Dear lovers of hunting and outdoor activities, did you know that a special Internet portal has appeared in Russia? HuntPoint, where you will find the latest and most profitable information on organizing a hunt? A couple of mouse clicks and you can buy a hunting license, select the desired hunting tour, communicate with the owners of hunting farms directly and get the necessary information.

As the creator of this portal, a hunter with thirty years of experience, Anatoly Zhitkevich, said, HuntPoint works on the principle of sites such as booking.com or airbnb.com. On its pages, every hunter will find the most advantageous offer for himself, and the owners of hunting farms will find a highly effective platform for selling their own services.

5 reasons to buy a hunting tour, permit (license) on the HuntPoint portal

1. Quick purchase of a hunting license. Since the portal works with the final service provider without intermediaries, the prices for tours will pleasantly surprise you.
2. The opportunity to choose a hunting tour or hunting ground in the desired region of the Russian Federation. You can go for mining to Siberia, the Far East or the western regions of our country.
3. Possibility to purchase a hunting tour depending on your trophy preferences. If you want to hunt elk, wild boar, or even wapiti, there are more than 20 different options on the website.
4. If you are interested in hunting at a certain time of the year, or hunting from a tower, or maybe you need driven hunting, the portal HuntPoint will select options according to your wishes. An easy and intuitive interface that any hunter can understand.
5. Thanks to the site, you can resolve current issues directly through the owners of hunting grounds: find out about the condition of roads, opportunities to go fishing, additional services and much more. This is more useful and much more reliable than buying a hunting tour “blindly”.

Why do owners of hunting farms trust the HuntPoint portal to organize their hunts?

HuntPoint helps not only ordinary hunters, but also companies involved in organizing hunting business in Russia and neighboring countries. Working with the site brings benefits to both large companies and individual entrepreneurs:

• Sale of farm services, hunting tours and permission to hunt on the farm, which directly affects the profitability of the business;
• Information pages of the farm and tours, where you can tell in detail about the conditions for the provision of services, accompanying them with colorful photographs;
• Increasing the popularity of the farm - an audience of thousands of hunting enthusiasts will learn about you;
• A personal manager who will help resolve any issues;
• New ideas and plans to attract new hunters to join the hunting enterprise.

The HuntPoint website is a place where a hunter can easily find a tour to his liking, and the head of a hunting enterprise will have the opportunity to tell the whole world about his service.

A tour is a comprehensive travel service that can be sold to a consumer (tourist). The tour includes accommodation, transportation, meals, excursion services, guide-translator services and other necessary services in accordance with the purposes of the trip.

A.B. Zdorov, V.K. Karnaukhova and T.A. Krakow includes hunting and fishing in the group of so-called adventure tours (safari tours). In their opinion, the main functions of hunting and fishing tourism are the function of self-expression and the function of self-affirmation.

Adventure tourism ensures not only that tourists stay in an attractive place, but also that they engage in an unusual activity. The geography and themes of adventure tours are vast and varied. These are usually group tours. A specific feature of such tourism is the receipt of various licenses that allow hunting, fishing, and export of trophies. Adventure tourism involves certain risks, so highly qualified instructors are needed to ensure the safety of such tours. Hunting and fishing tourism is a paid type of travel. The cost of hunting and fishing tours significantly exceeds the cost of amateur hunting (i.e. the price of a license and a voucher), due to the range of services provided by the travel agent and tour operator. This type of tourism has a fairly high cost, and in many cases it can be classified as an elite vacation.

Thus, the organization of hunting and fishing tours is a type of economic activity aimed at making a profit.

Currently, such adventure tours as African safari, camel hunting (Yemen, Egypt) and motonart (Finland), spearfishing and others are popular.

But there is another opinion regarding what types of tours include hunting and fishing. According to I.V. Zorin, hunting and fishing are forms of amateur tourism.

