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Yakutia joins Federal tourism programme as pilot region

Results of the conference should stimulate demand for tourism product

GORNO-ALTAISK, December 9 (Itar-Tass) —— Russia’s Yakutia has become a pilot region for the Federal special programme of domestic and international tourism, Deputy Head of the Federal Tourism Agency Dmitry Mikheyev told an international conference on development of tourism on Friday.

“No doubt, it confirms the high role of the region in development of tourism not only at the Russian, but also at the international level,” he said. Results of the conference should stimulate demand for tourism product, he added. “Promising directions, which will be discussed during this conference, will possibly become major directions for development of Russia’s tourism sector and of the domestic tourism market.”

Yakutia’s President Yegor Borisv said that the republic is positioned nowadays as a region with rich historic heritage, unique lifestyle of its people. At the same time, development of event tourism in the republic require close attention.

Russia’s Deputy Minister of Culture Grigory Ivlev stressed that event tourism in Yakutia is unique in contents and it is attracting not only Russians, but also foreign guests and investors.

The conference features over 200 representatives of major companies, experts in tourism and economy from France, Korea, Japan, China, the USA, Germany, Finland, the UK and from many Russian regions.

Yakutia /the Republic of Sakha/ is the largest federal subject of the Russian Federation. Yakutia occupies one-fifth of the country’s territory and lies within three time-zones. Located in the north-eastern part of Asia, the region stretches 2,000 kilometres from north to south and 2,500 kilometres from west to east. The republic’s territory is 3,103,200 square kilometres. Nature and resources are unique, too. Yakutia is also known for its climate extremes, with Verkhoyansk Range being the coldest area in the northern hemisphere. Sakha is well endowed with raw materials. The soil contains large reserves of oil, gas, coal, diamonds, gold, and silver. 99% of all Russian diamonds are mined in Sakha, accounting for over 23% of the world's diamond production.

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