another flight cancellation. As a result, hotels, whose occupancy currently does not exceed 40%, will have to be saved – probably by administrative methods. Although tour operators are also making efforts.
“For the summer, hotels in Crimea are occupied by 40-45% so far, in some booking sites they reach 60%, but so far with the expectation of tourists that flights with Crimea will be opened. To date, massive cancellations of bookings for May and June have been recorded due to the airlines sending messages about flight cancellations, ”said Alexei Volkov, president of the National Union of the Hospitality Industry (OSIG), in an interview with RIA Novosti.
Recall that the Simferopol airport is closed until May 13, like ten other airports in southern Russia, including Anapa and Gelendzhik. However, it is clear that the closure will continue. Accordingly, there are serious problems with the delivery of tourists – the railway connection with the Crimea is still minimal, especially since not every tourist is ready to travel by train or bus.
Tour operators generally confirm the situation with the fall in bookings. According to Sergey Romashkin, general director of the Dolphin tour operator, the decrease in bookings in Crimea reaches 40% compared to last year. There are places in the most popular hotels. The main problem is the delivery of tourists. Russian Railways is not ready to “show activity” – the tourist market complains. “Bookings for August opened yesterday, and there are only two trains a day that run directly from Moscow. And this means that only 500 people can enter Crimea per day. This is very little,” said Sergei Romashkin. According to him, in such a situation it would be logical to increase the number of direct trains from Moscow to Crimea or add the number of cars.
At the same time, according to the expert, prices have returned to the level of last year, and may be lower than a year ago. “However, our practice shows that too much price reduction does not always affect demand. Tourists are satisfied with the prices, they simply cannot get there,” the expert said.
There is hope, he added. Firstly, about 60% of tourists come to Crimea by their own transport. And tour operators are pinning their hopes on them this year. Secondly, tour operators are trying to cope on their own, offering tourists the option of moving to Crimea by bus – Intourist has already launched them and Dolphin plans to launch them. The road will take 24-26 hours, experts add, it is supposed to carry directly to Alushta and, possibly, Yalta. Tour operators have experience.
However, it is not a fact that a mass tourist flow can be achieved in this way. As Mr. Volkov added, “in such a situation, the hoteliers of the peninsula need urgent support from the authorities,” from sending employees of state-owned companies on vacation to direct financial support. “The Crimean tourism industry is afraid that the season will be very weak and it will be possible to count only on a small load of hotels,” the head of OSIG warned.
However, we note that not only the Russian Crimea registers a decline. The global crisis hit tourism in general – and the “foreign” competitor of Russian resorts, that is, Antalya, also records a sharp decline in applicants – at least for May. Neither the local holiday of the end of Ramadan nor the “Russian” May holidays gave Turkish hotels a 100% occupancy rate, and only a few hotels approached the coveted figure of 90%. At the same time, after the holidays, Antalya will begin to “rapidly empty.” This assessment was voiced by Yilger Demirtas, Sales and Marketing Director of the Clup Nena Hotel in Side. “There was no STOP SALE for the holidays in any hotel, in any agency. In general, the highest occupancy rate is about 70%. If we look at nearby hotels, there are many hotels at the 30% level. And there are many more hotels that are postponing the opening,” he said. Read the details here.
For those who care about a healthy lifestyle, we recommend reading: “A nutritionist revealed a complete list of calcium-rich foods and how to use them correctly.”