The number of tourists has decreased several times
In Crimea, according to local "authorities", only half of the beaches are ready for tourists. Entrepreneurs complain: vacationers from Russia are sent to state sanatoriums, while "private traders" are left without earnings. According to opinion polls, only 4% of Russians plan to spend their vacation this summer on the annexed peninsula. Housing and food prices are rising, and the number of tourists is decreasing. About how the tourist season in Crimea is going on, the site has found out "Segodnya.ua".
You won't be able to make money this summer
According to the "Ministry of Resorts and Tourism of Crimea," 4.5 million people rested on the peninsula last year, and 3.6 million in 2014. At the same time, as the ex-minister of resorts of Crimea Alexander Liev recalls, before the annexation of holidaymakers there were 4 times more. This year, local "authorities" are hoping that the number of tourists will increase. Most of vacationers - Russians, however, judging by the forecasts of sociologists, the citizens of the Russian Federation are not going to go on vacation c.
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My story. It's funny how the Ukrainian media covered the topic. Everyone wrote shocking news about empty beaches.
In this regard, I have main question... Why did the Ukrainian media wait so long for my posts to make their own shock news on their basis? Why don't they send correspondents to Crimea and conduct online from here with empty beaches, high prices and terrible service? Why is all their news made on the basis of webcams and messages on social networks? In Crimea, I saw many Ukrainians, there were even cars with Ukrainian license plates (not Crimean ones), that is, there are no problems with access. The attitude towards Ukrainians is also normal. I asked many how they treat their former compatriots in Crimea, and no one expressed any particular dislike. The general position is that we love the people, there are no politicians. So the Ukrainian media can safely send their journalists on editorial assignments and work normally. Moreover, the weather is good, the water is warm, the peaches are sweet, and the corn is hot.
The Ukrainian patriot has one more amusement - to enjoy what Twitter considers Crimea to be Ukraine. Well, seriously, it's been 2 years since Twitter has shown Crimea as a part of Ukraine. And for two years the entire Ukrainian online beau monde has been making screenshots, underlining "UKRAINE" in red and savoring these pictures. I was sure that all this topic had already been discussed, laughed and forgotten. But no. Each tweet from Crimea evokes an incredible surge of emotions among Ukrainian patriots.
And the rest? Things are good! But not in Crimea. While you argue, whose Crimea, the peninsula is bent. Here, as was the ass under the Ukrainian government, and remained under the Russian. Nothing has changed at all except the flags. As there were high prices and a complete lack of service, they remained. Yes, now it is not so convenient to get to Crimea, but nothing else has changed. All the same people who live in one day and for several months of the season want to snatch everything from life, so that later they spit on the ceiling for the whole year. All the same crumbling poor infrastructure. In this whole story, I only feel sorry for the Crimea, which, of course, deserves the best. I rested in the Crimea under the Soviet regime, I rested under the Ukrainian, I rest under the Russian. Crimea is getting worse and worse every year. Many cities, for example Koktebel, are so fucked up that it is not clear how to save them. I would like to evict all people from Crimea, remove all flags and give nature 20 years to clean up everything that a person has done here. The sea and wind will quickly put things in order.
01. It also turned out that the occupancy of the beaches is very important to the people. Disputes go straight to death. Some take a photo with a completely empty beach out of context. Others find some kind of footage where the beaches are full. Immediately there are comparisons with the beaches of Odessa and other Ukrainian cities. I don't really understand the meaning of this ritual. To assess the occupancy rate of beaches, you need to do some kind of comprehensive analysis, look at them in different time and in different places. Here, for example, Pike perch. A completely empty beach.
02. And here's a Pike perch at the same time, just in a different place. There are many people. Below I will explain why this is happening. In general, of course, there are really few people, but there are people. 
03. So, in the morning I check out from the hotel "Alye Parusa" in Feodosia. It turned out 18,970 per day. Here my wife went to test the local spa center and did some procedures. The prices, he says, are like in Moscow, but the level of funds that are put on your face is higher. I do not understand the meaning of all these rituals. It seems to me that the beauty industry is some kind of big deception to extract money from gullible women. 
04. Menu of the hotel restaurant. At first these prices seemed to me high, but then I went to the west of Crimea and realized that it was still inexpensive! 
05. I went to see the Golden Beach. I was told that all the people are resting there. 
06. There is no infrastructure here, along the road with endless traffic, they build some incomprehensible barracks for tourists. 
