This year "Sayan Ring" travel company announced about the new offer in the sphere of incoming tourism: this is the trip for foreign tourists to Naadym - the main Tuvan holiday. The marketing director Julia Kapustinskaya told our correspondent that the first group of tourists is already formed and it consists mostly of Italians. This is actually the first effort to make money from the foreigners' trips to the national holidays in Siberia.
The possibilities of developing the event tourism are huge in Siberia. Now each of Siberian territories has its national holiday. For example, the Altai people celebrate their "Ey-Oyin" in July, and the Tuvinians - in August. Khakas, Evenks, Buryats and the majority of the other Siberian peoples have analogous holidays. At such a festival the local masters compete in racing, fighting, playing different musical instruments, shooting from bows and other national pastime. Besides, every district brings its national cuisine. And at the eve of a holiday local shamans make great shaman rituals in Tuva - the ceremonies of praying for happiness. Besides, there are not less holidays in many regions that should be not less interesting for foreigners. For example, the festival of throat singing in Tuva or the holiday of Teleuts on the Telets Island in the Altai Mountains. So, every national holiday is a happy opportunity to get acquaintaned with the variety of ethnic cultures of Siberian peoples, not roaming to the farthest districts. Besides, local souvenirs and national cuisine are always on the market at such holidays - and this is what the foreign tourists usually need.
As a rule, the national festivals are popular among the foreign tourists. For example, more than eighty thousands people came to the El-Oyin festival the last year, and for the sake of the Alsou (the popular sinfer) concert the electricians had to switch off electricity in several country districts. Thousands of people celebrated in the other republics. But there were not any organized groups of foreign guests at such events. "Sayan Ring" travel agency was the first to organize the tour to Siberia for the Europeans aimed at visiting a national festival or celebration.
The main problem for foreigners in Tuva is the problem with accommodation. There is the hotel places famine, and the hotels do not suit any European standards. Fortunately, "Sayan Ring" travel company possesses the yurt complex "Byi-Khem" not far from Kyzyl in Tuva, on the bank of Kha-Khem - the Small Enisey. The eight-day program of visiting Naadym includes throat-singing concerts ("khoomey"), visiting the real Shaman clinic, the yurt of a cattleman, bathing in a curative mountain lake and tasting of national Tuvinian cuisine. After that the tourists will visit the Naadym celebration during several days. They attend the ceremony of festive unveiling of Naadym, the best yurt competition, horse racing and the national fighting "Huresh". And those tourists of the "Sayan Ring" travel company, who have their trip in the middle of July, will automatically attend the Second International Festival of Ethnic Cultures which takes place in Shushenskoe village on the territory of Krasnoyarsk region (the initiator of this festival is the general director of "Sayan Ring" Andrey Kataev).
Except for the event tourism "Sayan ring" travel company announced about launching the new project - the tour "The Pearls of Tuva" that is also tailored mostly for foreigners. This is a ten-day tour that cost about twenty fore thousand rubles (Naadym costs almost the same), and it includes visiting many natural sightseeing places, meeting shamans, a visit to the Buddhist temple and other amusements. This tour is designated for physically active tourists. According to the words of the managers of "Sayan Ring", the tour is already popular among foreigners: three of six dates for the summer period are already bought by a German company and the rest are also being successfully sold. Before this year the guide itinerary of "Sayan Ring" tour products included visiting several regions, but because of the high interest and popularity of Tuva among tourists, it was decided to make a shorter program with increasing the time spent in this region, with the direct flight from Moscow to Kyzyl and backwards. Besides, the company has changed its main product - the Great Sayan Ring. And now there is one more tour program - Small Sayan Ring or just Sayan Ring, it does not include Krasnoyarsk and the tourists go from Moscow right to the capital of Khakasia Abakan. This direct flight lets lessening the cost of the program from 46 to 23 thousands rubles - twice cheaper. Nevertheless, the main and the most expensive product - the Great Sayan Ring still is very popular among tourists: eleven out of eighteen dates are already booked. According to the words of Julia Kapustinskaya, Germans, Englishmen, Japans, Italians and Finnish are mostly interested in the tour.
Ms. Kapustinskay told us also that there are new united programs being prepared for the summer: Kamchatka - "Sayan Ring", Khabarovsk - "Sayan Ring", Baikal - "Sayan Ring" and etc. If this plans come true, we'll be able to speak about the qualitatively new interest to Siberia.

MAX SHANDAROV