Children’s camps in the occupied Crimea decided not to open or start work from July 15 because of the lack of children, the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RST) said.
“The load of children’s camps in Crimea is now 50%, some of them will not open this summer. There is a drop in demand for commercial vouchers, especially among residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg”, said the head of the PCT commission on children’s recreation and active tourism Tatiana Ivanova (quoted by Interfax).
According to her, some children’s camps on the peninsula switched to the reception of adults of privileged category. Also on vacation go local children – from Sevastopol and other regions of Crimea. It is planned to load the camps with children from the annexed regions of Ukraine, as well as from large, low-income families and children of the participants in the war against Ukraine.
At the same time Ivanova stressed that the situation with the camps in the Crimea is not unique – this year in the Krasnodar Territory also recorded a decrease in demand by 30–40%.
The war in Ukraine actually buried tourism in the Crimea: in 2021, the peninsula accounted for 19% of all hotel and accommodation bookings for holidays in Russia, and this year – only 1%, the service Ostrovok.ru calculated.
In the pre-war period, Yalta, Sevastopol and Feodosia accounted for an average of 6%, 7% and 4% of bookings, respectively.
Because of the falling demand prices for accommodation even in the most popular Crimean locations are lower now than they were last year, said general director of Sutochno.ru Yurii Kuznetsov. The average demanded rate in Yalta decreased by 8% (down to 3.86 thousand rubles per day), in Sevastopol – by 7% (down to 3 thousand rubles). At the same time the average prices in Russian resorts for the year increased by 15%.
According to VCIOM poll, if in 2022 9% of Russians intended to spend their summer vacations and vacations in the Crimea, then this year their share has dropped to 5%. This is the lowest level since the annexation of the peninsula, if we do not take into account the pandemic year of 2020, when the demand for travel fell in all directions under consideration and the share of Russians planning to vacation at home and at the country house increased sharply.
Tourists refuse to go on vacation to the peninsula, which actually turned out to be a frontline zone, said the head of the Russian Union of Travel Industry in the Crimea Boris Zelinsky. Moreover, he said, seasonal workers from the mainland are afraid to come to the Crimea.
“The situation with sales of summer tours is disastrous. <…> Crimea used to be one of the leading tourist regions in Russia, but now it is the Crimea that suffers the most due to SSO”, Zelinsky concluded.