07. There are no people on the beaches. I walked about 3 kilometers. Don't be confused by the cloudy sky. It was a temporary phenomenon, and after 20 minutes the sun came out. The clock is 11:00, air 28, water 24 ... What could be better for wallowing on the beach? 
08. On the left you can see an empty parking lot near the beaches. On the right, there is a traffic jam to Feodosia: a ferry arrived. There are many cars with Moscow license plates. 
09. At 12 o'clock, a few people ran to watch the dolphins. 
10. There are good beaches with umbrellas and sun loungers. But most sunbeds are not even arranged. A bar worker complains that fewer people have come this year than last. Afraid that the next one will be empty at all. "People come once. They see that they don't come back here, unfortunately, we are not competitive." 
11. The sea is clean, but the bottom is with stones. 
12. For especially important guests on the beach, the area is fenced off with flags! Nicely. 
13. Beach 117 and some kind of squatter right on the shore. In general, this is an unplowed field for bulldozers. A lot needs to be demolished. 
14. Tourists are caught. 
16. There is a lot of work to be done with the roads in Crimea, if, of course, someone wants to make a normal tourist region from Crimea. Now almost all roads pass through cities, all are narrow, they cannot cope with traffic. And when the bridge is completed, everything will stop. At the same time, I have not seen anywhere that a new road is being built or the old one widened. 
17.
18. Garbage is also a problem. The roadsides sometimes look like this. Garbage, apparently, has not been cleaned up for years. 
19. First of all, I go to New World... The road from Sudak is terrible. It has not been repaired for a long time, it is broken and began to collapse in some places. Often the cars cannot part. 
20. Local creativity. 
21. Novy Svet is a small village. Famous for champagne, a bunch of attractions and amazing nature... Many Soviet films were filmed here, and now tourists are taken to these places. 
22. Occupancy of beaches - 30 percent, no more. 
23. Everything is very free. 
24. Vacationers 
25. One of best hotels resort - "Vintage". A number starts at 8200, there are also single rooms for 4200. For this money, you can rent a hotel in Turkey, Egypt or Thailand much better. 
26. The hotel has a restaurant "Wine and Fish", which is considered the best in the village. 
27. Prices. More expensive than in "Scarlet Sails". The kitchen is average. Nothing fancy, but you can eat. I came at 14:00 for lunch. The restaurant was empty. At all. Out of several dozen tables, 3 were occupied. 
28. A bill for two for lunch. 
29. Like other resorts of Crimea, the New World was seized by traders. Sometimes it is simply impossible to walk along the embankment. 
30. People like 
31.
32. There is no infrastructure on the beach: neither free toilets, no showers. Only old rusty changing cabins. The beaches are dirty - garbage, seaweed, cigarette butts. 
33. Some strange citizen. He was not told that the project with the DPR was canceled? 
34. In Sudak he settled at the "Soldaya" hotel. 
35. Externally, the hotel looks good, it is located right under the fortress. 
36. It can be seen that a lot of money was thrown into it: the quality of construction is good, everywhere there is natural stone, tiles, wood. But all this breaks down on the collective farm service. When you check in, no one meets. Despite the fact that I was checked in alone, the hotel staff stuck with smartphones. The woman at the reception wanted to fill in some registration cards, although she had all my data. The restaurant does not accept cards for payment, food cannot be added to the room, the minibar is empty, etc. 
37. There are almost no vacant rooms in the hotel, according to the administrator.
38. Beautiful 
39. Hotel interiors 
40. For 7,600 rubles I was given a tiny room, where apart from the bed there was nothing at all. There was no table or chair. Usually in resort hotels the rooms are made large, but here the owners decided to squeeze the maximum out of their plot and cut the monastic cells. 
41. But the funniest thing is where the windows go. They do not go out to the sea or even to the garden. They go out into the parking lot! According to the owners of the hotel, each guest should park his car under the door of the room and look at it! To make it easier to admire your car, they even put two armchairs near the entrance! This is the first time I've seen this. And this is the simplest number for 7200 rubles. Do I want to admire my car outside the window? No, perhaps. 
