In Russia, it has been developed and approved a state industry standard that defines the requirements for the activities of ski resorts. First tested in the winter season of 2015/2016 on the grounds of the VTRK "Arkhyz" and VTRK "Elbrus" and modified by the results of the test implementation, beginning from the 1st of January 2017, the national standard will become effective on the entire territory of the Russian Federation, and it will be recommended to take into account when organizing the activities of Russian ski resorts.

The developers of the state standard GOST R 55881-2016 "Tourist services. General requirements for the activities of ski resorts" from August 15, 2016 are the Northern Caucasus Resorts JSC, the All-Russian Research Certification Institute OJSC, the "Rosengeneering Ekspluatatsia" LLC, the Skiing Industry Union, the "Soyuzexpertiza" ANO of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation with the support of the Department of Tourism and Regional Policy of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.

As the JSC "KSK" General Director Oleg Gorchev said, the company had participated in the standard development and in its testing at the resorts of the North Caucasus "Arkhyz" (Republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia) and "Elbrus" (Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria) in accordance with the request of the Russian Federation Government. The purpose of the state standard is to fix the basic rules of the establishment and operation of a modern ski resort providing year-round recreation services to various categories of tourists. "Much attention is paid to the development of the GOST requirements for the safe stay of visitors at the resort territory as a whole and at the ski slopes in particular, from assessing the weather conditions in a ski area to monitoring rescue skill level on the pistes. Thus, for the tourists, the conformance of a Russian ski resort to the requirements of the standard will guarantee their safe holidays and a high quality of the services provided", said the Northern Caucasus Resorts JSC head.

The new standard has established standard packages of basic ski resorts services, it has defined technical and organizational conditions for the provision of each type of service, including security requirements. The standard has captured general requirements to form the management structure, to prepare production service activities, to conduct economic, marketing, commercial and operational ski resort facility activities. It applies to organizations in the field of ski tourism of various forms of ownership and organizational and managerial structures.

"Currently, the Russian standardization of tourism services provided by ski resorts is a voluntary initiative. However, taking into account the captured in the GOST vital rules to provide for a safe stay of tourists, the compliance with the requirements to the activities of ski resorts must become the norm for all domestic recreation areas. For its part, the Northern Caucasus Resorts JSC already takes into account the GOST provisions with the VTRK technical operation as part of a tourism cluster, and after the document entering into force, it plans to obtain certificates of conformity for the resorts "Arkhyz" and "Elbrus", explained Oleg Gorchev.