Baskan, Russia – A Russian envoy to the Caucasus region is urging a halt to ski and snowboard tourism in the area following last Friday’s terrorist attacks that left three Russian visitors dead and damaged a ski lift on Mt. Elbrus.nNorth-Caucasus Federal District (SKFO) presidential envoy Alexander Khloponin is urging a closure of the region to tourists. “We now need to temporarily stop accepting tourists arriving to the resort during the counter-terrorist operation. It is not a holiday when the operation is going on. Send them back, take a break, there is no need to bring new tourists here,” Khloponin told tourist industry representatives this week.

Officials confirmed that one of the lift towers was damaged in Friday’s explosion, but no one was hurt in the ski area attack. Hours earlier, camouflage-clad gunmen ambushed a van transporting tourists from the airport to the ski area, forcing it to the side of the road near the village of Zayukovo. After questioning the passengers they opened fire, killing two on the spot and sending four to the hospital, where one later died. All of the victims were from the Moscow area.

Khloponin urged that his proposed closure, which he also stressed is merely voluntary at this point, is only temporary. He still believes that development of tourism in the region is the solution to the region’s poverty and unrest.

News agency RIA Novosti is reporting that reservations are down approximately 90 percent in the region following Friday’s incident despite a 30 percent drop in pricing, and those already holding reservations are calling to cancel their plans. Khloponin estimates that the attacks set back by two years efforts to develop tourism in the region.

The Caucasus region is under siege by both Islamic militants and criminal gangs, which stage almost daily attacks. Friday’s violence casts a shadow on both the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, set to be staged in Sochi, and foreign investment in Russian President Dimitry Medvedev’s $15 billion plan to develop five new ski resorts in the region.