Tourist zones suffer from global crisis in Karachaevo-Cherkesia

On the eve of the New Year, the most popular resorts of Karachaevo-Cherkesia - Dombai and Arkhyz - remain practically without tourists. Hotels drop rates, and "one-day tours" are gaining popularity. Experts of the tourist business say that it is the effect of the financial crisis.

"The crisis has touched many people, forcing them to be economical. We've never seen this sort of price drop. In Dombai, for instance, hotels failed to sell rooms at their quoted rates; this wasn't the case last year," Kazim Uzdenov, Director of the "Everest" Travel Agency, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. According to his story, now people mainly buy "one-day tours" to Dombai and Arkhyz to celebrate the New Year.

5-6-night-long tours are popular among tourists from outside of the republic, mainly from Moscow, St-Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Stavropol, Krasnodar and Rostov-on-Don. They take their skis and go to Karachaevo-Cherkesia. The priority is given to active forms of tourism: horse-riding tours, rafting, mountain bike and skis.

The guests of the resort are also using ropeways, climb the Alibek Glacier, visit the climbers' cemetery and go in for shopping - here, people can buy products of local craftsmen: caps, cloaks, sheepskins and knitted goods.

"Next year, we plan to launch another kind of tourism - snow motorcycles. It's very popular in Dombai, less - in Arkhyz. In Dombai, mountain skiing is highly developed," said Mr Uzdenov.

In Karachaevo-Cherkesia, the skiing season starts in November and lasts till May. And then, skis are replaced by the ropeway.

For reference: The "Dombai" Mountain Ski Resort, situated in the territory of the Karachaevo-Cherkesian Republic, is one of the oldest of the kind in Russia. Here, the nature has created all the conditions for exercising tourism, climbing, mountain skiing and snowboarding. The start of mass tourism dates back to 1925, first climbers' descent on mountain skis was made in 1940.