SOCHI, May 12 (Itar-Tass) — Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi that will host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games received over 500,000 guests during last winter’s ski season, Sochi city mayor Anatoly Pakhomov told a meeting of the Public Council for the preparation for the Olympics and Paralympics on Saturday.
“This proves that the city’s resort infrastructure is steadily moving towards the year-round work,” he said.
Pakhomov noted that this year Sochi registered a sustainable influx of tourists during the low season from November to April. New ski resorts and hotels on the slopes of Krasnaya Polyana that received along with professionals skiing and snowboarding fans also helped to boost the inflow of tourists.
“This year we were the first in Russia to introduce the all-inclusive system. The tour that includes a plane ticket, transfer, a seven-day accommodation and meals three times a day, and health resort treatment costs around 2,100 roubles (one dollar is equal to approximately 30 roubles) per person a day. This is much cheaper than that in Turkey and Egypt and nobody will offer health resort treatment to a guest in those countries for this price,” Pakhomov said.
“It is widely used at our place thanks to our hydromineral resources of Matsesta spa resort and treatment programs in most of Sochi’s health centres,” he said.
The Sochi city mayor underlined that despite the large-scale construction in the run-up to the Olympic Games the Black Sea resort managed to prevent the outflow of tourists in summer.
“Soon after the Olympic project in Sochi was launched, we registered a slight decline only in 2008, when the city received 3.438 million tourists. But already last year 3.856 million guests visited the resort,” Pakhomov said.