OREANDA-NEWS. October 3, 2012. Elaboration of the long-term target program of Development of Tourism in the Republic of Karelia for 2012-2015 in the Government of Karelia is nearing completion.

On September, 25 the draft program was once again discussed at the conference chaired by Alexander Chazhengin, First Deputy Head of the Republic of Karelia for Regional Policy. Valery Kiryanov, Deputy Minister of Youth Affairs, Physical Training, Sports and Tourism of the republic, introduced the document.

According to its developers, the program goal is to create conditions for sustainable growth of organized tourist traffic in Karelia, expansion of the spectrum of tourist services to meet requirements of citizens of our republic, as well as Russian and international guests.

Within the framework of implementation of the program tasks of mobilization of investments in the infrastructure of travel and hotel business, promotion of tourist prospects of the region, involvement of the population of Karelia in tourist activities will be solved.

During the program implementation the flow of organized tourists coming to Karelia is expected to increase almost 1.5-fold. The cumulative income of all kinds of inbound tourism is planned to grow 1.6-fold, and the number of employees of the branch will increase 1.2-fold.

Authors of the program consider growth of the annual flow of organized tourists to more than one million people and mobilization of one billion of unappropriated investments into tourist infrastructure development by 2020 a strategic line in development of tourism in Karelia.

To meet targets, the draft program offers some innovations which make it differ essentially from previous documents of this kind. For example, cluster approach to the tourist branch development in Karelia is introduced in the republic's program, as well as in one at the federal level. The document is amplified with the list of perspective tourist projects and information on traditional brands of Karelia. The program also has a volumetric section of perspective investment objects of the infrastructure promoting development of tourism.

At the meeting representatives of ministries of the republic made some remarks and offers to the draft program. In the opinion of Alexander Chazhengin, the new program will promote development of a common interdepartmental strategic approach to development of tourism in Karelia. This work will be held under constant control, as today issues of construction and development of tourist objects in the republic are solved quite slowly.

Upon completion the draft program will be submitted for endorsement to the key ministries of the republic and then will be submitted to be signed by Head of Karelia Alexander Khudilainen.