Sochi to become an all-year-round resort after Olympics – Putin

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Russian president Vladimir Putin thinks that the booming interest in Sochi due to the Olympics should become a permanent trend.

“It’s very important to use everything that has been created there during the last six-seven years efficiently. One has to take into account the number of tourists will increase,” Putin said Monday at a Sochi-2014 Public Council meeting. He pointed out that the number of freighted vessels, able to carry 2,500 to 3,000 people on board, has reached 86 about twice as much as a few days ago. “That means that Sochi is gaining in popularity. We should find other features, apart from Olympic buildings to attract tourists,” Putin added. The president thinks that the Olympics are only a primary impetus which should be developed further. The president pointed out that the infrastructure, created during the last years, provides an opportunity to do this. For example, the number of hotel apartments has increased twice. “Big hotel chains began to build hotels there, thus redirecting people from other resorts of the Black Sea to Sochi,” Putin said. ”These are economic and not administrative means of attracting tourism. I think that we will manage to turn Sochi into an all-year-round resort,” Putin concluded.