Officials promise: the resort will not yield to Turkey and Egypt, and "Hollywood" will occupy a third of the territory.
Yulia Suntsova
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, together with Krasnodar Territory Governor Veniamin Kondratyev and Anapa Mayor Vasily Shvets, at the beginning of the month held an offsite meeting on the Black Sea coast in the village of Blagoveshchenskaya (Krasnodar Territory). We discussed changes in the city master plan and the concept of a new tourist and recreational cluster, which should appear here, on an area of 800 hectares, in the future 2-3 years.
Financing of the construction is expected on the basis of a public-private partnership. The federal authorities are ready to provide support to the Krasnodar Territory in the amount of 250 billion rubles within the framework of the tourism and hospitality industry national project. “We have determined that the Turizm.rf corporation will be an active participant in the implementation of the project”, - Chernyshenko's words are quoted in the press service of the region's governor.
It turns out that the amount of discussed investments exceeds the cost of the entire Tavrida highway in Crimea (160 billion) and the Crimean bridge itself (230 billion).
According to the presentation, most of the funds are planned to be directed to the construction of hotel complexes (110 billion), entertainment (15 billion) and sports (5 billion) facilities, a rehabilitation center (5 billion). 28 billion rubles will go to the creation of transport and other infrastructure.
The expected total amount of tax revenues from the resort is estimated at 8 billion, and the turnover during the season is 80 billion rubles.
The plans are, of course, ambitious. The authors of "Novaya Anapa" call the project an anchor for the entire tourism industry of the country. Previously, such projects were not implemented in the Kuban, according to a message on the website of the Krasnodar Territory administration.
"Anapa should become a year-round resort with recreational areas that tourists could visit not only in the summer season. The instruments of the national tourism project provide ample opportunities for creating a tourist cluster" New Anapa ", and in the horizon of two to three years. An important factor in planning the resort is taking into account the interests of local residents, the natural features of the territory with an emphasis on the development of transport logistics", - шы stated in the message of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Chernyshenko
"Several areas for recreation, walking, health, sports. All development is envisaged in a single architectural style. Our task is to create a project that will attract tourists. With high-quality infrastructure and a high level of service. We will pay special attention to transport logistics. Vacationers should feel they feel comfortable from the moment they cross the borders of the Krasnodar Territory", - notes the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Veniamin Kondratyev.
According to the forecasts of Vice Governor Alexander Ruppel, the creation of the cluster will increase the tourist flow to the Krasnodar Territory by 2-3 million people a year (in 2020 it amounted to 12 million people, in 2019 - almost 17 million). The investment money is also planned to build more than 50 hotels of three-four-five stars, 500 small and medium enterprises in the service sector, the project will give the city 25 thousand new jobs, adds the mayor of Anapa Vasily Shvets.
The new city will occupy a site on the Blagoveshchenskaya spit between the Black Sea and the shallow Kiziltash and Vityazev estuaries, about 25 km from Anapa airport and 90 km from the Crimean bridge. The resort will be connected with the federal highway A-290 "Novorossiysk - Kerch" by a new highway "Vinogradny - Blagoveshchenskaya" with a length of 16 km and a cost of 6 billion rubles.
800 hectares is 8 square kilometers. The approximate dimensions of the building are 4.5 by 1.7 kilometers. The site exceeds the area of most coastal villages on the coast from Sochi to Taman and is comparable to the entire tourist center of Anapa.
The authors of the idea promote the concept of the so-called "10-minute city" - a compact urban environment, where the maximum opportunities and infrastructure for a good rest will be concentrated on sites within walking distance for tourists. Bonus - 10 kilometers of embankments and beaches (on the Black Sea and on the estuary).
It will be possible to move around Novaya Anapa on foot and on public bicycles, scooters and electric taxis.
It is advertised that the entire tourist cluster will have 7 thematic zones, each responsible for a certain direction of recreation:
"Do not ask about schools and kindergartens, hospitals and clinics for local people, they are not provided for in the cluster. In any case, there is not a word about this in the project. But the cluster provides many jobs. Probably, it is planned that these will be seasonal workers who will work here on a rotational basis and it will be necessary to build a social infrastructure for them", - said Andrey Vorsov, an expert on real estate in Anapa, - "In general, new construction, especially if it is done wisely, relying on the research of nature conservation structures, in harmony with the existing landscape - it's great! Moreover, Novaya Anapa is spared the main disadvantage of the "old" Anapa - a huge amount of algae on the beaches. I do not presume to assert that they will not appear in the future, since ecologists argue that their formation directly depends on the quantity and quality of wastewater. Time will tell what will happen in fact".
