Experts are sceptical about military tourism in Chechnya

In Russia, the sphere of military tourism, which the authorities of Chechnya decided to promote, is poorly developed, experts of the tourism industry have noted. To promote the project, a lot of hard and delicate work is needed, says Dmitry Danilenko, the editor-in-chief of a tourist portal, believes.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on November 2, the first group of foreign tourists arrived in Chechnya within the "MilitaryTour" Programme.

In the opinion of Irina Tyurina, the press secretary of the Russian Union of Tourist Industry, the military tourism is not developed in Russia. The company "SV-Astur" provided military tourism services 15 years ago, but now this area is not in demand.

All over the world, Chechnya is first of all reminding people of the war; therefore the idea of promoting military tourism is perceived ambiguously, Mr Danilenko believes.

However, he is confident that with the proper approach it is possible to attract tourists who are interested in military topics; he sited Vietnam as a successful example of military tourism.

Oleg Orlov, the head of the "Hot Spots" programme at the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", has treated the idea of Chechen authorities about military tourism as strange.

"If military training and shooting will take place there, then what's the difference from militants' training camps?" he asks.

Mr Orlov is sure that tourist visits to Chechnya will not affect the situation with human rights violations there.