Russia will launch the first cruise route along the Caspian Sea

In the summer of 2024, Russia, together with the Caspian states, plans to launch the first route across the Caspian Sea.

According to the press service of the Ministry of Economic Development, the route was created within the framework of the Great Volga Route project and involves visiting all the Caspian states at once - Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Russia.

According to the Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Russia Dmitry Volvach, the construction of the Peter the Great cruise ship is currently underway on the territory of the Astrakhan shipbuilding plant "Lotos", on which Russian and foreign tourists will be able to go on cruises in the Caspian Sea.

He also spoke about the prospects for the development of tourist flows between Russia and Kazakhstan this year.

- In 2023-2024, the city of Almaty was declared the tourist and cultural capital of the SCO. We welcome this decision and are ready for further active work to promote tourism cooperation with Kazakhstan,” noted the Deputy Minister. – In Russia, among popular destinations to visit, Kazakhstan ranks third after Abkhazia and Turkey. Russia, in turn, takes first place in the number of tourists in Kazakhstan.

Recently, there has been a significant increase in mutual tourism trips between the two countries. In 2022, the number of tourist trips by Russian citizens to Kazakhstan amounted to 2.4 million people. About 1.7 million tourists from Kazakhstan visited Russia. For 9 months of 2023, the number of trips from Kazakhstan exceeded 1.6 million trips, the tourist flow from Russia to Kazakhstan amounted to 2.2 million people.

Kazakhstan is among the 25 countries in whose territory work is underway to launch the “Tourist Card” payment service. The service will allow tourists from Kazakhstan to quickly and conveniently make non-cash payments in Russia. Residents of the republic will be able to obtain an electronic wallet with a virtual MIR card and pay for all necessary hotel, transfer and other tourist services in Russia.

He also recalled that a joint initiative to create the Eurasian Alliance of Mountain Resorts, which included the Russian mountain resort Rosa Khutor, the Kazakh Shymbulak, the Uzbek Amirsoy and the Azerbaijani Shahdag, was also aimed at developing the tourist flow between Russia and Kazakhstan.

“Kazakh and Russian tourists have already fallen in love with our joint tourist routes: the “Flashing Meteor” tour with a visit to Omsk, Pavlodar and Almaty, the route along the Chagan River in the Orenburg region, a trip to the “Blue Lakes” in the Tyumen region,” said Dmitry Volvach. – We are currently negotiating the creation of national tourist routes bordering Kazakhstan. Two such routes are already available for tourists - “Hello, Altai!” on the border with the Altai region and “Germans of the Volga region” on the border with the Saratov region.

Russia and Kazakhstan, according to him, are interested in developing a cross-border tourist zone in the area of Mount Belukha. The parties are currently developing a draft intergovernmental agreement providing for a special legal status for crossing the Russian-Kazakh border.

https://www.inform.kz/ru/rossiya-zapustit-perviy-kruizniy-marshrut-po-kaspiyskomu-moryu-f3583c