Tourist flow is growing and incomes too: positive statistics of Crimea
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This year nearly 4.5 million tourists have chosen Crimea for recreation. The increase is 11% compared to the previous year. These are the latest data from the Ministry of Resorts and Tourism of Crimea.
Statistics show that 11,8% of the arrivals to Crimea were made by citizens of Ukraine. And 60% of all who arrived to the peninsula on vacation this year came over the Crimean Bridge, the Association of Tour Operators (ATOR) informed. In total, according to the Ministry of Resorts and Tourism of Crimea, 1289,6 thousand vehicles have entered Crimea this year, including 19,3 thousand buses.
This rich tourist flow boosted occupancy rate of accommodation facilities. On average, hotels, camping sites, motels, boarding houses and other accommodation facilities account for 79% occupancy. The highest occupancy is reported in Saki (94%), Sudak (92%), in the Chernomorskiy district (91%) and on the South Coast − in Yalta (91%) and in Alushta (86%).
Advantages of Crimea
Peninsula resorts show good occupancy due to competitive prices and a variety of accommodation offers, said Maya Lomidze, ATOR Executive Director.
"According to the ATOR Analytical Service monitoring results, this summer Crimea is the leader or, in some periods, one of the three leaders in terms of affordability of tours for Russians − and this, of course, stimulates the tourist flow to the peninsula. However, in my opinion, the most important thing in tourism now is not quantity, but quality. The share of tourism revenues should grow, which in general is seen in Crimea", – M. Lomidze emphasized.
"In the competition for tourists, not only the price differences of tourism products are interesting, which are different in the Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory, but also the projects embracing the two regions. So, now experts watch with keen interest the first experience of integration of tourism products of both regions − the "Golden Ring of the Bosporus Kingdom" project", − she added.
The Minister of Resorts and Tourism of Crimea Vadim Volchenko agrees that the most important indicators are not quantitative, but qualitative. That is, how much a particular region has earned from the tourist flow. "If we talk about direct tax revenues to the budget of the Republic of Crimea from the tourism industry, then, according to the Federal Tax Service of the Republic of Crimea, the revenues have increased almost 2 times since 2014: from 1,7 billion in 2014 to 3,2 billion roubles in 2018. In 2018 direct revenues from the tourism industry totally amounted to 7.3%", — he said in a comment to the ATOR Bulletin.
According to the latest data, during the first six months of 2019, the tourism industry brought more than 1,46 billion roubles to the budget of the Republic. Compared to the same period of 2018, revenues increased by a quarter. "And this despite the fact that the main months of income are July-August-September, which have not yet been taken into account", − V. Volchenko said.
Although Crimea has much to grow in terms of tourism earnings, tourism industry experts believe that the reported increase in tax revenues from tourism and related industries creates a serious surplus for internal development, implementation of infrastructure projects in the region and the growth of citizens' well-being. And the main thing now for Crimea is the correct and well developed projects of investments in the further growth of the industry. Then the figures may be bigger, the experts concluded.
