Bus shopping: While Crimeans are driving to Krasnodar, Kherson region and Zaporozhye are coming to Crimea
Bus shopping tours to Crimea are gaining popularity among residents of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.
Anatoly Tarasenko, member of the tourism council of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, general director of the travel company RusCrymTour, told PolitNavigator about this.
“Now many people come, like shuttle traders in the 90s, to Crimea to buy industrial and food products, because the situation in these regions is tense. Groups are received at the border and, after passing control, are brought here to purchase goods. But integration into the economic system of the Russian Federation is in full swing. From March 1, all social payments in new regions will be brought to Russian standards, and just as in 2014 it was very interesting for Crimeans to see Sochi, it is also very interesting for residents of neighboring regions to compare Crimea before 2014 with what it is now, Tarasenko explained.
– Our weekend tour costs about 8 thousand rubles, there won’t be a big rush, because there are objectively fewer people there, but there is demand, and the supply should be clear on our part. We hope that there will be representation in new regions. Moreover, last year an agreement on cooperation in the tourism industry was signed. Any interaction is initiated by entrepreneurs; there will always be specifics from the business side.”
Bus excursion tours to the left bank of the Kerch Strait directly depend on the dynamics of traffic flow on the Crimean Bridge. Tourists are unlikely to agree to spend two out of five days of their trip in line, and there is no dedicated lane for passenger buses - they stand in the general line to go through security.
“There was a dedicated lane for buses immediately after the terrorist attack, we hope that this will come. So far there are no complaints, no claims. If it's a few hours, then it's still tolerable. We have been traveling by ferry since 2014, and it took us more time to go through control and load the vehicle, even if there was no storm, than it would take us to wait on the bridge for inspection. I hope that after the bridge is repaired, they will give some kind of preference for buses, because it is impossible not to pay attention to this,” Tarasenko emphasized.
– I can say unequivocally that there is a demand for bus tours. School groups became more active, and from rural areas. Now there is no longer a ban on the travel of organized children's groups to the Russian mainland, which was introduced during the pandemic and lifted in May last year. Children's groups missed excursions, as did another group of collective trips - the trade union. Teams travel for the November holidays, New Year, and any long holidays.
For May there are already reservations for Adygea, Krasnodar, Sochi, Abkhazia, Dagestan, Chechnya. Now there are very active requests from Anapa and Gelendzhik, where at excursion points they gather groups of tourists who are vacationing in a sanatorium there and want to come to Crimea for a couple of days. People want to see both regions during their holiday.”
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