New for 2017, there will be added ethnocultural routes in Dagestan and Azerbaijan in an international project of the countries of the CIS and China’s “New Silk Road” initiative. In a promising news tourism industry development, Dagestan is planning to open the routes and stays in accordance with the travelogues of the famous French novelist Alexander Dumas.
Currently, Dagestan and Azerbaijan attract a good number of tourists who visit based partly on the 20 of 64 chapters of the travel writings of Alexander Dumas, published in 1859, that was devoted to the region. Ramazan Abdulatipov, Head of the Republic of Dagestan also had this to say about the potential for tourism there:
“These amazing mountains and miles of sandy beaches, ancient Derbent, the villages of Kubachi, Balkhar, Untsukul, Samur Liana forest, dune Sary-Kum are endless. Where I am from, in the mountain Tlyaratinsky district, there are 127 monuments of history and culture. Elswhere, we have development opportunities for diving, paragliding, extreme kinds of sports, and much more.”
As reported, in 2015-2016, tourist flows in Dagestan increased by more than 30% via the developed new tourist routes and improving existing ones. Since then private investors have built more than 15 hotels, tourist bases and guest houses to accommodate visitors.
The mountain ridges of Dagestan are from in between 2000-4000 meters high with endless meadows below in the valleys. For those unfamiliar, the landscape most the mountain ridges of Central Asia and Tibet more than the Caucasus. Dagestan is also the nature reserve of the Caucasus, where people still wear typical indigenous dress, prefer traditional cuisine and, most importantly, live in accordance to ancient adats and Islam traditions.