42. The restaurant in the hotel is expensive. Hot meals for about 1000 rubles, soups for 300-500 rubles. The most amazing thing is that there is no local fish or seafood. Salmon, dorado and other thawed overseas fish - please, but there is nothing local at all. For a bottle of champagne "Novy Svet" they ask 1,500 rubles, a salad of tomatoes with onions - 210, and Crimean oysters - 450 rubles apiece. Yes, there are oysters, and the price for them is the same everywhere: in Feodosia, in Novy Svet, and now in Sudak, they ask for 450 rubles apiece. Oysters are bred in the sea near the village of Katsiveli, near Simeiz and Alupka. This is the only oyster farm in Russia on the Black Sea. There they grow 500 thousand Black Sea oysters a year and up to 100 tons of mussels. Why they are several times more expensive than in France, I do not understand. Oysters, by the way, in Crimea have not yet learned how to serve them correctly. Dinner for two cost 5,000 rubles. 
43. If you go outside the hotel, you can save a lot. For example, beer, or rather the drink they call beer, can be bought in bulk for 70 rubles a liter. 
44. Nearby is a more expensive institution! All the same fermented donkey urine for 100 rubles a liter. 
45. In a cafe, for some reason, people are sitting in shorts. Was surprised. In my time, when going to lunch, they wore at least a T-shirt. Apparently the cattle were drawn to the Crimea. No culture. 
46. Assortment of coastal merchants. 
47. As in Feodosia, militaristic motives have disappeared from T-shirts in Sudak. Putin does not enjoy success either. “We stopped buying with Putin, we just can't sell off last year’s stocks,” the seller complains. T-shirts with the national leader hang somewhere in the back of the store. In the foreground, just Crimea. 
48. The Sudak embankment turned out to be much better than in Koktebel. It is wide and clean, almost not even built up. There will be a separate post about Sudak. 
49. Although there are such places. 
50. Poster 
51. What is a 7D cinema? 
52. The beaches in Sudak are also half empty. Despite the fact that the beaches seem to be open, they are separated by rusty fences. What is the sacred meaning of these fences? 
53. Something follows. 
54. On the beaches, the situation is the following. The total length of the beach in Sudak is several kilometers. There are beaches that formally belong to sanatoriums, but there are few people there. In the center, where most of the tourists live, the beaches are packed. 
55. Water - +25! 
56. Everything is gradually falling apart. I have never seen the embankment or pier being repaired anywhere. When the next structure rusts, they simply cover it with a ribbon, and that's it. The sea is gradually destroying the traces of human presence. 
57. On the left of the sanatorium. Please note: a clean embankment. This is truly a unique phenomenon for Crimea! Usually everything is built up. 
58. Tourists. 
59. And here is the beach, which is located near the main street, where dozens of private hotels are located. There are people here. People here are ready to sit on each other's heads, but they do not want to move 50 meters away to the side where there is no one at all. An interesting phenomenon. 
60. Therefore, it turns out so - now empty, now thick. 
61. But in general, without much notice. 
62.
63.
64.
65. But there is no one near. 
66. The sun beds are empty. 
67.
68. There are also beaches to the right of the fortress. Here are the sanatoriums of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. There is a mountain path leading to the beaches. 
I go down to the water and go to the right. There is a beach on which I swam all my childhood, when I lived in Sudak. I go in, take pictures, when suddenly a deer with golden teeth runs out and happily asks:
Young man, do you have a resort book?
- What? No.
- So, let's get out, quickly, this is a closed beach!
- How is it closed? Is it possible to close the beach?
- You can, this is the beach of the Ministry of Internal Affairs! We have here, perhaps, the threat of a terrorist attack!
- But according to the law ...
- I'm telling you! This is EM-VE-DE beach! You do not understand? Putin closed the police exit from the country, and closed the beach for you. What is incomprehensible here? 
I don't understand how they can close the beach? Is this even legal?
The beach, by the way, is completely empty. Apparently, EM-VE-DE employees decided not to go to Crimea. 
71. At 16:00 there were only 5 people. 
72. Some buildings of the sanatorium are abandoned and closed. 
73. On common beach there are no people nearby either. As a child, I was here often and I remember that at this time usually the apple had nowhere to fall. People sat on top of each other. And now it's completely empty. 
74. The Road to the Private Sector 
75. Agitation 
76. Another riddle for me. All over the Crimea they write the hashtag "We are building Mosty". What bridges are they building? I heard that there is only one bridge ... 
Yesterday I already wrote how Russian interest in Turkey grew after friendship with Turkey was officially allowed and the tourist destination was reopened. There is also "Yandex.Travel" published interesting data. 
