In 2019, the Kurilsky Nature Reserve was visited by a record number of tourists over its entire existence. According to the education department of the reserve, the total number of tourists for the first time amounted to 1 thousand 200 people, which is 30 percent more than in the previous year.
On the territory of the Kurilsky Reserve there are two ecological and tourist routes - the Caldera of the Golovnin Volcano and the Tyatya Volcano. Most tourists of the reserve visit the caldera of the Golovnin volcano, in 2019 - 900 people. The Tyatya Volcano route is much more complicated, but this year 122 people climbed the volcano. Most tourists travel to Kunashir from mid-July to the end of September.
A decrease in airfare since spring 2019 for non-residents has affected an increase in the flow of tourists to the South Kuril Islands, the reserve said.
Local residents from Yuzhno-Kurilsk and other settlements of the South Kuril region account for 28 percent of the total tourist flow. In addition, residents of Moscow and the Moscow Region are the most often visiters to Kunashir - they make up 20 percent of all the Russian tourists; second place - residents of Sakhalin - 8 percent; slightly less - St. Petersburg - 6 percent.
As for inbound tourism, except for participants in a sea cruise tour (Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Israel), in 2019, other groups were visited by citizens of Germany, France, Poland, Croatia, and Slovakia , Switzerland, Belarus, Estonia, Lithuania and China, the reserve said.
In addition, in 2019, 13 research expeditions came there, in which 53 people took part, including citizens of Russia, Japan, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Sweden.
Travel agencies are trying to orient tourists to arrive in Kunashir and Shikotan by sea, as this is a more reliable means of transport, independent of weather conditions. However, in the reserve they say that in 2019, only one steamboat - “Igor Farkhutdinov” sailed on the Sakhalin-Kuril line, which is not enough for everyone who wants to visit several islands at once - Kunashir, Shikotan, Iturup.
10 years ago, about 500 people visited the reserve annually. This figure includes tourists who arrived on cruise ships, excluding tourists from Japan, members of the so-called visa-free groups who have been visiting the South Kuril Islands since 1992 under visa-free exchange programs between residents of the Kuril Islands and Japan. More than 1 thousand Japanese citizens come to cemeteries in Kunashir annually. In 2019, for the first time a group of 40 Japanese tourists arrived in the Kuril Islands as tourists.
In 2015-2016, the number of tourists in the reserve increased to 900-945 people per year. Employees of the reserve believe that such growth is associated with the introduction of additional flights, the reconstruction of the airport and the renewal of the aircraft fleet.
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