05 June 2010, 12:00
Five mountain-ski resorts to be built in Northern Caucasus
The Russian government has stated its intention to erect five modern European-class mountain-ski resorts in the territory of Northern Caucasus within the nearest 10 years.
The mountain-ski complexes are planned in Matlas (Dagestan), Mamison (North Ossetia), Arkhyz (Karachai-Circassia), Lagonaki (Adygea) and Elborus (Kabardino-Balkaria).
The largest resorts will be Mamison and Arkhyz. The North-Ossetian one will occupy 1500 hectares, while the routes will make 300 kilometres in total. It will house up to 50,000 tourists. The second-largest, according to the plans, will be Arkhyz, where the total route length will make 278 km; it will have 21,000 hotel places, the source named "15th Region" writes.
With commissioning of these five mountain-ski resorts, according to expert's estimates, the flow of tourists will make 5-10 million persons a year, the "Komsomolskaya Pravda" notes.
According to the portal "Tourprom.ru", the initiative was put forward by the state, but the government hopes that main capital will arrive from investors.