I personally take the news about Turkey well. The fewer tourists come to Crimea, the better. To turn Crimea into a normal resort requires competition. Competition with Turkey, competition with Sochi, with Egypt. Only in conditions of fierce competition can we create normal hotels, restaurants and improve service. 
So if nothing is changed in Crimea, soon everything will be the same. And the polite people will leave for Antalya and Kemer. 
About a trip to Crimea in June 2016, which was published in our community "Your Crimea". At the end of the story, a link to the source where you can ask your questions to the author. The trip took place in mid-June and lasted for 10 days. I am giving the author's text without changes.
Because I am not a special fan of while away all the time on the beach with the indispensable attribute of "all inclusive", so I decided to take a ride around the Crimea, as in the places where I had been and so along the unknown paths.
First I chose the well-worn popular route: Vorontsovsky (Prince Vorontsov) and palaces, swallow's Nest(for 300 rubles you can drive directly to it through the local sanatorium) and the Massandra Palace of Emperor Alexander III. If you get up early and have your own car, you can visit everything in one day.
The next day is a respite: lamb barbecue, tasting local wines, howling to the virtuoso playing of the button accordion and guitar by the Korean. Even a German from Potsdam joined us, we happily sang him "Katyusha." (300 rubles per person) visit the ruins of the fortress (founded in the 5-6th century as a Byzantine colony) Chufut-Kale and cave city.
The driver of the unkillable car climbed onto the plateau near the entrance to the fortress, and then we said goodbye to him and decided to return to our parking lot on foot, admiring the views of the gorge, visiting along the way, in addition to the ancient ruins, the cave city and the Orthodox Holy Dormition cave monastery. The panoramas are of course crazy, whoever was there was not sure to visit these epic places. By the evening we returned to Alushta.
Well, then a full day trip (medieval Genoese fortress) with a visit to the village of Novy Svet (a champagne factory from Galitsyn cellars, Tsarskoe beach). On the way back along the serpentine we stopped near the village of Rybachye to swim on a wild beach. As I understand it, Crimeans take tents on weekends and go to rest in these places, i.e. away from the tourist hustle and bustle. Almost all of the parked cars had Crimean license plates, I felt like a "black sheep")).
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What will it be holiday season in Crimea
Only a few regions on the southern coast of Crimea will be able to earn money during the holiday season. At the same time, the Russian authorities are doing everything possible to ensure that Crimeans are left without the traditional summer job.
"On May 9, there were many guests in the city, but it cannot be said that the sanatoriums experienced a rush of demand, and there are no aunts with signs" Shelter by the Sea " what most tourists visit Eastern Crimea passing, heading to rest on South coast... However, things are not brilliant there either. "Tourists came in large numbers to May, yes. But less, much less than last year," said Vitaly Malyshev from Yalta.
The popularity of Crimea for the May holidays is considered to be an indicator of the quality of the upcoming holiday season. Having embraced the first wave, the Crimean authorities erupted in cheerful statements that millions of guests were waiting, promising to set a record for resort attendance. Ukrainian experts believe that there is no reason for optimism: Crimea is still difficult to get to, and Ukrainians, who have always accounted for the lion's share of tourist traffic, will not go there for reasons of security and patriotism. May affect the holiday season and the initiative of Russian lawmakers, who propose to significantly complicate the delivery of housing.
A big difference
Estimates of the number of tourists visiting the peninsula during the long weekend in May vary widely. The Ministry of Resorts of Crimea reported that there were 161.6 thousand of them, this is 23.3% more than in 2015, plus 250 thousand tourists Rosturizm counted in Sevastopol, announcing that the growth was 20%. The department reported that Yalta and Alushta became the most popular resorts in Crimea, they account for about half of the tourist flow.
Former Minister of Resorts and Tourism of the ARC Oleksandr Liev, based on data from the Association of the Hospitality Industry of Ukraine, gives other figures. Crimea was visited by about 35 thousand tourists, almost all of them are Russians, in best years the peninsula received about 200 thousand people in May. He explains this difference by the fact that Russian statistics are based not on economics, but on politics and propaganda. At the same time, there is no reason not to trust the information received from the Association. "She monitors data from open Russian Internet sources about transport links with Crimea, mainly by air and ferry communication, - explains Liev. - Using the methodology of the National Academy of Nature Conservation and Resort Construction, it is possible to determine the share of tourists in the total passenger traffic. In addition, we track the online booking system. In total, about 73 systems are analyzed. This is how we see the volume: how many rooms are rented, how many are booked, where reservations have already been stopped. And we also use data from large tour operators in Crimea. The most objective source for us is direct communication with the owners of accommodation facilities on the peninsula, we are monitoring more than a hundred objects. "
Seven million tourists
Recently, the Russian media disseminated information that Russians increasingly prefer Crimea to rest in other regions. Airline ticket sellers say that due to the rise in prices, the demand for Simferopol flights by independent travelers has decreased by a quarter. Tour operators predict a decrease in demand in organized tourism: Russians will choose Sochi.
