Read the beginning of the article here
“Crimea is ours” but it is better to go on vacation to Cyprus
Yalta embankment
In spite of ‘flag-waving’ and calls to go on vacation to ‘our’ Crimea, the Russians are not in a hurry to go to the peninsula.
Although, according to the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center’s survey, the number of those who are going to visit Crimea is 8%, it does not mean that 11 million of Russian citizens will come in Crimea in summer – the survey data are always comparative, especially in Russia. However, only Yalta, Sevastopol and Yevpatoria are among the ten popular Russian resorts of the season-2016.
Russian tour operators noticed the decline in demand for Crimea, which is to be expected – the euphoria of “Crimea is ours” expired and the tourist infrastructure of the peninsula is poor.
Thus, according to the Svyaznoy Travel company, a demand for airline tickets in Crimea fell by 25%. If a half of airline reservations was accounted for Crimea in 2015, it is only 35% in 2016.
“We predicted this effect based on the results of last year’s summer season: the peninsula’s infrastructure doesn’t provide the same quality of services as Russians get used to have in Turkey and Egypt. Many tourists who visited Crimea have decided that they are not yet ready to choose it for their regular vacation,” the company’s marketing director Andrey Osintsev explained the situation.
This is caused by different reasons: both fear of facing with a lack of electricity and water, and a low level of services, and high prices in comparison not only with Turkey but also even with Montenegro.
Tours in Crimea were subsidized for the Russians by using budget funds in 2014 and partly in 2015. In addition, they covered not only the costs of staying at health resorts, but also airline tickets. In 2016, minimum benefits were saved for a narrow circle of persons (citizens up to 23 years, pensioners, Group 2 and 3 persons disabled since childhood and Group 1 disabled persons). All other people will have to shell out their hard-earned money.
Ticket prices in Crimea increased significantly (by about a quarter) this year, so the economy-class flight ticket on the route of Moscow – Simferopol – Moscow by the Russia airline company will cost from 32 to 45 thousand rubles ($500-700) per person in July even with early booking. Of course, you can take advantage of the Ural Airlines company for 20,000 rubles ($300), but such cheap tickets are usually bought up fast. By the way, the international flight to Cyprus by the same Ural Airlines company will cost the same amount as the trip to Crimea.
One day accommodation prices on the peninsula are not so low. For example, according to the Crimean ‘Ministry of Tourism’, a daily stay in a sanatorium with meals and medication for one person will cost minimally 2325 rubles ($40) on the east coast and up to 3388 rubles ($52) on the South Coast. The minimum cost of a double room at hotel will be 3666 rubles ($58) in Yevpatoriya, 3850 rubles ($60) in Feodosia and 4938 rubles ($76) on the South Coast. Rental apartments will be the cheapest option – an average of 1300 rubles per day ($20).
If you add the cost of food and fruits, the price of which is higher than in St. Petersburg and Moscow now, to this sum, indeed, it appears that it will be cheaper and, most importantly, more comfortable to spend your vacation abroad.
Tourist industry of Crimea: third year of waiting for season
In the words of the ex-minister of resorts and tourism of Crimea Aleksandr Liev, the profitability ratio of Crimean business (i.e. not running at a loss) was 2.7 million people. The annexed peninsula haven’t reached this figure yet and projections show that it will hardly reach it: a maximum figure for 2016 is 1.7 million tourists. This means that 100 thousand Crimean families living off the tourism actually lost their main source of income. Add to this the associated business – cafes and restaurants, excursion cervices and souvenir sales. It will turn out that a number of affected persons is much higher.
However, this is not all problems of Crimean people who lived from season to season. Owners of small hotels and landlords had a preferential tax regime in Ukraine – they paid 1% of resort fee though did it unwillingly.
In May of 2014, two months after the occupation, a single patent in the amount of from 12 to 20 rubles ($0.3-0.5) per square meter depending on the room’s area was introduced for citizens, who offer accommodations, in Crimea.
However, already in 2015, people offering accommodations were forced to register a business and pay a tax of from 3% to 7% of revenue or pay 13% as an individual income tax. By the way, according to estimates of the local ‘tax agency’, only 1,000 of 35 thousand landlords have paid this fee.
Keep in mind that preferential tax rates for entrepreneurs were introduced only for the period of 2015-2016, in future Crimeans can expect usual Russian taxes as well as ‘astronomical’ fines for reports not submitted in a timely manner or not paying taxes.
The law prohibiting to use residential premises as hostels while requiring to change their status and registering a business for such facilities will lead to the most serious consequences for the Crimean tourist industry. This will destroy the Crimean resort business.
“If we turn residential premises into non-residential ones, what next? The season is over and that’s all. People live in non-residential premises, resort visitors went away, but they pay according to tariffs for commercial organizations. So what? Do we need to turn apartments into non-residential premises in summer and again into residential premises in winter?” the hostel owner from Sudak Natalya Kirichenko is outraged with new rules that are being prepared.
Meanwhile, the owners of mini-resorts are far from being optimistic when estimating the previous season on the result of May holidays, unlike the local ‘authority’ representatives.
“Only 3 of 20 rooms were booked for May holidays last year. Nobody came this year. At all. My neighbors was facing with the same situation. We have no idea what to do next,” the mini-hotel owner from Alushta Andrey said.
The guest house owner in Yevpatoriya Marina who fails to see the future of own family repeats his words.
“Previously, we had a good income during the season – we could pay for our son’s education and helped our daughter. Now times have changed, although people still come in Yevpatoriya – the situation is even worse in other cities. But they used mostly paid tours to sanatoriums,” the woman complains.
Things are some better in Yalta and Sevastopol, which are traditionally the most visited resorts in Crimea. The tourist industry representatives from other resort towns and villages of Crimea have little chances to save the remaining business after the season of 2016.
The Russian annexation dealt the tourism of Crimea a considerable blow having reduced the tourist flow by several times. Of course, Crimea will still be filled with state employees from Russian regions to simulate the successful holiday season in this way. They will report on fulfilling and over-fulfilling the ‘gross output plan’ (tourism) considering everyone who have ever set foot on the Crimean land as tourists. However, the life of the Crimean tourist industry won’t be easier with this deception, of course, if it survives the third failed season.
Olga Efimova
for Pod Pritselom
