The Kuril Islands are becoming more accessible both for tourists and for those who consider them as a new place of work and life. The border regime has been canceled, the Kuriles are waiting for everyone. Paramushir, the northernmost of the islands, is actively developing infrastructure, transport accessibility has improved, but there are still unresolved tasks in the field of logistics.
About 2,500 people live in Severo-Kurilsk, the only city on Paramushir Island. And about 7,000 people a year come here to stay and admire the local beauties.
From the point of view of tourism, Paramushir has something to show. This is not only a unique nature, including the constantly erupting Ebeko volcano, but also a historical memory. It was here that the Second World War ended, and there are a lot of memorable artifacts on Paramushir and on the neighboring island of Shumshu. Now the task is to develop the direction of patriotic tourism here. A museum dedicated to the events of the war years will appear on Shumshu, commemorative objects will be restored, and a tourist village will also be organized here. A tourist town of 25 houses for individual and family accommodation will also appear in Shelekhov Bay on Paramushir. This will increase the flow of tourists to the Northern Kuriles. There are other interesting places around Paramushir, such as the Alaid volcano on Atlasov Island and the Chikurachki volcano. And in Paramushir itself, a modern Ebeko hotel with 127 seats will open in 2025. The Onekotan Archipelago project is working on the development of tourist accessibility in these places, with the support of the authorities of the Sakhalin Region and the North Kuril Urban District.
According to local authorities, the North Kuril City District is ready to accept a larger number of people, including, taking into account personnel needs. Therefore, the infrastructure here is being prepared “for growth”. New houses are being actively built in Paramushir, which will be occupied by residents of old residential buildings. The city is counting on population growth, mainly due to specialists arriving from the mainland, said Alexander Ovsyannikov, Mayor of Severo–Kurilsk.
But it is necessary to thoroughly improve transport accessibility. Given the strategic importance of the development of the Kuril Islands, the Sakhalin Oblast authorities have made efforts to facilitate logistics, but there are still difficulties. Now you can get to Severo-Kurilsk by helicopter or ship from Kamchatka. Previously, helicopter flights were infrequent, now they are permanent. A motor ship also runs regularly. The helicopter flies for 2 hours, the ship leaves Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the evening and reaches Paramushir by lunch.
But still, there are disadvantages in the work of transport. Part of it is related to the climate: helicopter flights are canceled during bad weather or fog. And because of the low tide, you have to wait for several hours for the water to arrive so that you can board a ship and set off or to go ashore.
Sea traffic needs to improve conditions. The steamship “Hypanis” goes to Paramushir, it is no longer a new vessel, built in 1992, living conditions on it are not so comfortable. When in February of this year, the Hypanis went for annual maintenance, the modern cargo and passenger ship Anatoly Cherneyev entered the line. This helped not to interrupt the work of the sea route, which provides Severo-Kurilsk with the delivery of goods, mail, food, as well as, of course, passenger transportation. But now Hypanis is working on the line again. Residents of Severo-Kurilsk have repeatedly raised the issue of a modern vessel sailing to Paramushir.
There is another serious problem: the flights of the planes arriving at Yelizovo airport from Moscow and the helicopter departing for Paramushir do not match. The helicopter leaves a little earlier than the Moscow flight arrives. As a result, passengers flying from Moscow are forced to stay in Kamchatka for another day waiting for the next helicopter flight, which will leave for the Kuril Islands only the next day. This is not only uncomfortable, but also costly: sometimes residents of Severo-Kurilsk, who, for example, return home from vacation, whole families are forced to rent hotel rooms for the night. Both business travelers and tourists suffer from the current situation. Despite the fact that weekly tours to the Northern Kuriles cost 150-180 thousand rubles, additional expenses (for accommodation and meals, for spending extra days on the road) are extremely inconvenient for travelers.
“And now the situation on our island has even become more complicated: since June 28, the helicopter was sent for inspection, and we were left without transport for a week. They promised to give An An-28 flight, but the weather does not allow it. And “Hypanis” runs only 3 times a week, and there are only 36 seats on it. But after all, people need to return home, and even tourists get stuck on the mainland because of this, and they have every day on their account. It is urgently necessary to increase traffic flows,” Elena Kotenko, director of the North Kuril tourist company Ettulangi Travel LLC, told Arguments of the Week. In addition, local construction and fishing companies are taking their employees to Paramushir. You can’t do without a permanent transport connection.
Of course, Elena Kotenko notes, on the one hand, transport conditions have really improved now: Now, in case of bad weather and failure of a helicopter flight from Kamchatka, Aurora Airlines provides passengers with a free hotel and meals, previously there were no such conditions. “And now we get on a helicopter right at Yelizovo airport, and before we had to go out of town to Nikolaevka airport, and this is 1,500 rubles by taxi. If the helicopter was canceled, no one compensated us for these expenses for the trip, and no one settled the passengers, we were looking for an overnight stay with friends and acquaintances,” says a representative of the travel industry.
It has become much more comfortable now, but one helicopter per day, says Elena Kotenko, is now too little for Severo-Kurilsk: “In order to develop tourism, there should be not only two flights a day, but, I think, two helicopters and each has two flights a day, for example, in the morning and at lunch. Then you can close the need for transport. It’s the same with ships. Hypanis alone is not enough, if regular Cherneyev flights were added, it would be wonderful. And a plane flying from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is also needed. This would relieve the transport infrastructure.”
As told in the administration of Severo-Kurilsk, the issue of the inconvenient flight schedule of aircraft has been raised more than once, but has not yet been resolved. Obviously, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Economic Development should pay attention to this and help ensure a comfortable docking of planes and helicopters in time, taking into account the actively developing tourism in the Kuril Islands.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, noting the significant growth of domestic tourism and the general interest of Russians in unusual remote places in Russia, this year called for the development of the tourist cluster of the Kuril Islands. In order to perform this task efficiently, it is necessary to strengthen the transport component. Perhaps, with the support of the regional authorities, as well as the federal budget, it will be possible to resolve this issue.
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Источник: argumenti.ru
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