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Crimea is losing popular among Russian tourists. According to Kommersant, sales operators stated about the fall in the demand for air tickets to Simferopol.

So, according to Svyaznoy-Travel Svyazno, the demand for air tickets to the Crimea from independent travelers decreased by more than 25 percent. According to the company’s estimates, if in 2015 there were half of the reservations in this direction, now no more than 35 percent.

"The infrastructure of the peninsula has not yet gives the same quality of the service as the usual Turkey and Egypt, and many travelers, having visited the Crimea, decided that they were not yet ready to choose it for regular rest," the company commercial director Andrei Osintsev explained.

The fall in the popularity of Simferopol was noticed in other agencies. According to Biletix, sales of air tickets in this area for the summer decreased by 7.5 percent with a rise in the cost of the average check by 23 percent, to 10.8 thousand rubles.

In Datravel.com, they noticed a drop in demand for Simferopol by 2 percent. According to the analysts of the company, the popularity of the direction has decreased against the background of the growth of demand for resorts of near abroad.

According to the general director of the Dolphin tour operator Sergei Romashkin, the slowdown in demand is associated with the rise in the cost of air tickets. "The average price of the flight to Simferopol and back by regular flights is 16 thousand rubles, while even during the early booking period we talked about 12 thousand rubles," he added.

Officials, notes the publication, connected hopes for the growth of tourist demand for the Crimea with a mooras established at the end of 2015 for tour operators for the sale of vouchers to Turkey and the closure of direct flights to Egypt. However, according to experts, no more than 20 percent of tourists who previously chose these directions are ready to reorient in Russian resorts. It is mainly about Sochi, where "a comparable level of service is proposed." The popularity of Anapa and Gelendzhik, which were in third place among the most popular directions, has also increased.