As of October 27, 4.93 million tourists have vacationed on the Crimean peninsula since the beginning of the year. The difference with the same period of the record-breaking 2016 was 200 thousand vacationers (less than 4% of last year's tourist flow). This was stated at a press conference by the head of the Federal tourism agency Oleg Safonov. He noted that the high tourist season of 2017 was successful in Crimea.
At the same time, the republic’s leadership plans to achieve last year’s figures through health and wellness and event tourism.
The share of organized tourists was 22.8%. This is approximately at the level of last year 22.4%, but higher than the year before (20.8%).
Direct tax revenues from the tourism industry to the Crimean budget for January-September 2017 increased by 8.3%.
At the press conference it was also noted that this year in Crimea more than 50 accommodation facilities have undergone modernization, 6 new hotels have been opened, and 104 accommodation facilities have been classified.
In addition, a new model for the use of beach areas was introduced, which provided an opportunity for businesses to invest in infrastructure development and services, as well as beach improvement.
In 2017, 4 new excursion routes and 6 tourist attractions were opened.
Since July 2017, tourists can purchase the "Crimea and Sevastopol Guest Card" - a single electronic ticket developed on the basis of a loyalty system, which includes visits to museums, excursion tours, leisure and entertainment facilities, hotel accommodation, and travel on transport. More than 200 enterprises in Crimea and Sevastopol have become partners of the project. The total savings for the guest can reach 50 percent of expenses.
Oleg Safonov also noted the promising direction of development of Crimea as a year-round tourist destination and ensuring the loading of the peninsula's tourist and recreational infrastructure in the off-season.
"In light of Crimea's plans to attract additional tourist flow in the autumn-winter period, an urgent task for the region is to implement initiatives aimed at increasing tourist attractiveness in the off-season and the effective use of existing tourist and recreational opportunities. In this regard, much attention should be paid to the implementation of the federal project "Affordable Travel" on the peninsula and the use of the potential of the Crimean health resort complex. It is necessary to form a pool of sanatoriums and boarding houses with treatment that are able and ready to provide health and treatment services in the off-season with significant discounts, and unite them within the framework of the republican marketing program under the provisional name "Crimean Health Resort". Such a measure will allow, on the one hand, to create additional opportunities for inexpensive health holidays in the off-season in leading sanatoriums, boarding houses and hospitals for Russians. On the other hand, it will open up new prospects for the health resorts themselves in terms of attracting additional tourist flow and increasing economic efficiency," noted the head of Rostourism.
By the way, Crimea in this regard can use the experience of Krasnodar Krai, where, in accordance with a similar program, 40 health resort organizations provide discounts from 5 to 50% from October 2017 to April 2018.
Oleg Safonov emphasized the importance of early preparation of Crimea for the “high” summer season of 2018 and prioritized the issues of quality and accessibility of recreation on the peninsula.
"It is necessary to work with companies operating hotels, sanatoriums, boarding houses regarding the need to develop and implement pricing policies taking into account market conditions. Where possible, it is necessary to provide administrative support in order to minimize any prerequisites for growth in prices for accommodation in Crimea. It is necessary to stimulate an increase in the quality of service for tourists, to introduce popular service formats, including the "all inclusive" system," said Oleg Safonov.
To ensure that all these measures are systemic, the Head of Rostourism proposed that the region develop a comprehensive plan to increase competitiveness.
Source: trn-news.ru