Russian tourist industry faces near-collapse of tourist season in occupied Crimea
Only 2.7% of Russians who booked hotels and holiday accommodation in 2023 were willing to experience extreme tourism in near-frontline Crimea.
Source: Kremlin-aligned newspaper Kommersant, citing a survey of Russian package tour and hotel search and booking services.
Details: For instance, Sletat.ru, a Russian tour search and booking service, said its sales statistics indicate that Crimea's share of the Russian domestic market fell to 2.7% over the summer. [Russia considers Crimea, which they annexed in 2014, to be a part of their territory, and therefore regime-aligned websites, organisations, etc. include the peninsula in the Russian domestic market – ed.]
Another Russian booking service, Ostrovok, told the newspaper that the number of people wishing to holiday on the peninsula during the peak season has fallen by 50-60% compared to 2022.
The booking service Twil says bookings in the cities of Sevastopol and Yevpatoriia have dropped by 66% and 69% respectively. Consequently, the average cost of a one-night stay in Yevpatoriia has fallen by 21% to RUB 3,800 [roughly US$40 – ed.].
The tour operator Alean said it had seen a 50% drop in the number of bookings in Crimea this summer.
Sergey Romashkin, vice-president of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia, says Russians’ reluctance to travel to the occupied peninsula has been influenced by the tense situation in Crimea, as well as the explosion and traffic jams on the Crimean Bridge.
Romashkin estimated that between 3.7 and 3.9 million tourists visited the region in the first eight months of the year.
Background:
- According to Russian statistics, Crimea was visited by a record 9.5 million tourists in 2021.
- In March 2023, Russia began preparing occupied Crimea for Ukraine's offensive. The Washington Post reported, citing satellite images from the Maxar space company, that by April, the Russians had dug dozens of miles of trenches on the peninsula’s beaches. Fortifications were under construction near Medvedivka, Vitino and other parts of Crimea.
- In addition to the trenches, anti-tank obstacles, ditches and artillery guns were set up along the Black Sea coast.
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