Crimea. High season. Scandals

It’s “high season” in Crimea, everything is packed to capacity (thanks to the closed border and hello to the Ukrainian “non-brothers” who have stopped publishing photographs of “empty beaches”). However, was the peninsula able to use the second chance after 2014 with a massive influx of vacationers? Sevastopol writer Platon Besedin discusses this in his author’s column for PolitNavigator.

...In Crimea there is another scattering of yet another tourist scandals. A couple of examples.

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First case. A woman who came to the More Spa Hotel on vacation was beaten. Who is unknown. According to the vacationer, she drank a Long Island cocktail at a bar and woke up with a swollen face and knocked out teeth. She doesn't remember anything that happened. In this case, severe alcohol intoxication was detected. From one cocktail? But the Morya employees refuse to show video recordings in order to understand what happened. And a spa hotel is not cheap.

Second case. In the boarding house "Foros" - also not a cheap one - Cossacks with whips drive vacationers off the beach. They wave and say “get out.” The management of the boarding house says that they, these Cossacks, are doing this because there are guests here who have made certificates about the absence of coronavirus. And they don’t need neighbors who don’t have such certificates.

And there are many such cases. A lot of tourists went to the peninsula this year. After all, the usual foreign holiday destinations for Russians are closed. And to describe what is happening - in connection with the influx of tourists - Marmeladov’s classic phrase is best suited: “It’s stuffy for me, it’s stuffy!” Hotels and boarding houses raise prices, as if they won’t breathe before they die. And on the roads there is a transport collapse, in which they are drenched in hatred and sweat.

Perhaps troubles and adversities are compensated by something else, more pleasant? No, in Crimea tourists most often encounter the legacy of the Soviet regime, described by Pelevin’s phrase - the dialectic of the transition period from nowhere to nowhere. The peninsula exists mainly in Soviet reality, crumbling in some places, painted up in others, but, in fact, never restored.

And everything would be fine if the locals tried to provide at least some kind of service. But they continue to be rude and rude. I do not like? Get out! Well, the prices are prohibitive. Crimea decided to shamelessly mow down the money. It doesn’t matter if you pay 5 or 15 thousand per day - you can still find dirty carpet and no hot water in your room.

Well, vacationers, however, often match. A Russian tourist in Russia itself is scary. When orgies are held in sacred places of Altai, and fish are killed with explosives on Lake Baikal. Russian holidays, like Russian revolts, are senseless and merciless. Actually, it is a rebellion - against common sense, moral and ethical standards and a time when almost everything was not for everyone and almost everything was impossible.

In general, Russian holidays have undergone major changes over the centuries. Once upon a time, Russian classics loved to go to mineral waters. During Soviet times, a vacation somewhere in Bulgaria became the lot of the elite. But in the 90s, the curtain fell - and the world was flooded with Russian tourists, looking like barbarians in crimson jackets, shaking wads of dollars tied with an elastic band.

Over time, everything became not so sad, but the cliches about Russian natashkas, about Russian cattle, arrogant and unceremonious, buying everyone and everything, were forever strengthened in the world. And meeting a compatriot on vacation is often more expensive for yourself. Because “Russian tourist” is no longer the image of morality, but more often the opposite.

So how can you relax on the peninsula? How to avoid completely losing tourists Renewing the Crimean infrastructure is obvious. It is believed that in Sochi, for example, you can find adequate recreation for adequate money - it is believed, but personally I don’t believe in it - since the objects remained after the Olympics. Will the infrastructure of Crimea be updated instantly? Hardly. Now steps are being taken in this direction - however, a lot of rubble has to be cleared away, and a lot is stolen. That’s why they are working on large objects, but in general it’s a sad picture.

So it is much more correct to offer the vacationer something fundamentally new. And there are such precedents on the peninsula. With enough luck, you will find decent places. They belong to those people who understand that this season will end, but the next one will begin, which means that people will come again if everything goes well this summer.

In fact, in 2020, Crimea had a unique chance to show itself from its best side for the future to absolutely everyone. First of all, for those who, under other circumstances, would never have ventured onto the peninsula. And it would be more correct now not to rush for immediate benefits, but to make a nice announcement, an application for the future. But it didn’t work out, the greed of the friend ruined him.

Although people who were left without income because of the coronavirus can and should also be understood - they tried to earn as much as they could so as not to be left without anything. However, balance is important here. As a result, due to pathological greed, the Crimean owners forever discouraged tens of thousands of tourists from vacationing on the peninsula.

Well, as for the tourists themselves, they themselves should also be smarter. It’s stupid to go to Crimea in the hope of getting an analogue of the Turkish “all inclusive”. It is much more correct to go here consciously. What benefits can you get in this case? Tender nostalgia – once. There are two thematic routes. And, of course, magnificent nature - three.

The trick is that it is in Crimea that you can arrange for yourself the best vacation in the world, but for this you need to first work it out in detail and even fundamentally, and not rush off with your suitcases and the goal of “relaxing somewhere.”