The Russian Geographical Society together with the “Ruskeala” Mining Park in Karelia are participating in the famous international World Travel Awards. The park was nominated in the category "Europe's Responsible Tourism ". Voting for the winners was supposed to end on May 10, 2020. But in early April, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the voting process was suspended. Now, since June 15, the voting process has been restarted. You can cast your votes for the nominees before midnight on August 17, British time.
The “Ruskeala” Mining Park is a tourist complex in the Sortavala region of the Republic of Karelia. It is a monument of nature and the history of mining in Russia, Sweden and Finland. Marble, once mined in this hilly area, was used to decorate St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Winter and Marble Palaces, the Mikhailovsky Castle, and Kazan Cathedral. But by the beginning of the 21st century, after active mining with powerful explosions, the deposit had lost its significance.
Today, the abandoned marble quarry has become one of the most visited tourist attractions in Russia. The park has both surface eco-paths and an underground excursion route created with the participation of speleologists of the Russian Geographical Society. The bowels of the park hide the lake, across which runs the only underground pontoon path in Russia that is about two hundred meters long. The park also has an ethnography and crafts area, a creative space for opera festivals and live music concerts. A special pride of the tourist complex is the Ruskeala Express retro-train, which connected the city of Sortavala with the mountain park.
World Travel Awards is a kind of the Oscars in the field of tourism. The award was founded in 1993. It is awarded annually in more than 80 categories: the best hotels, airlines, tour operators, cities, resorts, attractions.
The resorts of the Azores (Portugal), Costa Navarino (Greece), the “Dark Sky Alqueva” Nature Reserve (Portugal and Spain), as well as the “Norwegian Cruise Line” and the British airline “Virgin Atlantic” are competing for victory with the Karelian park.
We invite everyone to participate and cast their vote for the “Ruskeala” Mining Park!
Voting Algorithm:
- Go to the award website.
- In order to vote for the mining park, registration on the award website is required.
- Go to the VOTE page; If you are registered, enter your username and password.
- To register a new user, click REGISTER, fill out the registration form (name, country, email, password), then press SUBMIT.
- To activate the account, you must confirm the email address using the link in the letter sent to the email specified during registration.
- Follow the instructions on the site.
- Select a region in the Region Menu - below or in the submenu on the left.
- In order to vote for the “Ruskeala” Mining Park, you must select Europe.
- To vote for the “Ruskeala” Mining Park: on the list of categories select "Europe's Responsible Tourism Award", select "Ruskeala Mining Park", click on the button to the left of the candidate’s name. The vote will be registered and the next award will appear.