Such hobby tours provide the opportunity to engage in any activity among like-minded people during vacation or travel (hunters, fishermen, fans of hunting and fishing sports).

Typically, such tours are organized in the form of group trips. Basic rules - formation of a group based on homogeneity of interests and thematic focus of the service program

In recreational geography, “specially separated areas for conducting license-regulated hunting and recreational fishing, as well as conducting ecological, zoological and ichthyological research and activities” are called “fishing and hunting parks.”

Hunting and fishing parks are a type of national park. Their main tasks include:

Preservation of natural complexes, unique and reference natural sites and objects;

Environmental education of the population;

Creation of conditions for regulated tourism and recreation;

Development and implementation of scientific methods of nature conservation and environmental education;

Implementation of environmental monitoring;

Restoration of disturbed natural complexes and objects.

Tourist signs and markers are common in hunting and fishing parks. Therefore, it is necessary that fishermen and hunters become familiar with the basics of tourism, know tourist signs and indicators, can properly inform tourists and vacationers, and show them the way in the forest. Hunters and fishermen must exert an educational influence on forest visitors and tourists so that they correctly understand the meaning of tourism and observe the rule of protecting the natural environment and animals in the wild, especially in the forest.

Another specific feature of hunting and fishing tourism is the competitive nature of the relationships between tourists, which makes it possible to classify this type of travel as sports tourism.

Hunting and fishing tourism is characterized by high social responsibility for the use, protection and reproduction of natural resources.

Another feature in organizing hunting and fishing tours is seasonality, the cycles of which do not coincide with traditional types of tourism. Seasonal fluctuations in demand in the field of hunting and fishing tourism, along with the availability of free time, vacations of the majority of potential consumers and dependence on climatic conditions, are associated primarily with the state environmental policy. Seasonality indicators have a major impact on the degree of utilization of the material and technical base of hunting and fishing tourism and the use of personnel.

Thus, seasonality largely determines the overall economic efficiency of hunting and fishing tourism and can be considered as one of the most important factors in increasing the economic efficiency of foreign and domestic hunting and fishing tourism.

In the practice of conducting hunting tours, there are 3 main seasons: spring, summer-autumn and winter. Hunting periods are strictly regulated by the state, and specific opening and closing dates for hunting seasons are set annually by regional authorities. This is due to the state's environmental policy.

The spring hunting season is the shortest (usually 10 calendar days). Spring bird hunting is carried out only for males, with the exception of the goose, since outwardly the male and female are practically the same. Males of capercaillie, black grouse and various species of ducks are allowed to be shot. The state sets standards for shooting birds in the spring (for example, one male capercaillie per season or two geese per day of hunting). This achieves minimization of the negative impact of spring hunting on game animal populations. In Kamchatka, brown bear hunting is open in spring.

The summer-autumn hunting season opens at a time when young game animals can lead an independent life. Thus, the summer-autumn bird hunting season in the northern part of the Russian Federation opens in August, in the southern part - in September, and closes in November. The hunting season for fur-bearing animals (hare, fox, etc.) opens in September and closes on February 28 (29). At the end of August - beginning of September it is possible to hunt for bear and wild boar - “on oats”, for deer - “on roar”.

The winter hunting season is open for fur-bearing animals. From November to January, hunting for ungulates (wild boars, deer) is allowed - “drive”. Bear hunting is allowed all winter - “in the den”.

Fishing is much less regulated by season than hunting. The main seasonal restrictions are associated with the spawning period of fish. Therefore, organizing fishing tourism is possible almost all year round. The main limiting factor in this sense is seasonal fluctuations in the “biting” of fish, known both to the organizers of fishing tours and to fishing tourists.

Fishing tourism services can be divided into summer and winter. Organizing winter tours is much more difficult, and in winter there is a decline in demand for fishing tours.

