Crimea’s Popularity on the Rise

According to Aleksandr Trofimov, Chairperson of Association of the Crimea’s Resorts, more than 90 percent of the tourists who had vacations in the region this summer will come back. Russian tour operators confirm that the Crimea was very popular in summer, even took the lead over the resorts of Krasnodarksiy krai.

Marketing research showed that 71.49 percent of the respondents highly appreciated the holidays and treatment in the region. There is a tendency of increase of number of the tourists from the near abroad, in particular, the share of the tourists from Russia amounted to 35.2 percent this year (+2.8 percent in comparison with 2009).

According to Sergey Vasin, Astravel, the tours to the Crimea were in good demand this year and the sales increased on the average by 10-15 percent. Besides, the Crimea made progress in comparison with the resorts of Krasnodarskiy krai. “Such popularity can be explained by the fact that the price in the Crimea was reduced, as hryvna was brought down by 25 percent at a ratio to ruble”, explains Sergey Vasin. “The political situation has been improved, and the locals don’t have any anti-Russian state of opinion as it used to be”. The improvement of the hotels favours the growth of popularity of the Crimea. According to Alisa Averyanova, Alean, there is a clear differentiation of the hotels with classification: high, middle plus and economy.

At the same time, the problem of high prices for the transportation and accommodation has not been solved yet. According to the Russian tour operators, crisis favored the development of independent tourism. Such tendency remained this year as well.