Russia (bbabo.net), - Yakutia has been and remains one of the most environmentally friendly regions of the country. People from all over the world come here to visit the Pole of Cold, catch taimen with their own hands and admire the untouched nature. However, the territorial remoteness of the republic and high ticket prices did not allow tour operators to turn around. In the coming year, the Ministry for the Development of the Far East plans to launch charter flights to Yakutia. This method of stimulating domestic tourism was successfully tested on Sakhalin and Buryatia.
“Now, together with the Federal Tourism Agency, we are working on the possibility of increasing the cashback for tour packages to the Far East to 40,000 rubles,” said Alexei Chekunkov, Minister for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic. - In 2022, it is planned to launch charters to Yakutia. There are exotic places that attract tourists with a completely unusual tourist product. For example, the pole of cold. The age-old rivalry between Verkhoyansk and Oymyakon leads to the fact that some people, hunting for the lowest possible degree, go both there. It’s hard to imagine what minus 50 degrees is, I’m not talking about minus 65, but this is also a tourist feature that needs to be properly developed. Yakutia, for example, has picked up extreme cold tourism.
In addition, in 2022, 6.5 billion rubles were allocated to finance subsidized air tickets for the Far East. Another four billion will be directed to subsidize the main air transportation for citizens who enjoy social benefits. The United Far Eastern Airlines, which was established in 2021, has been allocated 5.9 billion rubles to subsidize 36 socially significant interregional routes.
About 30 tour operators operate in Yakutia, offering more than 280 products: expeditions, cruises and river rafting, weekend tours, car tours, extreme hunting and fishing tours.
During the pandemic, hospitality companies had a hard time - in 2020, four months completely "dropped out" of work, and in 2021, people massively refused tours due to fires. Several groups that nevertheless reached Yakutia needed to change plans on the go: in the Mountainous region of the republic, where several popular places are located at once, the fire raged especially strongly.
- We are very pleased with the support from the Federal Tourism Agency, - says the head of the enterprise - one of the oldest tour operators in Yakutia, Mikhail Mestnikov. - Last year we asked colleagues from Buryatia about the results of their charter program - everyone is very pleased. Increased cashback for tours to the Far East is great, but there are nuances that may prevent the project from working at full capacity. For us, for example, the main difficulty is the need to place an online cash register on the site. This is partly why local tour operators are reluctant to join the program - not everyone can afford to fork out 100 thousand rubles for technical work.
There are two peak seasons in Yakutia: winter and summer. In December-January, people come here to fully experience the 50-degree frost and visit the Winter Begins in Yakutia festival. In summer - to visit the national holiday Ysyakh (Yakut New Year, celebrated in June), to see non-melting glaciers and try your luck at trophy fishing. And the Lena Pillars National Park, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, is good at any time of the year. In 2021, it was visited by about 30 thousand tourists.
About 30 tour operators operate in Yakutia, offering more than 280 products: expeditions, cruises and river rafting, weekend tours, car tours, extreme hunting and fishing
Now in the Far East there are 962 hotels that have passed the classification and are included in the unified federal register. 63 of them are located in Yakutia, but there are not enough places during major events.
- In my opinion, the republic is not yet ready for large charters: the organization, logistics and hotel base are "lame", says Mikhail Mestnikov. - In Yakutia, it is better to work with small groups, to develop not mass tourism, but ecotourism, extreme routes, multi-day hiking and rafting. But I am sure that if more people come, the industry players will not immediately, but reorganize. The main thing is that the program for subsidizing tickets for the Far East has started to work. Previously, Yakutia was an inaccessible island - tickets to Kamchatka, Primorye and Magadan were several times cheaper, and tourists flew by. This year we have equal opportunities.
The next stage of the sale of tours under the tourist cashback program started on January 18 and will last until April 12. You can travel until April 30th. Now on the World of Travel.rf website, one tour to Yakutia is available - for ice fishing. A five-day trip to the foot of the Verkhoyansk Ridge for fishing with accommodation in 2-4 star hotels and three meals a day will cost 100 thousand rubles.
On the topic
This winter Oymyakon has seen an influx of tourists: hundreds of travelers from France, South Korea, Austria, Germany, the USA, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, India, Italy and Russia have come here.Arshad Iqbal, 43, became the first Pakistani to visit the Pole of Cold. Guests from Venice Dino Lanzoretti and Stefano Grigoretti set off on bicycles from Oymyakon to Verkhoyansk. YouTube bloggers from America, Drew Binsky and Amar Kandil, plunged into the hole at minus 40. The goal of the Russian journalist, TV presenter Alexei Pivovarov was to find out how everything works at the Pole of Cold and how people live there.
And 43-year-old Ahmed Hussein Al-Kaziri from the United Arab Emirates ran the marathon of the same name at minus 53 at the Pole of Cold. This year, Oymyakon gathered extreme athletes for the third time - 70 participants aged 27 to 75 tested themselves at four different distances.
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