The meeting of the discussion club “The North Caucasus - the Territory of Development” on the topic “Arkhyz or Courchevel: Which Mountains Are Cooler?” dedicated to the perspectives and potential for development of the Russian ski resorts took place at the press center of the Federal Information Agency TASS supported by the Ministry of the Russian Federation for North Caucasus Affairs. The participants of this discussion noted the similarity of natural, climatic and landscape conditions of these two resorts and came to the general opinion that the resorts can successfully complement each other rather than compete.

Svyatoslav Wilk, the Deputy Director General for development of JSC NCR, opened the discussion. He told about an integrated development case of Arkhyz ATRC, which is the launching point of the North Caucasus tourism cluster. He emphasized that the development of the resort is based on the West-European model supposing an intensive, progressive and long-term development. ‘As a management company we see the main task in creating a critical mass of infrastructure capable of becoming a point of growth for the whole resort,’ he noted adding that up to date Arkhyz has reached already 40% of this volume or of the benchmark. ‘By season 2019/2020 we plan to reach 100% of the benchmark due to the launch of the north-facing slope which will double the capacities of the resort and will expand the skiing area up to 30 km,’ underlined Svyatoslav Wilk having noted that it will enable Arkhyz to become a federal-level recreation zone and in the future also to attract the visitors from abroad.

‘Today we compare what is cooler, Arkhyz or Courchevel. I am sure that the level of ski infrastructure shows that we should not compete but on the contrary complement each other. Because those one who we put on ski today here in the Caucasus, tomorrow will go there. And if we provide a quality service here, foreign tourists will be interested to come to our Russian mountains. A good example is Elbrus: there you won’t hear Russian speech in summer, a lot of foreigners come there for climbing,’ told the representative of JSC NCR.

Continuing the topic of importance of a service component, Svetlana Sergeeva, the Adviser of the Head of the Federal Tourism Agency, noted that domestic tourists are distinguished by high requirements to recreation. ‘A Russian tourist has traveled abroad for a long time studying the world. He is very pretentious,’ she said, pointing out that exactly this fact can become the basis for growth of service level and quality at the ski resorts of the country. At the same time, Svetlana Sergeeva emphasized the important of developing a comprehensive and multifunctional packaged product of the Northern Caucasus. The representative of Rosturizm also provided tourists’ feedback on recreation at Arkhyz ATRC, calling its level “almost European”. ‘Certainly, Arkhyz has a great future,’ she concluded.

Dmitry Shershnev, the Director General of Tez Tour Operator noted that such pilot project of an integrated tourist product of the North Caucasus is being already created. In summer season the company has offered a number of tourist routes with duration from 3 to 14 days, including visits to the cities of the Caucasian Mineral Waters region and Arkhyz resort. Similar “packaged” proposals will be also valid in winter. ‘Arkhyz is a great, cool resort. It has a great virtue for skiing: snow is softer and drier, the snowmaking system functions very well,’ he said. As the constraining factor of the resort at the current stage of development Dmitry Shershnev called a lack of accommodation places in the resort hotels. He expressed the hope that the investors will put all the scheduled facilities into commission by the next season.

Svyatoslav Wilk, the Deputy Director General of JSC NCR, confirmed that the companies with international participation, including some operators, already take interest in the work at the Arkhyz resort. ‘Today we can proudly announce that one of the residents of the resort has signed an agreement with InterContinental Hotels Group on establishment of the hotel, another our investor is negotiating with Radisson,’ he told.

The participants of the discussion paid a lot of attention to the problematic issues of ski industry integrated development. Vladislav Subbotin, the Executive Director of the Russian Ski Industry Union, told about the establishment of an industry-wide standard setting out the requirements to the activities of ski resorts. ‘A scaling document is developed prescribing everything in detail: starting from what ski runs should be like up to where to set the pegs, how the service departments should function and so on. This document is the basis for further regulating documents on certain areas of activities, for example, for certification of ski runs, instructors,’ he noted.

It was highlighted that in order to solve wide-industry problems the ski resorts of Russia shall be consolidated. Having supported this proposal Svetlana Sergeeva, the Adviser of the Head of Rosturizm, proposed to use the platform of the agency for discussion of systemic issues of ski tourism segment.

Concluding the discussion Stanislav Aristov, the Advisor to the Minister of the Russian Federation for North Caucasus Affairs, reminded that the tourist industry is “a driver of economic growth of the entire hospitable North Caucasus”. ‘The Almighty created all mountains for recreation but the Caucasus Mountains are just closer to us. Therefore we invite all ski lovers to have a rest at the territory of the North Caucasus Federal District and to travel around Russia,’ he concluded.