New Yeti resort to be opened in Siberia to encourage tourists to catch the Abominable Snowman



Region's governor offered a £20,500 reward to anyone who can catch a yeti

Park will include a hotel and a museum with 'yeti-related objects'

Man behind it - Igor Idimeshev - claims to have had close encounters with the legendary creature



Legendary: A new Yeti resort will offer tourists the chance to find the elusive creature

A new Yeti resort is to be opened in Russia to encourage tourists to find the elusive creature.

The planned Yeti Park in Sheregesh, Siberia will include a hotel and a museum, and is intended to attract those keen to be the first to prove the existence of the yeti.

The region's governor Aman Tuleyev has offered a £20,500 reward - one million roubles - to anyone who can catch a yeti and prove its existence. 'I'll sit down with him, chat and have a cup of tea,' he promised.



Igor Idimeshev, 48, d eputy head of Sheregesh's local council in Siberia, and the man behind the new park said: 'We are building the Yeti Park now, and of course there will be a chance for people who come here to see creature. For me having Yetis here means something much more than the simple tourist attraction'.

He added: 'We will have a dedicated plot of land for Yeti park, where anyone can see it. We will organise a museum, exhibiting all Yeti-related objects, like the trees they make into arches, and many other things. This location will be used for all future conferences and seminars devoted to the Yeti'.

'The Yeti theme is 'important for the region'.

Last year Russian academic Professor Valentin Sapunov claimed a population of 200 yeti exist in the Kemerovo, Khakassia and Altai regions of Siberia.

Mr Idimeshev insists he has seen the creature - dismissed by most scientists as legend - several times.

He told th e Siberian Times : ' I've seen this creature several times.

Insistence: Igor Idimeshev is the man behind the park. He claims that the yeti is an 'extraterrestrial creature' that looks over things' on Earth

'And when I saw the yeti's eyes my only thought was that they are not from Earth - they are clearly of an extraterrestrial nature.



'To me, the yeti is an extraterrestrial creature. I believe that it is like a controller to look over things here on Earth.'

Mr Idimeshev added that the creature - known as Big Men by locals - could 'suddenly disappear and re-materialise'



He added: 'Another extraordinary thing is that yeti's hair is luminous at night, and also that the Yeti can walk on water.

'Every man round here sees him when he hunts. It's all right to mention the fact of meeting - but we don't go into the details of it, like where exactly it was, what he did do, or your luck will be gone.



Tourism: The park will be located in the Sheregesh ski resort in the Shora Mountain area of Keremovo in southern Siberia

'The feeling is one of fear. It is a fear that you cannot explain rationally. You feel yourself very scared and tense at the same time.



'One of the closest comparisons is the feeling of looking into a wolf's eyes. If you've ever seen them - I mean a wild wolf, not a caged animal - you remember a feeling of them being something very unusual, alien.



'Like with a wolf, you can see a yeti's eyes from a distance of some 100-150 metres. They are quite hypnotising.