The degree of risk of hunting and fishing tourism also increases due to the intangibility, non-preservation of services, one-sidedness of their production, sale and consumption. As a result, income from unfilled places on bases is lost forever. Therefore, tour operators must take into account the seasonality of fluctuations in tourist flows, adjusting the capacity of production units, the throughput of hunting grounds, and temporarily increasing or reducing the number of service personnel.

Thus, organizing hunting and fishing tours is a very specific activity. It is this way primarily due to seasonality and high social responsibility for the use, protection and reproduction of natural resources. In addition to all of the above, another very important specific feature is obtaining various licenses that allow hunting, fishing, and export of trophies.

Everything's under control

In fact, hunting tourism is a serious business and one of the most profitable in the world. Many companies in the world are busy organizing hunts for those who want to experience the thrill in exotic countries or just get a couple of trophies for their collection. And contrary to popular belief, not every hunter necessarily wants to go to Africa, where wild animals roam in huge herds. Many people would like to go not to hot countries, but to moderate latitudes.

“Of course, this business has been developing for many years,” says Alexander Drugov. “However, in the Chelyabinsk region we were the pioneers of this direction. It started during the perestroika years, when I, like many former government employees, began to think about how to organize my own business. Since both my grandfather and father were hunters (and my great-uncle, Arkady Vasilyevich Drugov, organized and headed the first society of hunters and fishermen in our region in 1942), I decided to continue the family tradition. At that time, a lot of projects were started with the involvement of foreign partners. So I decided to start organizing hunting for foreigners and immediately wrote a memo addressed to the regional governor.

- Why the governor?

— The fact is that all wild animals are considered a state resource. And only government authorities have the right to issue licenses for the use of these resources. Therefore, without support at the level of the regional administration, starting this business would be simply useless. True, my notes were given a go only when V.P.’s team came to power. Solovyov and in the region began to think about attracting foreign investment. Then we organized the company “Diana-Tour”, the founders of which were the regional hunting department, the then famous cooperative “Energia”, headed by Alexander Aristov, and the insurance company “Megapolis”. Of course, close cooperation was also established with such structures as the KGB (there are still many zones in our region where access to foreigners is simply prohibited) and the licensing and permitting department of the Internal Affairs Directorate (it controls the circulation of weapons, in particular hunting weapons). We had to do a lot of training of local personnel - game wardens, rangers... After all, foreigners, who pay a lot of money, also demand an appropriate provision of services. Vladimir Baklanov, who was then working in the hunting management department, provided us with great help.

— That is, before “going out into the field”, it is necessary, for example, to draw up a lot of paperwork?

- Yes, quite a lot. We coordinated the composition of each group with the KGB, and the routes were determined in advance. Each “barrel” brought by foreigners was registered (and, it must be said, people usually hunt abroad not with smooth-bore weapons, but with rifled weapons - for example, roe deer and elk are hunted with carbines equipped with solid optics). Even after hunters have obtained a trophy (when hunting roe deer, these are antlers), they must obtain a veterinary certificate and a certificate of radiological safety for it. Otherwise, customs simply won’t let you through.

Hunting for stags

— How did you find your clients?

— At first we worked with intermediaries, a Moscow company - another pioneer of hunting tourism on a Russian scale, which took upon itself to meet guests in the capital and send them to the Southern Urals (at that time there were no direct flights from abroad to Chelyabinsk). Then they began to work directly with Austrian and German companies, which also had Moscow representatives. Our first clients were very respectable gentlemen from Austria and Germany - elderly, but easy-going and dreaming of trophies from the Urals. True, incidents immediately began: first, at the insistence of the hunting management department, we had to go not to the Chebarkul region, as we wanted at first, but to the Etkul region. Having arrived at the place, we went out first for the morning hunt, then for the evening hunt - and all to no avail. Obviously, the local rangers were simply poorly prepared and did not track the animal. What to do? You can’t lose face in front of your first clients! And then I decided to move to the Chebarkul region. To do this, I had to go to the regional center and report the movement to the local curator from state security. But the result was worth the effort: the team of huntsmen did an excellent job at the new location - magnificent stags were caught on the very first day. European roe deer are smaller, the males have very small antlers, which is why our West Siberian roe deer is so attractive to hunters. The Germans were delighted!

