For over a year the future of Kaliningrad “Curonian Spit” national park remained uncertain. In early 2007 the Russian Government provided the reserve with a status of a tourism zone. Since then different federal and regional authorities were competing for it. In the beginning of 2008 the special tourism zone was decided to be moved from the territory of “Curonian Spit” thus virtually completely undermining the idea of a tourism zone.  

It was only after a series of meetings between Kaliningrad Governor, Georgy Boos, with Minister of Natural Resources, Yuri Trutnev, and Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Elvira Nabiullina, that this important decision has finally been made: the zone will cover a significant part of the spit. To this end four land plots with the total area of 317 hectares have been selected on the territory of the national park.

Now the concept of the tourism zone is to be revisited. The previous version prepared by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants has become out of date. It envisaged, among other things, the construction of a luxurious crystal-shaped hotel surrounded by a number of bungalows. This zone even had a motto worded as “The luxury of solitude”. In contrast to this approach, Kaliningrad Government proposed taking Lithuanian town of Neringa as a reference point – traditional Curonian-style contruction with no “crystal”-hotels.

According to Roman Burov, Head of the Regional Branch of the Federal Agency for Special Economic Zones, the previous concept needs to be corrected significantly as it does not correspond to the new conditions of the zone’s development. He also thinks that the proposals of Kaliningrad regional government will be taken as the basis.