The Crimean "authorities" immediately came out with a refutation. Responsible for the tourism sector, "Deputy Prime Minister of the Crimean Government" Ruslan Balbek said that these data are unrepresentative and indicate informational stuffing or incompetence. "Speaker of the Crimean Parliament" Vladimir Konstantinov said that Crimea plans to receive up to 7 million tourists this year, breaking the record of recent decades.
Such forecasts cause distrust even among many Crimeans, reminding that a few years ago, when Crimea set records, accepting 6 million people, everything was packed, housing was booked several months in advance. "Now nothing portends a rush of demand," says entrepreneur Yevgeny Volchenko. "The owners of apartments and mini-hotels expect the season to be at the level of last year. Then they officially announced that 4.5 million people rested in Crimea, those who work in sphere, it was suggested to boldly divide it by 2. That is, Crimea received 2–2.5 million, this is felt against the background of 2013, when we touched the real 6 million. sanatoriums are closed, because someone "squeezed" them, and now does not know what to do with them. In the private sector, the search for clients has reoriented to the Internet. Those who quickly orientated themselves to the Russian market and the Internet get some tenants ".
Crimeans hope that this year will be a little better. The Russians are now cut off from Egypt and Turkey, after the devaluation it is more profitable to spend rubles on holidays than dollars, so the demand for domestic tourism... In addition, seasonal housing in Crimea is one and a half times cheaper than in the resorts of the Krasnodar Territory.
Alexander Liev notes that the tourist season in Sevastopol and Yalta suffered the least from the annexation. These two cities shared the main tourist flow during May holidays and will share it throughout the year. “The city of Saki should be separately noted, the mud resorts of which were filled. But the specificity of this resort and its medical profile, as well as the small number of beds make this result not very representative,” says the ex-minister. in Evpatoria and Alushta. Catastrophic situation at the resorts of Kerch, Sudak, Feodosia, Black Sea and Razdolnensky regions. It can be predicted that the 2016 season in Crimea will remain at the level of last year, that is, 1.2-1.5 million tourists. All this will be a mono-stream from Russia. "
His words indirectly confirm the observations of the owner of the boarding house in Primorsky, Vladimir Yarmolenko, who says that there is little demand for Eastern Crimea, although his rooms cost from 300 rubles. (about 115 UAH) per person.
"Hello to the Crimeans"
The day before tourist season problems for the Crimeans were thrown by Russian lawmakers, who decided to ban accommodation services in apartments. The bill, for which the State Duma voted in the first reading, suggests that if the owner of the apartment wants to provide hotel services, he needs to take her out of the housing stock, register as an entrepreneur and pay taxes. For Crimeans, this is unacceptable, since many residents of coastal cities rent out their homes only for two or three summer months.
“It is curious that no one speaks loudly about this bill, which was nicknamed“ Hello to the Crimeans, ”many people don’t know,” says Volchenko. “When you tell your friends about it, the first reaction is:“ Come on! ” The ban will affect the whole of Russia, so it is actively discussed on the Internet. They say that the law will kill the whole sector - what to do with watch workers, renting housing, students? "
According to the entrepreneur, there have already been attempts in Crimea to bring the income of the private sector out of the shadows. In 2014, they offered to pay for beds without registering a business, but people did not agree to this, since there were no guarantees that at least someone would come to rest, meanwhile, the payment is collected monthly. The apartment owners agreed with the neighbors: if a check came, the vacationers had to be introduced by the owners' friends or relatives. Last year, they took up mini-hotels, the owners of which, according to officials, earned from 20 to 50 thousand rubles a day. (from UAH 7.8 thousand to UAH 19.4 thousand). “That is, even the Crimean officials are far from reality, most of them had much less earnings,” Volchenko says.
He believes that the appearance of the bill is "a continuation of the belt-tightening story." Over the course of the year, at least ten new taxes were introduced in Russia, and yet another initiative of the legislators has become an image of a stormy activity to fill the budget.
