A cruise service on the Caspian Sea to be launched

In spring 2009, the Russian side intends, for the first time in history, to launch a cruise service on the Caspian Sea.
This was announced by Gennady Pilipenko, head of the department for the development of domestic tourism and state tourism projects of the Federal Agency for Tourism of Russia (Rosturizm).

According to him, the cruise will start from Astrakhan, and over seven days tourists will also be able to visit Dagestan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.

According to him, the icebreaker-type motor ship "Maria Yermolova", built in 1974 and owned by the shipping company "Caspian Cruise Lines", can accommodate 216 tourists.

"The first trial voyage on the Caspian was successfully completed back in the autumn of last year, and from spring 2009 we hope that the Caspian Sea cruise will become regular. Interest in it has been shown in the countries bordering the sea, and businessmen from Kazakhstan even tried to buy the ship out," G.Pilipenko remarked.

day.az