- And what, there were no “Well, here’s to the hunt...” toasts at all?

“I tried to keep our staff strict. And the game wardens and rangers involved were interested: we paid them the appropriate amount for each hunt, which, given the then salary of 98 rubles, was far from unnecessary. However, people are people, and sometimes there were purely Russian feasts, after which it was necessary to conduct a “debriefing”. So, one day I arrived at the base of one of the groups and saw that tipsy hunters were going to... shoot chickens, despite the protests of the owner. Then I approached them and said (with the help of an interpreter, of course): “Gentlemen, you can shoot, but each chicken will cost 50 marks.” The unlucky shooters immediately collected their guns and went to bed. Another time, our accompanying people were also sitting at the table and did not notice how the foreign hunters decided... to take a walk around the village. People in camouflage suits, with rifles on their backs, and even speaking German, caused panic in the village: they were mistaken for foreign spies. True, after wandering around a bit, the hunters returned to base without incident. And then I had a conversation with the KGB...

Is hunting better than captivity?

The Diana-Tour company had more and more clients, hunters went for roe deer, elk, and goose, and once they even caught a wolf, which was very rare for Europe. But in 1995 (ironically, it was the same year that the film “Peculiarities of the National Hunt” was released) the company ceased to exist.

“The legislation has changed,” says Alexander Drugov. — Government agencies were prohibited from being members of the founders of commercial organizations. And our hunting management department immediately left the founders and simply stopped issuing licenses to us. Since then, no one has been seriously involved in organizing hunting for foreigners. And this is very disappointing, because a very organized flow of tourists (after working with these people, I learned that they plan their vacation ahead of time, a year in advance) passes us by, as do the financial flows that circulate in this area. In addition, very interesting, enthusiastic people came to us, for example, the chief architect of Versailles, world-famous doctors, businessmen, scientists... Their positive impressions helped create a better image of the region. Yes, and foreign currency contributions (albeit not the largest ones) went to the budget, because our company paid all the required taxes. Today, the very situation of our hunting farms is terrible. Private lands are not interested in attracting a large flow of hunters. Farms that belong to the Society of Hunters and Fishers have greater resources, but they also do not allow outsiders in, including due to poor staff training. And the so-called public lands have simply become the domain of poachers.

— But is it possible to establish hunting tourism again in today’s conditions?

— It’s possible, but the issue must again be resolved at the level of the regional government and the governor. First of all, organize a truly effective fight against poaching. Come up with a proposal to restore the institution of hunting supervision, because today the protection of forests is carried out by unarmed people who, in cases of violation, can only call the police. But how many cases have there been when the police themselves poached? And after putting things in order, it would be possible to organize the development of hunting tourism - is this not another point of growth for Dubrovsky’s Strategy? In addition, today wealthy Russians and guests from neighboring Kazakhstan and other CIS republics are joining the ranks of hunting tourists. Moreover, there are still people in the region who have real practical experience in organizing such work from scratch.

Hunting and fishing tourism is temporary trips (travels) to the territory of hunting and fishing grounds for the purpose of hunting or fishing, organized by specialized enterprises that provide a set of specific paid services.

Hunters and fishermen can be divided into amateurs and tourists. Amateurs travel for the purpose of hunting or fishing on their own, without resorting to the services of travel agents and tour operators.

This type of tourism has a high cost, and in many cases it can be classified as an elite vacation.

Specific features of hunting and fishing tours:

· it is extremely important to obtain various licenses (for hunting, fishing, import of weapons, export of trophies). This type of tourism is associated with a certain risk; therefore, highly qualified specialists are needed to ensure the safety of tours.

· the competitive nature of the relationship between tourists, which allows us to classify this type of travel as sports tourism

· high social responsibility for the use, protection and reproduction of natural resources.

