August 3, 2012 «Visit Russia!» gala-night will be held at Russia.Park. The London Olympics 2012 participants and guests will enjoy a fascinating program dedicated to the Russian North Caucasus, where Sochi — a pearl of this region — will host the next Winter Olympic Games 2014.
The event program includes presentation of a project of development of tourism cluster of OJSC Northern Caucasus Resorts — the largest project of construction of ski and beach resorts in Europe which will cover the whole Caucasus — from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea.
«The tourism cluster Project in the South of Russia is well known for the business community. Investors from many countries expressed their intention to participate in its implementation. We are ready to represent it to the general public and are confident that the North Caucasus resorts will attract tourists and travelers from all around the world», — said the first deputy general director of OJSC Northern Caucasus Resorts Islam Nazaraliyev.
The guests will watch a documentary film «Arkhyz» describing the unique region of intact Caucasus nature and ancient monuments, its glaciers and waterfalls, 1000-year old Christian temples and traces of the Great Silk Road.
The State Academic Honoured Dance Ensemble «Lezginka» — winner in 47 international folk dance professional festivals — will bring to London the local color of the North Caucasus.
Chief editors of major British and international media, representatives of the international Olympic movement, members of the National Olympic Team of Russia etc. will be the guests of «Visit Russia!» event.
*** By 2020, seven world-class ski resorts: Lagonaki (Krasnodar Region, Adygeуa), Arkhyz (Karachay-Cherkessia), Elbrus-Bezengi (Kabardino-Balkaria), Mamison (North Ossetia-Alania), Matlas (Dagestan), Tsori and Armkhi (Ingushetia), as well as beach resorts on the coast of the Caspian Sea (Dagestan) are planned for construction under a project of development of tourism cluster in the South of Russia.
The length of ski slopes will reach about 1,100 km with 228 ski lifts. In order to accommodate 102.2 thousand people new hotels, apartments and cottages of various comfort levels will be constructed in the area. The daily ski resort capacity will be 172 thousand people.
The development of beach resorts on the Caspian Sea coast provides for construction of 60 sports facilities and 40 tourist, social, business, hotel and transport infrastructure facilities.
The Russian tourism cluster is expected to take in 5-10 million visitors a year, and the project will create up to 330 thousand jobs in the region.
The project is funded on the basis of public and private partnership principles. The state invests 60 billion rubles through OJSC Northern Caucasus Resorts into transportation, engineering and ski lift infrastructure, and private businesses finance resort infrastructure.
For the purposes of dynamic development of the resorts, special tourism and recreation economic zones, which residents obtain tax and customs benefits are created.
The Russian-French JV «International Caucasus Development» plays an international coordinating role in development of a concept and construction of tourism cluster.
The Russian-South Korean JV Eurasia Energy Holdings PTE. LTD. will deal with power supply of tourism cluster.
In view of development of the tourism cluster agreements were achieved with Russian and foreign investors including major private Chinese corporations Dalian Wanda Group and China Oceanwide Holdings Group, the Italian company Rizzani de Echer, the Singaporean company Suprema Associates.
OJSC Northern Caucasus Resorts was named as the «Best Future Project» based on the results of the prestigious international MIPIM Asia Awards real estate development competition.