The number of visitors to the Kurilsky Reserve increased by 30% compared to the previous year

Among them were five foreign citizens. The top three in terms of the number of visitors is traditionally occupied by Moscow (1257 people). It is followed by Yekaterinburg and St. Petersburg.

In 2022, 659 permits were issued for local residents of Kunashir to visit the routes of the reserve.

Most of the visitors were on the Golovnin Caldera route - 3654 people. The route "Volcano Tyatya" was visited by 472 people, "Sandy Lake" - 79 people.

“Currently, two more new routes have been approved for visiting, intended for cruise tourists: “Bird's Waterfall” and “Tyatina River” in the northern part of Kunashir Island,” the reserve said.

One third of the total number of visitors to the reserve were organized tourists. Last year, 1,525 people visited the routes as part of organized groups. This figure has almost doubled compared to 2021, when it was 855 people.

In connection with the growing popularity of the reserve, the issue of arranging new administrative facilities, repairing cordons and increasing the staff to work with tourists is becoming more and more urgent.

“The area of the administrative building for receiving tourists and normal work with visitors is critically lacking! Due to limited funding, there is also an extremely insufficient amount of funds to repair the cordons of the reserve in Kunashir, where visitors could stay,” the reserve said.

In addition, at present there is no full-fledged visitor center of the Kurilsky Reserve in the village of Yuzhno-Kurilsk on the island of Kunashir.

The press service noted that this year the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation allocated funds for a mini-information center for visitors on the territory of the administrative building of the reserve, as well as for the purchase of a modular house and a barrel bath with installation near one of the cordons.

“On the territory of the federal reserve “Small Kuriles” on the island of Shikotan, which is administered by the reserve, no registration of visitors is carried out, since there is no throughput system for ground visits in the reserve,” the report says.

According to state inspectors working on Shikotan, the tourist flow has grown significantly in the reserve. In 2022, three cruises were organized for local residents of the area around the island. “At the same time, the problems of organizing and conducting tourism on Shikotan are clearly acute. There is no staff unit of the department of environmental education and educational tourism in the reserve "Small Kuriles" due to underfunding of the staffing table. The reserve on the island of Shikotan does not have an administrative building,” the press service said. “Accordingly, there is no room: no visitor center, no visitor room for receiving visitors (tourists, researchers, and others). Also, there are no cordons and other accommodation facilities for tourists and researchers on the territory of the reserve,” the report says.