German Gref summed up the interim results of the competition.The final choice turned out to be very difficult to make, and it was delayed for ten days. Only politically significant regions remained among the nominees, each of which at one time received certain guarantees of their victory in the competition. German Gref even admitted that he admits the possibility that they will all win in the end, although this will be “a very large burden, both administrative and financial.”
On the other hand, most of the commission members saw the applications only at the final meeting and, perhaps, simply could not understand what they liked best in such a short time.
Among the seven most attractive types of tourism in Russia are beach holidays in the Krasnodar region, as well as treatment with mineral waters in the Stavropol region. According to ranked voting, these regions received the largest number of votes. In addition, the commission included in the shortlist all applications from zones separated by administrative boundaries, but geographically united. This is a potential tourist zone around Lake Baikal (Republic of Buryatia and Irkutsk region), as well as the Altai zone (Altai Territory and Altai Republic). In relation to these regions, the commission proposed a non-standard solution - the creation of tourism clusters. “This does not strictly comply with our legislation, but it would contribute to the comprehensive development of tourism in these regions,” said the head of the expert commission, rector of the Academy of National Economy Vladimir Mau.
Also, the commission could not refuse the Kaliningrad region. Its isolation from the main territory politically obliges the federal center to pay special attention to the application.
Initially, 28 regions applied for the status of a tourist and recreational zone. But ten of them could not even pass the stage of opening applications. They failed to provide the required set of documents to participate in the competition.
However, as it turned out during the summing up, five more regions did not submit a positive conclusion from the environmental assessment. Members of the commission tried to find out how this circumstance went unnoticed when accepting the documents, but they could not establish the truth. Thus, even before consideration, applications from the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Vologda, Novgorod and Rostov regions, as well as the Republic of Dagestan were eliminated. Even the active support from the head of Rostourism, Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, did not help the latter.
Then the rating voting began, during which the Ivanovo and Kaluga regions received the lowest number of points. Already at the commission meeting, applications from the Republic of Sakha-Yakutia, the Tyumen region and Karelia were rejected. Another presentation of the nominees is scheduled for next Monday, so that by the end of next week the commission will still be able to decide on the location of domestic tourist Meccas.