· seasonality. The cycles often do not coincide with traditional types of tourism. Seasonality has an important impact on the level of utilization of the material and technical base and the use of personnel.

Hunting periods are strictly regulated by the state, and specific opening and closing dates for hunting seasons are set annually by regional authorities.

The organization of hunting tourism is regulated by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the laws of the Russian Federation “On Wildlife”, “On Environmental Protection”, “On Land” and others.

The main seasons of hunting tours are: spring, summer-autumn and winter.

Fishing tourism is divided into: river, lake and sea fishing tourism. In fresh waters, popular and prestigious fishing objects are fish that live in clean and fast rivers - trout, grayling, lenok, perch, crucian carp, carp, catfish, silver carp, tench, crayfish.

Geography of hunting and fishing tourism

Hunting and fishing tourism can become a significant segment of the economy for Russia.

The large area of ​​forests from the western regions from the Caucasus Mountains to the Far East and Kamchatka best contributes to the development of hunting tourism in Russia. The modern market offers long tours with the services of experienced rangers, with shooting stands, equipment rental and accommodation in comfortable conditions. The list of potential hunting trophies includes bear, wild boar, reindeer, and deer; hunting for fur-bearing animals is permitted. On the territory of Russia you can hunt musk deer, wapiti, roe deer, and waterfowl and upland game even in the forest lands of the nearest Moscow region.

Fishing tours offer a variety of rich catches in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Tyumen, Irkutsk regions and other regions east of the Urals. Tours to the Volga are popular in the European part of Russia. In the central Federal District there is the Rybinsk Reservoir, to the north there are lakes and rivers of Karelia and Komi. Recently, more than 50 accommodation facilities for sport fishing have been created in the Volga delta, Karelia and Kamchatka alone.

Safaris are widely represented abroad in African countries: South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, where hunting lion, leopard, buffalo, rhinoceros, elephant and other African animals is allowed. Russian hunters travel to the Czech Republic and Argentina. Sea fishing is popular in Egypt, Namibia, South Africa, and in the Scandinavian countries: Norway, Finland. Exotic tours offer fishing for armored pike in Central America, fishing in the Brazilian Pantanal region, Thailand and other countries. Spearfishing is actively developing, both sporting and amateur.

Introduction

Tourism is one of the largest and most dynamic sectors of the economy. The high pace of its development and large volumes of foreign exchange earnings actively influence various sectors of the economy, which contributes to the formation of its own tourism industry.

An increase in people's free time, an increase in their monetary income in many countries of the world, an increase in the level of education and culture contribute to the growth of the need for tourism. Tourist trips have now become a priority need, which is difficult to refuse even in the face of increased economic difficulties. Thus, one cannot ignore the enormous impact that the tourism industry has on the economy.

Hunting and fishing tourism

Concept and classification of hunting tourism

Hunting is tracking for the purpose of production, pursuit and the production of wild animals and birds, one of the oldest branches of human activity.

Hunting tourism is one of the most expensive types of tourism, sports and active recreation, it is very unique, it ensures not only that tourists stay in places that are attractive to them, but also provides them with the opportunity to engage in an unusual type of activity, that is, hunting. A specific feature of such tourism is the receipt of various licenses that allow hunting, fishing, and export of trophies. Hunting tourism is associated with a certain risk, so highly qualified instructors are needed to ensure the safety of hunting tours. As mentioned above, this type of tourism has a fairly high cost, so it can be classified as an elite vacation.

The main purpose of hunting tourism is hunting. The word "hunting" usually means the process of tracking, searching and catching wild animals or birds in a state of natural freedom. But this definition does not fully reflect the importance of hunting in human life and human society.

Undoubtedly, the ultimate goal of hunting is to obtain game and obtain hunting products. There was a time when hunting provided a person with almost everything necessary for life: meat, lard for food, skins and fur for clothing and housing, even many tools were made from hunting products.

