“The situation is catastrophic.” The demand for holidays in the Crimea collapsed after the Ukrainian attacks

The tourism business in Crimea was on the brink of survival due to the refusal of the Russians to rest on the peninsula in view of Ukraine’s impending counter-offensive.

“The situation with the sale of summer tours is disastrous,” said Boris Zelinsky, head of the Russian Union of Tourism Industry in Crimea. According to him, the local tourism industry is preparing an appeal to the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and the relevant ministries to provide him with support.

“Crimea used to be one of Russia’s leading tourist regions, but now it is suffering the most from the NWO,” Zelinsky said. He lamented that Russians not only very rarely book trips to the peninsula, but are also very reluctant to pay for them.

Four- and five-star hotels turned out to be practically unclaimed, “because this is a category of people who are used to resting in high-level facilities, who do not want to come to us due to transport restrictions and the fact that Crimea is now almost a front zone,” Zelinsky explained.

In addition, according to him, many families with children “do not think about vacation in the Crimea at all”, which hits children’s health centers. Excursion tourism also suffers – if last year 300-400 people went to the “Crimea around the world” for May holidays, then this year only one tourist expressed a desire.

“The load for the summer is still average, places in sanatoriums and the best hotels are sold by 50-60%, in the rest – by 30%. It’s good that they are now booking at all, ”said Oksana Bulakh, commercial director of Alean. For this reason, many hotels are keeping their prices for 2022, and some have lowered them to 2019 levels.

In addition to the problems with the occupancy of hotels, there is one more – seasonal workers from the mainland are afraid to come to work in the Crimea, says Zelinsky. The delivery of any goods and goods to the peninsula has also sharply increased, since the Crimean bridge is closed to heavy trucks, and the routes pass through territories occupied by Russian troops.

In general, the flow of tourists to Crimea this summer will decrease by 30% compared to last year, when it also decreased by 30% compared to 2021, predicts Sergey Romashkin, general director of tour operator Dolphin. “Go there (to the Crimea. – TMT), everyone understands the risks involved. And if earlier Crimea was charged four months a year – from June to September, then this year, like the year before, only in July and August. Of course, this is catastrophically small for the Crimean tourism industry, but you can make a living from it,” Romashkin said.