Western Crimea is the main victim of the loss of tourist flow
The Crimean tourism business is cautiously optimistic about the growing bookings for summer holidays. The growth is small, within 10%, and such a revival does not mean that vacationers will return to Crimea this coming summer.
Over the past two years, since the beginning of the Northern Military District, Crimean resorts have lost half of the tourist flow, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
It fell by 30% at the end of 2022, and by another 20% in 2023. This year, a further decline is not predicted; on the contrary, the Russian Union of Travel Industry records a 40-50% increase in interest in Crimea, although with the reference that this is in comparison with last year, when early bookings were close to zero.
Tourism market expert, president of the Crimea Tourism Alliance association Andrei Pylov said that his company lost both its client base and sales volumes.
“Compared to 2021, we have fallen five times. That is, the flow is recovering, but very slowly - that’s all I can say about the optimism of this season. For example, our range of objects for sale has sharply decreased. Some are not for sale, even though they are open. Some are selling much better than before, but these are few. We have roughly 250 objects that were on sale, and the assortment has been reduced to 50,” says Pylov.
First of all, West Coast hotels dropped out of the general flow. The safety factor played a role here - the operation of air defense systems and the video of the landing of Ukrainian DRGs, even after hastily retreating, do not add to the desire to spice up the vacation with thrills. In addition, some of the beaches on the West Coast were turned into fortifications - they were dug up, and in the zone of military control they were also surrounded with barbed wire. It was not officially announced which beaches exactly were banned, so tourists simply do not choose the entire destination. For the same reason, hotels in Sevastopol fell out of the general scope.
“Small hotels, the West Coast - everything is experiencing difficulties with occupancy. Spring sales are now very good in large hotels with good infrastructure. Therefore, if you do an analysis, you need to pay attention to the category. Yalta Intourist, for example, gives a positive picture, but if we now contact any mid-level facility on the West Coast, the picture may be completely different, and there will be much less positive. Large complexes control the price, they monitor this, their price changes depending on the load. “Yalta Intourist now changes prices up to 3 times a day.
But people don’t make 100% prepayment. There are concerns about security - and it is possible to say for sure whether loading took place or not at the moment people arrive. Our current situation is such that bookings for the summer are increasing, but payments are not. And we are all in such a limbo that if some negative incident occurs, then all these reservations will turn into nothing. There are some minimum additional payments, but now the market already accepts 10% prepayment, there are properties that accept reservations without prepayment. Everything again depends on the history of a particular object,” Pylov noted.
The expert clarified that under the current conditions, Crimea will maintain a gap in prices for summer holidays with Sochi, although both regions will increase the cost of services.
“The general trend is that those who start, for example, sales at last year’s level, are still growing, and after some time they fix the load - and move towards an increase within 50%. Such facts already exist - properties are already 40% booked for the season, and they include some kind of increase mechanisms. 40% is, as a rule, at the minimum price, and then there are opportunities for earning money,” the expert explained.
In any case, hotels will not sell rooms below the profitability limit. It depends on the number of rooms and the cost of maintaining them, but on average it ranges from 4 to 6 thousand for a double room with breakfast. Sanatoriums with three meals a day and basic health services are kept at the level of 10 thousand rubles per day.
“At the peak, everyone will try to lift. Bookings are going better than in the previous year, because we are already accustomed to logistics and there is a difference in price. People were waiting for planes, they realized that there wouldn’t be any, that’s a given. And on this line the reasoning begins - you can get to Crimea this way, but in Crimea there is such a service at such and such a price, and somewhere there is always a question of safety. And this security is influenced by many things: as soon as something happens to us, the fall immediately begins.
God forbid something happens here, some incident on transport communications, any terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge leads to immediate cancellations of reservations. God forbid there is an attack on the railway station in Dzhankoy - this will also have the same effect,” says Pylov.
The third crisis holiday season in a row, in his estimation, will force hotel owners to develop their own infrastructure. There are emerging trends that the more developed the infrastructure of an object, the more stable it is. It is also clear that expensive objects are more stable, because they can fall in price, and if a room costs 25 thousand rubles, it will be offered for 8 thousand, and it will be in demand. And if a hotel reduces the price from 6 thousand to 3 thousand, then for it this is realistic only at 100% occupancy. Otherwise, it's better to close.
“The second trend is the interaction of electronic platforms, that is, the transfer of information online. Now fashion projects are opening for online booking, transfer in various ways, hubs and other information about the possibility of booking. This is a trend in the professional environment, and the main task is to make sure that every available room is visible in all possible sales channels, according to the principle “first come first served.”
The general trend is that outbound destinations are being closed, and finally there is an understanding that under certain conditions the project can be profitable. Positioning a 5-star hotel correctly and promoting it correctly is a guaranteed success,” concluded Pylov.
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