For many of you this statement can seem very disputable. The point is that Leningrad region, or Leningrad Oblast, is a region of many faces: it is an oblast-toiler – producing, extractive, cultivating, and a territory, where you can relax in taste! Tourist opportunities of Leningrad region can be divided into three blocks: based on cultural and historical resources - “Cultural Tourism” (cultural-educational, pilgrim, nostalgic, military and patriotic, event, etc.); tourism, using natural resources as basis, - “Recreational Tourism” (sanatoria and health, ecological, active, water, rural, hunt, fishing, etc.) and tourism, founded on innovations and business initiatives, congress and exhibition facilities, - “Business Tourism”.
Each of the marked out blocks is this or that way represented on the territory of the Oblast. More than 130 tourist companies, 400 collective accommodation facilities, 4 000 historical heritage sights are located in the Oblast. More than 12 000 of the habitants are engaged in organization of the recreation, excursions, exhibitions for more that 1.6 mln tourists and sightseers.
The most “stylish” direction of tourist business today is the event tourism. In Leningrad region it is represented by holidays, festivals, reconstructions. Projects “Leningrad Summer”, “Festival of Dramatized and Historical Reconstructions”, “Festival of Small Historical Towns” have already become a fact of the “tourist biography” of the Oblast, “Leningrad Beach Summer”, “Losevsky Resort District”, “Olonetskaya Shipyard”, “Minor Wooden Ring” are the projects of the nearest and the further prospectives.
Excursion tours and holidays, built on the extensive ethnographic material of the territory, ancient customs of the Russian, the Karelians, the Vepsians, the Izhors, traditionally the territory of modern Leningrad region, are popular among the excursionists, particularly, for the opportunity to actively participate in the event: ancient customs, dances, to try national costumes, make a souvenir by their own hands.
Rural and water tourism are one of the most demanded types of recreation tourism in Leningrad region today. More than 100 rural guest houses offer not only to have a rest from the tiring influence of the big city, but to become familiar with the everyday life of a villager: to work in the field, to send the cattle to grass, to crop strawberry. Fishing, hunt, including ice fishing, forest walks – are inalienable attributes of the rural recreation.
Water tourism in Leningrad region is represented by cruise, yacht and cutters and active types. You can come and watch exciting competitions in the network of the traditional festival “Vuoxa” from the shore or take your seat in a raft and feel the restless disposition of the river and its rapids by all your senses. You can also observe the sail of the participants of the “Vyborg Regatta”.
As to business tourism, Leningrad region can offer comfortable conference halls, equipped in the extreme of technique, and relaxation facilities, beginning with boat trips, horse riding, cycling, mountain skiing, snowboarding to swimming pools and SPA treatments.
For you to orientate in the wide variety of tourist facilities of Leningradskay Oblast, there is a net of information tourist centers. It includes 10 centers, located in St. Petersburg and the districts of the Oblast. Preparing for a journey round Leningrad region, it is reasonable to contact the centers for detailed and actual information, learn about tourist offers available.
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