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Sochi winter vacation experience: Alpine resorts welcome 1 mln tourists in 2017-18 season

According to the mayor, Sochi turned into a modern alpine resort thanks to the 2014 Olympics

© Artur Lebedev/ТАSS

SOCHI, May 17. /TASS/. Alpine skiing resorts in Russia’s Sochi accommodated around one million tourists in the 2017-18 season, which is roughly the same as the previous year, Sochi Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov told TASS. Despite a warm winter and the lack of snow, the ski and snowboard season lasted until mid-May, he added.

According to the mayor, Sochi turned into a modern alpine resort thanks to the 2014 Olympics. The total length of ski trails of varying difficulty is currently 150 kilometers.

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National Geographic Traveler readers select Sochi as Russia’s best ski resort

Pakhomov also said that the Sochi winter vacation experience has become more and more versatile in recent years. In Krasnaya Polyana, tourists have a chance to not only ski and snowboard, but also to spend their time at shopping malls and entertainment centers, as well as to go on local excursions.

"The range of tourist services that the alpine resorts has to offer has been steadily expanding," the Sochi mayor went on to say. "New tourist projects were launched last winter season. A reindeer farm opened to tourists, as well as the Igloo Hotel ethnic park where people can spend the night in traditional snow-made Eskimo huts.

In the winter, tourists had the opportunity to go on dog sled rides at the Gorki Gorod and Gazprom resorts. As for the Roza Khutor resort, a new two-kilometer-long ski trail was the novelty of the season, which allowed vacationers to descend from an altitude of 1,350 meters riding Canadian Indians’ toboggans.

While speaking about future development plans for Sochi’s alpine resorts, Pakhomov said that a single ski pass was going to be introduced, a ski bus service would be launched and new sights would be created that would be able to attract tourists all year round.

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