The past summer has been extremely successful for tourism in Crimea, despite weather disasters and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. In September, Sergey Aksenov, the head of the Republic of Crimea, said that over the past eight months, the flow of tourists to Crimea exceeded the record for the entire post-Soviet period of 2019 by 24% and reached 7.2 million people.
Industry experts argue that the quality of recreation in Crimea has grown significantly in recent years, and the range of products offered to guests of the peninsula has become much diversified, thereby attracting more visitors.
Homemade tourism?
The commissioning of key infrastructure projects – the bridge across the Kerch Strait and the Tavrida highway – quickly led to the fact that Crimea became almost the main center of Russian auto tourism, and this entailed serious changes in the structure of demand and supply in the market of services for vacationers …
The spread of DIY (do it yourself) ideology to the tourism sector is a global trend, and in Crimea it is largely promoted by the same reason: there are few high-star accommodation facilities on the peninsula, and “wild” recreation is historically well developed.
According to experts, because of this, the owners of accommodation facilities have received considerable benefits over the past two years.
As more and more people travel to Crimea on their own and organize their entire route, as a result, they pay only for room and board, which means that their money goes mainly to hoteliers and restaurateurs.
In addition, experts note that Crimea as a whole is very well prepared for the holiday season. For example, there are many modern proposals for outdoor activities – kayaking, yachting and, in general, all types of water activities.
Wine tourism growth
Another trend in the global tourism market in recent years is the rapid development of niches that were previously considered marginal or were considered an additional “dish” in the menu for vacationers.
For tourism in Crimea, wine tourism has undoubtedly become such a specific segment, keeping pace with the development of winemaking on the peninsula.
One of the main achievements of tourism in Crimea over the past couple of years is the decrease in the importance of the seasonality factor. This is especially true for wine tourism – the supply is in demand at any time of the year.
And, according to experts, wine tourism in Crimea is on the way to becoming an independent line of business that can be profitable. This is one of the most important components that form the income of winemakers.