SOCHI, December 06, 22:26 /ITAR-TASS/. Twenty-five hotels, including 2,500 in the Coastal Cluster, with a total number of 15,000 rooms, began operation in Sochi on Friday as part of preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
Russian Vice-Premier Dmitry Kozak said on Friday that the second stage of the Radisson Bleu hotel complex (Paradise Resort and Spa Hotel) had been completed and that the Azimuth Hotel Sochi, the biggest hotel complex in Europe, had been opened to visitors.
Kozak said that hotels for 42,000 people that are to appear in Sochi for the Olympic Games would contribute to the city’s post-Olympic development as a mountain climatic resort and a tourist center.
“On the whole, this segment of preparations for the Olympic Games is not causing any serious concerns. Today, the interior furnishing and the selection and training of personnel go parallel to the completion of construction works. We are sure that we have fulfilled that task,” Kozak emphasized, noting that not a single rouble of budget money had been spent on building new hotels in Sochi.
The Renova Group of companies took up the construction of the Azimuth Hotel Sochi two years ago after the previous investor had failed to meet his obligations. Renova invested about 500 million dollars in the construction. The hotel complex is located in the Imereti lowland in the direct vicinity of the Big Ice Arena. It consists of two hotels: a four-star Azimuth Hotel Resort and Spa Sochi for 720 rooms and a three-star Azimuth Hotel Sochi for 2,088 rooms as well as a landscape park with a total area of 360,000 square metres. Sport playgrounds, a SPA-centre, a fitness center with an indoor swimming pool and six conference rooms with a total capacity of 216 people.
Journalists and Olympic partners are expected to stay at the hotel complex during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games.
“At first, the task seemed hard to achieve for me and for many other people. We have fulfilled it thanks to some experience in implementing large-scale projects, concentration of efforts, support on the part of Olympstroj and the contractors. Today, we are opening the doors of this hotel to all,” Viktor Vekselberg, the head of the board of directors of the Renova Group of Companies, said at a ceremony of opening Azimuth Hotel Sochi on Friday.
Vice-Premier Dmitry Kozak told journalists that the owners of the new Sochi hotels were ready to implement the government resolution to establish room price limits for the period of the Olympic Games. He said that hotel accommodation costs in Sochi from February to Mach 2014 would be the same as in 2007 with account taken of inflation and a slight increase in prices that meets average European hotel prices.