They will build yurta camping in Tuva

Yurta is the oldest housing of Tuvan nomadic stock-breeders. It turned out to be in demand in the tourism business of Tuva. (This is republic within Russia. The geographic center of Asia is situated on its territory.) With its help, it is already in year2010, a declared Year of Tourism in the region, when it is expected to solve the problem of camp bases’ settlement and accommodating guests. On January 20, 2010 in the government of Tuva there was a presentation of a draft project of the two yurta complexes elaborated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Tuva (photo).

Each complex will consist of a yurta -restaurant, two or three VIP- yurtas, and several yurtas of economy class. In addition to them at the camp there will be five birch reindeer tents of bark with a camp-fire, a playground, viewing pavilions, toilets, a bath-sauna, as well as office buildings and car parkings. Unlike the ordinary camps, the new complexes will be more comfortable. They will be equipped by bathrooms with septic tanks, by the water supply and sewerage system, they will be electrified by using portable electric power station. In office buildings there will be souvenirs outlets, kitchen, dining room and staff accommodated.

The biggest yurta of this complex is a restaurant with 100 seats (photo). It has a diameter of 15 meters, the walls of 3 meters height. The total height is 5 meters. The floor is filled with mortar and covered by carpet.

The yurta-suites are expected to be made by a special order. The yurtas of lower class are designed to accommodate five persons. Their size and decoration copied traditional dwelling of Tuvan shepherds. The tents of skins have cultural and cognitive meaning. They may also serve as another exotic place for tourist accommodation. The guests will be provided with sleeping bags made out of sheep wool.

Design of the campsite is made in ethnic style. For example, one of the small towns "Mongun-Bulak" ("Silver spring"), is planned in the form of a known archaeological finding of the Tuva burial mound Arzhaan-1. It is a Scythian pendant in the form of swung panther (photo).

The second camp (Aldyn-Bulak ", or" Golden spring ") resembles the layout of the Universe, where tents look like planets (photo) from the top.

The complex developers proposed to use natural stone, sand stone in the design of pathways and other elements of. It environmentally friendly, and beautiful , and less expensive than other coatings. The interior design of yurtas is, in fact, a mini-museum of the material culture of Tuva. It is based on elements of the traditional nomadic way of life - from the time of the Scythians to the household items of contemporary Arat stock-breeders.

The project authors estimated that the max. capacity of each complex was up to 60 people a day. The activities will be held on 6, 10 and 14 days’ vouchers. A tour will include meals, accommodation and cultural program. Those additional paid services considered are excursions, as well as master classes in throat singing, archery, wrestling. The price of a 6-days voucher may vary from 9 000 roubles to 18 000 roubles depending on accommodation.

The required investments are about 18 million rubles. The camping would be worth its cost for 4 years at the planned flow of more than 3 thousand tourists a season, the specialists say.
According to the Minister of Culture and Tourism of Tuva Vyacheslav Dongak, the past presentation of the project is only a preview of one of its variants. But in principle the idea of a yurta camping has been already approved by the Head of Republic Sholban Kara-oola - provided that the exotics would be combined with high European level of infrastructure and quality service.

The Republic already has the production basis for organizing tourist industry on the local material. A workshop for making tents was open in one of the regional centers of Tuva a month ago. It is planned to place the order for original houses of the two complexes right there, as well as in crafts workshops dealing with producing furniture and household items for nomadic stock-breeders.

According to gov.tuva.ru, the authors studied the wishes of the guests of the republic, prior to elaborating the project. As it turned out, the Russian and, especially, foreign tourists are no longer surprised by exclusive hotels, log bungalows like a hunter settlement, or other stationary bases. Besides, they expensive to keep, when the influx of tourists is declining dramatically. The think in the ministery that yurtas camping is the perfect solution in terms of seasonality of tourism in Tuva, believe in the ministry. When winter comes and the tourist flow decreases, it takes two or three days to turn a yurta camp and take it away for storage.

The idea is especially good for promoting auto tourism that becomes more and more popular in Tuva from year to year. For example, the participants of a January trophy expedition from Novosibirsk to from Tuva’s Club “Off Road Master” spoke in favor of  such camping. For auto tourist they could become not only a place to sleep in, but also an acquaintance with the ancient culture of nomads, which focus is their home - felt yurta.