OREANDA-NEWS  The tourist flow at the ski resort "Elbrus" in the summer increased by 30%. These figures are comparable to the winter period, said the Director General of the Caucasus Development Institute Russian Federation Andrey Yumshanov following the results of the strategic session on tourism development under the leadership of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.

"It is very important that the mechanism for the development of tourist facilities is supported within the framework of special economic zones (SEZ). The results that we see today at our ski resorts speak about the effectiveness of these support measures: in the summer period, the most irrelevant for ski resorts, only on Elbrus we received a 30% increase in tourist traffic, August gave us almost 80 thousand tourists - these figures are comparable to the winter months and this says a lot," - Yumshanov told me.

He expressed confidence that the potential of the industry is huge, and the support measures that have been announced will lead to serious results. "We will get a multiple increase in the contribution of tourism to the Russian economy as a whole, I think this is absolutely realistic," Yumshanov added.