Tourists not leaving Kabardino-Balkaria yet - Rostourism

MOSCOW, February 20 (Itar-Tass) -- As yet there were no cases where
Russia's tourists left Kabardino-Balkaria early, but it is not possible to
rule out they may follow the murder of tourists from Moscow and the Moscow
Region, Head of Rostourism's press service Oleg Moseyev told Itar-Tass on
Saturday.
"Rostourism monitors the situation with tourists in
Kabardino-Balkaria," he said. "As yet, we have not fixed cases where they
leave the resort early, but we cannot rule out this may be expected."
"We follow the situation, and the organisation's statement is to
follow," he added.
Head of Rostourism, Alexander Radkov, said there would not be changes
to the programmes to develop tourism. Whatever possible changes may
concern improvement of tourists' safety only.
Earlier, Press Secretary of Russia's union of tourist industry Irina
Tyurina told the Russian News Service radio station that the flow of
tourists from Moscow planning a trip to Kabardino-Balkaria had dropped
following the murder of three Muscovites there.
"After what happened yesterday, clients started to refuse from the
trips," she said. "We offer a direct bus from Moscow, and the number of
sold tickets is falling: we have between five and twenty passengers
instead of 50, and we are not sure if the next bus will ever go."
On Friday evening, on the Baksan-Azau federal highway in the Baksan
area at the entrance to the village of Zayukovo, unidentified persons
fired at a van with five tourists from Moscow and the Moscow Region. Three
people were killed, and two with gunshot wounds were taken to hospital.