Bashkortostan with its unique nature pretends to become a new tourist Mecca. Presentation of the master plan on tourism development in the Republic of Bashkortostan for 2007-2016 “Bashkortostan — land of adventures in Southern Urals” took place in Ufa.

Bashkortostan is by right considered the tourist pearl of Southern Urals and will actively promote itself in this kind. The republic should be identified with Southern Urals in the tourist market. Sports, health and adventures – these are three pillars the concept of tourism development of Bashkortostan should be leaned on.

Bashkortostan is the land with unique natural landscape, historical monuments, multinational population and centuries-old cultural traditions. The single in Russia rock paleolithic paintings in the Shulgan-Tash cave are 12 thousand years old and the unique “Country of settlements”, uniting Arkaim and other settlements, is about four thousand years old. Ural mountains were known already in the times of Herodotus as “Hyperborean Mountains”. The national Bashkir epos “Ural-Batyr” is one thousand years old.

Tourist places of interest of the Southern Urals are really impressing: about 300 karst caves, 600 rivers and 800 lakes, plenty of mountainous peaks, three state reserves and one national natural park. More than three thousand immovable monuments of history, arts, culture and archaeology form the base for cultural-cognitive tourism. Seven clusters for further development of tourism are determined: Abzelilovsky region RB (ABZAKOVO); Beloretsky and Burziansky regions, where a spa-resort and two Alpine-skiing resorts will be opened; Ufa and its suburbs, where the network of hotels is to be developed (plus one aqua-park and the city entertaining centre); the national park and the Shulgan-Tash cave, where tourists will go to provided the presence of well-developed network of hotels; the peak of Yangan-Tau and its outskirts, where one may have an excellent rest; the Krasnousolsky sanatorium and Pavlovskoe water-reservoir as a centre for active rest. The total cost for realization of this project is about 1,6 – 2,2 billion euro, which is planned to obtain from private investors .

Abzelilovsky, Beloretsky and Burziansky regions are included into the tourist-recreation zone “Ural”. The main goal of the project “Ural” is to create a tourist zone of the international level, specializing in winter sports and some original summer kinds of sports. The total number of tourists, which are going to visit the region, is planned to be increased up to 1,5 million people per year. This is a wide-scaled tourist product, combining the complex of natural, archeological and cultural objects, called to make the world tourist image of Ural as the place for mass and individual rest for all age groups. Beauty, health and safety will become the key values of the project.

The following directions are determined as the main ones for the tourist-recreation zone “Ural”: “The Wings of Motherland” (air flights should become the main transportation corridor); “Olympic Medals” (holding international winter sports competitions); “Europe meets Asia” (acquaintance with cultures of European and Asian countries); “Hyperborean Mountains” (development of tourist routes); “To Your Health!” (development of prophylactic and rehabilitation treatment on the base of thermal resorts, mineral waters, local medicinal muds, clear muntain and forest coniferous air); “Closer to Nature!” (development of ecological tourism in specially allocated parts of Bashkir and Trans-Ural reserves and development of agrarian tourism); “Elite Realty” (Mountain chalet-hotels of family type).

Some of the abovementioned objects claimed to win the contest “Seven Wonders of Russia”, including the Shulgan-Tash cave, the peak of Iremel, inhabited by unique Burzian bees and the following places of interest – the stele, symbolizing the boundary between two continents – Asia and Europe; the Salavat Yulaev monument in Ufa and the ancient golden nugget “Irendyk Bear”, weighing nearly 5kg.

Some facts about ski centres of Bashkortostan: “Abzakovo” is the newest modern mountain ski centre not only in the Urals but in the whole Russia. The season begins from the middle of November and ends at the beginning of May; “Metallurg-Magnitogorsk” – the mountain-skiing centre, located on the bank of Bannoe Lake (Yakty-Kuhl), 40km from the city of Magnitogorsk, three km from the sanatorium “Yubileiny” and 25 km from the mountain-ski resort “Abzakovo”; “Mratkino” is the base of Beloretsky ski centre. The peak of Mratkino is rather high – its absolute height is 806 meters and the relative height is 530 meters. Its length is 2300 meters, the slope is from 12 to 70% and the elevation changes are up to 300 meters with optimal conditions both for beginners and for well-experienced skiers.

It is worth saying several words about recreation resources of Bashkortostan. There are 31 sanatoriums in the republic and each of them possesses the unique springs of mineral waters, medicinal muds, kumiss-treatment etc. The sanatoriums “Yakty-Kuhl”, “Assy” and “Talkas” are able to attract hundreds of people, wishing to have a good rest and to become healthier. Tourism is to become an important and profitable part of republican economics and majestic and unique Ural should be a centre of internal, interregional and international tourism.