Worst season

Crimea is losing vacationers due to military operations and the fuel crisis. Cancellation of bookings in Sevastopol - 79%

“We reached 6.9 million tourists last year. This is a very good number. We have even crossed the Ukrainian threshold of 6.5 million. And this year we will have a figure of 7 million, Crimea is actively preparing for this,” this is what Vladimir Konstantinov, Chairman of the State Council of Crimea, spoke about the prospects for the beach season in March.

However, from mid-May, Ukraine began actively shelling the highway leading to the peninsula through Donetsk, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions - it was along this route that the authorities had repeatedly recommended that people get to Crimean resorts. Following this, reports began to appear in the official media that the Ukrainian Armed Forces were allegedly preparing to strike the bridge across the Kerch Strait.

The shelling and mining of roads led to a fuel crisis on the peninsula: gasoline began to be sold using coupons - no more than 20 liters per day per person. Many gas stations have no fuel at all.

All this together gave the opposite effect to the optimistic expectations of the authorities: according to the Travelline service, from May 24 to June 6, 71% of hotel bookings were canceled in Crimea, and 79% in Sevastopol.

— The hotel is empty. Of the 24 rooms, five are occupied, although a month ago I would have said that I had no room - almost all the bookings fell through at the end of May, just as the gasoline crisis began,” says Vitaly, the owner of a hotel in Yevpatoria. — Most of our vacationers came in their own cars. And now people say: “You won’t be able to leave.” Well, they're right -

We have created a map of the availability of gasoline at gas stations, I look at it - now in the whole city you can buy 92nd at only two gas stations. Other gasoline or diesel is either not sold at all, or they are given with coupons, which, if you try, you will get.

You need to receive coupons either directly at gas stations or through the Max messenger. At the same time, the price of a liter of 92 is 82.8 rubles, 95 and diesel fuel are 89.8 rubles. This is almost a third more than in Moscow.

— I’ve already read that our tourists are recommended to take gasoline with them. Well, who would bother like that? Of course, it’s easier for people to go to Kuban or the Sea of ​​Azov,” Vitaly continues. He notices that bookings for the 20th of June and beyond are almost never cancelled, but vacationers are already calling him and asking whether it is clear what the situation will be like on these dates. “But it’s not clear to me,” he concludes.

Neither Crimean nor federal officials really say anything definite about the timing of solving the fuel problem. Moreover, some statements sound like its denial. “Of course, the relevant authorities are working to ensure that there is no shortage. We see many, many manifestations of completely unfounded hype,” presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on June 8.

Be that as it may, there is another reason for the decline in tourist traffic - not fuel.

“Air defense works at night; before there was no such dense fire on the peninsula. In addition, the story of the land corridor to Crimea has an impact,” says local journalist Alexander Dremlyugin.

On June 8, a drone attacked the Moscow-Simferopol train on the peninsula. The driver was wounded and his assistant was killed. Prior to this, on June 4, a drone hit a train traveling from the village of Azovskoye to Kerch, injuring three people and killing one.

— We were considering Crimea for a holiday in July. We wanted to go to Feodosia - we had already vacationed there before: the sea was clean, small pebbles, dolphins. Well, the eastern coast seemed to be considered the safest,” says Moscow resident Sergei. “But even before the attacks on the trains, as soon as information came out that Ukraine was attacking the land corridor, they changed their minds. I just have the feeling that everything will be worse: they won’t be able to spend a quiet summer in Crimea. Therefore, we took tickets to Abkhazia - the price there is comparable and they don’t seem to be bombed.

Crimean hoteliers, however, are still beginning to reduce prices for accommodation. This way they hope to attract tourists even in extreme conditions.

“Now a room in the private sector can be found even for 1,500 rubles a day, hotel rooms 200 meters from the sea start from 3,500. I have the first line, I still keep the minimum price for a room at 6,000, but I’m also thinking of reducing it, because there are simply no people,” says the owner of a hotel in one of the resort villages on the southern coast. — In my memory, this is the worst season. It is, of course, just beginning, but I don’t understand what needs to happen for the situation to change. If this continues, the seasonal workers will have to be released in July and all maintenance will be carried out by the family. We didn’t have this, even when people were only transported to Crimea by ferries from Kuban.

According to tourism market experts, the peninsula could lose up to 4 million vacationers this year. Paradoxically, many of them, according to the Association of Tour Operators, exchange Crimea for Anapa. However, there is nothing surprising in this: at the Krasnodar resorts you can only get poisoned by fuel oil, and the risks on the peninsula are now much more serious...