At BEF 2010 Irkutsk region will present the project of Olkhon tourist centre at The Small Sea Strait.

Irkutsk region suggests including a project of Olkhon tourist centre by the Small Sea Strait in the federal target program “Development of inner and incoming tourism in the Russian Federation (2011-2016)”. Irina Ryutina(the head of Irkutsk region agency on tourism) informed the press centre of Baikal Economic Forum 2010 that it will be a universal tourist recreation centre, where 744 tourist accommodation places with total capacity of 5900 people, including 154 cottages with capacity from three to ten people are planned to build.

Irina Rutina: “Since the main tourist resources are concentrated along the Baikal shore, first of all it is necessary to involve the nearby territories. Maximum territory development area is 237 thousand sq. m. The main kinds of tourism will be ecological tourism and activity holidays which suggest an average five-to-six-days stay. The supposed number is about 316 thousand tourists per year”.

The Sports, Tourism and Youth Policy Ministry of the Russian Federation has currently developed a project of the federal target program “Development of inner and incoming tourism in the Russian Federation (2011-2016)”, which shall be presented on the BEF 2010. According to Irina Rutina, the peculiarity of this document is an attempt to develop tourism via the public-private partnership and active participation of the state in creation of engineering infrastructure.

Besides, this program determines tourism and recreation clusters taking into account the main resources of the region – not just natural, cultural and historical, but also human, educational, scientific and entertainment ones (entertainment centers, etc.).