TASS, December 16. The Magadan Region’s authorities plan to establish a modern tourist complex on Zavyalov Island, which is incorporated into Kolyma priority development area, and upgrade the coastal infrastructure in Nagayev Bay (the Sea of Okhotsk) by 2023, a spokesperson for the regional government told TASS on Monday.

Zavyalov Island (almost 40,000 hectares of virgin lands) in the Sea of Okhotsk became uninhibited in the 1990s. Before that, a weather station, a beacon and a fish processing plant were up and running there. Recently, the island has become a new home for musk oxen, which will be a key attraction for tourists. The project’s investor — the Expedition-Tour Company — and the local authorities say the complex will attract not only local residents but tourists from other regions as well. The Russian Geographic Society’s Vice President, academician Pyotr Baklanov believes the island has every chance to become one of the main tourist landmarks in the Far East, thus boosting tourism and business. The island’s development began in 2016, and construction of a tourist complex started in 2019.

"Under the Magadan Region governor [Sergei Nosov], we have rolled out an ambitious project to upgrade coastal infrastructure in Nagayev Bay and on Zavyalov Island: to build berths, a tourist camp, catering facilities and a border-crossing station," the local government’s representative told TASS. "The tourist complex’s construction is in full swing, and we plan to carry the work through by late 2023."

Once the project is completed, Kolyma will serve marine passenger vessels, including Arctic cruise ships, the local government expects. They also hope to be receiving about 7,000 tourists on the island annually. "Though the region’s territory does not lie within the Arctic zone and is not washed by the Arctic Ocean, Magadan will be a port of call for cruise vessels heading for the Arctic. While the ships refuel, tourists will go sightseeing and get a glimpse of the history of exploration of Kolyma."

Presently, four tourist companies work in the Magadan Region, and two of them have experience in serving passengers of cruise ships, including foreign visitors.

Expedition-Tour has invested 250 million rubles ($4 million) in the establishment of a tourist complex on Zavyalov Island. In 2018, the company has brought 25 musk oxen to the island from the Arctic regions of Yakutia. This experiment cost the company 30 million rubles ($480,000). The company plans to restore the population of snow sheep, which used to inhabit the island a few decades earlier, but were exterminated by people. Now, the animals are almost two years old, having survived the past winter. Musk oxen will be the island’s key attraction.