About Us |
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The history of the company ZAO "Mintour"(previously ZAO"Intourist-Murmansk") dates back from the early war years, when the "Intourist" translators worked with foreign seamen participating in the Arctic convoys. In 1962, when tourism practically didn' t exist, an "Intourist" branch was settled in Murmansk. The first clients of the company in Murmansk were tourists from Finland. It was the starting point of incoming tourism. In late 60-s tourists from Norway also started coming to the Murmansk region. Opening of the hard currency bar in Borisoglebsk brought more earnings than the income of all hard - currency bars in Moscow and Leningrad. The Norwegian authorities abolished tourism without visa. However there was broad resonance among Norwegian mass media, thus arousing interest to Russia and trips of Norwegian tourist to Murmansk region were resumed in the 70s. The first tourists were attracted not by touristic sights. They were eager to get through the iron curtain and learn something about neighbouring country's life. The trips presented severe difficulties. Only transit by rail was permitted. A 200 km trip took 9 hours. The services of Intourist those times were not totally touristic. The main sights were social objects such as orphanages, pioneer homes, preventative clinics and industrial enterprises. That aroused great interest. Touristic flow was increasing and in the 70-80s the Murmansk branch of Intourist provided services for more than 6000 thousand foreigners annually. Tourism contributed greatly to mutual understanding between the neighbouring countries. Over the period of Intourist existence more than 100 thousand foreign tourists became its clients. Among them are tourists from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Czechia, Bulgaria, Poland, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Great Britain, USA, France, Holland, Spain, Italy, Japan, Australia, Hong-Kong, Korea, Indonesia, Switzerland, Germany and Austria. About 60 thousand Russian tourists could travel abroad. In recent years the structure and operation of Intourist branch underwent major transformations due to VAO Intourist reorganization and political changes in the country. The independent travel agencies were established in regions. These changes didn't influence the positive image of the company, which has been marketing itself as guarantee of high-quality touristic services for many years. |