Regional authorities report that for the construction of "New Anapa", appropriate changes have already been made to the city master plan, and public hearings have been scheduled.
How optimistic can we talk about the implementation of the presented project?
In practice, whatever one may say, everything will depend on the amount of funds allocated from the federal budget.
In the past, the Krasnodar Territory has already put forward a similar initiative to create on the Blagoveshchenskaya Spit a special economic zone of tourist and recreational type (SEZ TRT) "New Anapa" worth about 2 billion euros. The idea existed from 2007 to 2010 and was closed ahead of schedule due to lack of government funding and weak interest in it from investors.
"Each part of the Russian government considers it its duty to announce some large-scale project in the field of tourism. Before "New Anapa" there were, for example, "Resorts of the North Caucasus". There is no reason to believe that the new undertaking will be more successful than the previous ones, however, there is no", - political analyst Abbas Gallyamov notes in the commentary to Novye Izvestia.
"At the resorts it is customary to make all sorts of entertainment and entertainment places. Why did everyone start up? Who is being driven off the ground is a separate question. And let's still return to these questions when we see real money, when it will be allocated not in someone's heads and not only on paper. Yeah, now they fled and allocated 250 billion to Anapa. It’s not harmful to ask, as they say”, - comments Natalya Zubarevich, professor of the Department of Economic and Social Geography of Russia at Moscow State University.
"First, on the one hand, Anapa, probably, investments and large-scale reconstruction would not hurt. Comparing it with other resorts "of the Black Sea coast, it is clear that the problems there are old and they really need to be solved, - says political scientist, expert in the field of regional policy Alexander Kynev, - "But personally, I will not go to Anapa, only in a coffin, and I do not care how in three years it will look. "Russian Hollywood" in the village of Blagoveshchenskaya is the same as the next Napoleonic plans of Roscosmos. When they are voiced, everyone laughs and understands that this will never happen. There will be no "Russian Hollywood", because the Russian market and the Russian economy are not allowed to do this. Only people who have never seen anything better can believe in this and they are not in danger. Although, probably those who always chose between Anapa, Gelendzhik, Sochi and Alupka will like it. But those who have seen normal resorts at least once in their lives will not go there for any money. Thank you - only by the verdict of the court..."
Just a week after Deputy Prime Minister Chernyshenko's visit to the site of the proposed construction of a tourist cluster, local residents in the village of Blagoveshchenskaya blocked the entrance to the beach with concrete blocks and chains. To be able to continue the journey, they demanded 200 rubles from the vacationers. A sign "Cossack beach" appeared on the barriers. The unidentified persons wearing sunglasses motivated the collection of funds by the fact that they organized a parking near the sea, which was guarded and cleared of garbage. Outraged tourists posted videos of illegal entrepreneurs on social networks, which the police have already taken interest in.
"Of course, Anapa will not be able to compete with any resorts in Turkey, Egypt and Europe. “The village of Blagoveshchenskaya will take a competitive position in the international tourism market” - it even sounds ridiculous and ridiculous. Anapa will not be able to compete simply because of its geographic location - it will not change from the amount of money invested by the state. There is nothing to do there in winter and autumn. The climate is different, the duration of the seasons is different, the sea and the quality of the beaches are incomparable", - experienced tourists think.
One could argue that people go to tourist places not only for a favorable climate. Indeed, they do not go to look at the quality of the tiles in the rooms, they also go for culture, history, environment, cuisine - in a word, for the atmosphere. When we talk about Italy - we imagine not only the sea, right? The atmosphere is not built for any money. There can be no competitiveness here at all. If you stay on the sea coast in the Russian Federation, it is, as a rule, a dull, joyless, pessimistic life around”, - Alexander Kynev sums up.
However, the pessimism of some stumbles upon quite successful projects in recent years. Take, for example, Krasnaya Polyana, where thousands of those mountain and ski lovers who previously thought only of the Alps go. And millions of Russians restricted to travel abroad (for various reasons) are ready to continue to rest "in the south" - there would be, as they say, offers adequate to their tastes and wallets.
So, in any case, the project is hampered by government funding and - most likely - by the interest of state corporations and large Russian companies in Novaya Anapa.