The Government of Sakhalin Oblast has submitted the proposals on the establishment of territories of priority development (TOR). It is planned that the tourist flow will increase up to 600 thousand people per year by 2020 and up to one million by 2025. This was announced by the regional governor Oleg Kozhemyako at a meeting with the Russian President's Plenipotentiary Representative in the Far Eastern Federal District Yuri Trutnev. Oleg Kozhemyako said that TOR would include ski complex “Gorny Vozsukh” (“Mountain Air”) in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the “Sinegroskie Mineralnye Vody” health resort in the suburbs of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the coastal zone of the Nevelsk city district and the island of Moneron, according to the press service of the government of Sakhalin Oblast.

      “What about the “Gorny Vozdukh” complex, in the years 2016-2018 there will be built five rope ways with a total length of 10 kilometers and 22 kilometers of ski trails. A ski and biathlon centre and a water sports complex have been built, environmental hiking trails and trails for horseback riding and other tourist infrastructure facilities have been created.

      The Sakhalin Island with the chain of Kuril Islands is a wild, mountainous land famous for its severe and rugged beauty. This is, perhaps, one of the few places in the world, where wilderness of nature remained untouched and is still difficult to reach due to the lack of a well-developed transport system. Sakhalin provides visitors with all types of hiking, camping and other adventurous tours. Volcanoes, lower plains covered by 3m-high grasses and bamboos, mountain terrains, crystal clear lakes, etc. make Sakhalin one of the most interesting and attractive places to explore.

      Sakhalin is the largest island in Russia and one of 100 largest Islands in the world, interesting both geographically and historically. Its geographical location is unique; it is separated from the continent and from Japan by three straits, bathed by the cold Sea of Okhotsk and the warm Japanese Sea. The seas washing the coast of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands are among the most productive areas of ocean in the world. Nearly two-thirds of the Sakhalin area is mountainous. Lopatin Mountain is the highest, at 1,609 m. The Northern part of the island is a swampy plain covered with deciduous taiga, while mountains of the central and southern parts of the island are covered with forests. There are two mud volcanoes, more than 60 thousand rivers and streams, and about 16,120 lakes on the island. Sakhalin is attractive for its oil, coal and timber resources. Though the Sea of Okhotsk off the eastern coast of Russia is almost entirely covered in ice during the winter months, it is one of the most productive marine environments in the world during the late spring and summer months. During the summer, commercial fisheries originating from as far away as Poland ply these waters for walleye pollock, flounder, herring, Pacific salmon, halibut, Pacific sardine, Pacific saury, cod, capelin, sand eel, smelts, crab, and shrimp.