With the growth of the productive forces of human society, the development and improvement of agriculture, cattle breeding and other forms of use of natural resources, hunting has lost its primary role, but to this day its importance remains enormous.

The most valuable hunting product is fur, the importance of which does not decrease even in conditions of mass production of textiles and knitwear. Hunting also provides meat products and various raw materials for the food, fur processing and pharmaceutical industries. However, the significance of hunting is not limited to even obtaining all these values.

If for commercial hunters hunting is a labor process, a source of livelihood, then for the vast majority of hunters it is not the final goal of hunting that is more important, but its process itself - tracking, lying in wait or pursuing wary game. Hunting develops a person’s observation, endurance, ability to camouflage, overcome obstacles, navigate unfamiliar terrain, shoot quickly and accurately, while being in the fresh air and communicating with nature strengthens strength and health. Therefore, every cultural hunter, as a rule, is a good naturalist, carefully observing the life of nature while hunting. And he receives satisfaction not from the quantity of game killed, but from the ability to feel nature, understand it and be able to enjoy it.

Hunting is divided into:

• 1. by purpose:
  • a) commercial hunting is one of the sources of people’s livelihood, a means to earn money and feed themselves and their families;
  • b) sport hunting or hunting tourism - a way of entertainment, active recreation. The hunters themselves spend money on this type of hunting.
• 2. by means used in hunting:
  • a) gun hunting;
  • b) hunting with hunting animals;
  • c) hunting with the help of poisons, sleeping pills;
  • d) hunting with the use of illegal weapons.
• 3. Photo hunting is distinguished as a separate type of hunting.

Depending on the purposes of hunting, commercial hunting, sport-amateur hunting and scientific hunting are conventionally distinguished. Commercial hunting aims to obtain animals for fur, meat and other products for the needs of the population and industry, as well as for export. This hunt produces valuable fur-bearing and ungulate animals (except for those temporarily or permanently prohibited), upland and waterfowl. Sports and amateur hunting, along with the main goal of hunting game (part of which becomes commercial products), develops physical fitness and special skills among athletes; Hunting tourism is developing on its basis. The objects of sport hunting are upland, steppe, waterfowl and swamp game, hare, fox, wolf, and ungulates. Scientific hunting is carried out on the instructions of research institutions to study the hunting fauna, diseases of wild animals, hunting, and local history (stuffed wild animals are added to museums and scientific collections).

Exterminator hunting was sometimes allowed for harmful animals (hamsters, water rats, gophers, wolves in places where they greatly harm agriculture) using all modern tools and methods.

The shooting and trapping of game is regulated by laws, government regulations and other regulations aimed at the sustainable use, conservation and restoration of stocks of useful wild animals.

Hunting tourism is one of the modern types of tourism, when bases offer organization of hunting for animals and birds. Tourist bases also provide rental of hunting equipment.

Tourist sport hunting is organized by special companies for a high license fee (especially high in the countries of Southeast Asia and Africa).

Particularly popular among foreign hunters are hunts organized in Russia by members of the Rosokhotrybolovsoyuz Association. According to the Association, spring hunting for capercaillie and black grouse is of great interest to foreign hunters. Austrian and German hunters are particularly fond of this hunt. They usually come in groups of 10-15 people. Spring 2010 was no exception. The most successful hunting for capercaillie and black grouse was organized by the Yaroslavl, Kirov, Volgograd, Vladimir, and Tver societies of hunters and fishermen.

Among American hunters in the spring of 2010. There was great interest in hunting brown bears in Kamchatka. The Kamchatka Society of Hunters conducted such hunts in the hunting grounds assigned to it. The hunts were successful. The trophies of the hunted animals are amazing in their size. Individual bear skins reached a length of up to 3 m.

During the autumn hunting season, the greatest interest of foreign hunters is in hunting for European elk, Siberian roe deer, bighorn sheep, Kuban tur, and deer.