The Krasnoyarsk Economic forum 2018 gathered Russian and foreign experts who wished to reconsider urgent issues of ecotourism in Russia. Forum’s agenda included a plenary discussion ‘Siberia as the center of Russian ecological tourism’. The discussion was attended by Deputy Executive Director of the Russian Geographical Society Aleksey Tikhomirov.
April 14, experts discussed the current situation in ecological tourism in Siberia and the Far East as well as the potential of ecological, cave and agro tourism.
Participants noted that there are no unified requirements for cave tours including tourist safety and security. At the moment the Russian Geographical Society, the Ministry for Natural Resources and Ecology and the Federal Agency for Tourism have been working to research how speleo tours should be created in accordance with Russian laws on safety in tourism.
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As a result of this work, a certified list of tours to Russian caves should be created.
It should be noted that the development of a unique search system ‘Caves’ of Russian and CIS caves was supported by the Russian Geographical Society. The system includes speleological zoning, descriptions of geological structure of objects, hydrological systems of climate conditions and transport accessibility.
Participants paid special attention to investments in tourist infrastructure in Siberia. They noted that tourists are especially interested in visiting protected areas. But it is important to ensure the balance between increase in tourist flow and preservation of natural environment.
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Aleksey Tikhomirov stressed that the Russian Geographical Society together with Rosturizm has studied issues of the development of tourist infrastructure in the Arctic. The Russian Geographical Society and Rosturizm would develop a concept for the development of tourist infrastructure in the Arctic based on economic and geographical data.
According to statistics from the Federal Agency for Tourism, more than 2030 thousand people (114.6 thousand of foreign citizens) visited the Arctic regions of Russia in 2016 that is 456 thousand more compared to 2015.