You're reading: Lifestyle Blog: May holidays bring few tourists to Crimea

The May holidays usually kick off Crimea's tourist season, but the web cameras on the Russian-seized peninsula show empty beaches and streets. None of the expected millions of tourists are in sight yet as Ukraine and Russia both take holidays on May 1-2 for Labor Day and on May 9 for Victory Day. 

Earlier, the self-proclaimed prime minister of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, told journalists that the peninsula expects to see at least three million tourists this year, which is half of last year’s total, even if the railway connection with Russia that goes through Ukraine does not get restarted.

Tourism experts, however, did better in predicting Crimea’s grim reality under Russian occupation. The Russian Union
of Tourism told Echo of Moscow radio station that the tourist season in Crimea to fail due to
transport problems.

Nakhimov Square in Sevastopol on May 2. (webcam.ikrim.net)

The spokeswoman of the union, Irina Turina, said about 600
flights are needed to ensure a good enough connection between Russia and
the peninsula, though it is impossible to provide them so far.

The seafront in Balaklava on May 2. (webcam.ikrim.net)

Neither warm and sunny weather nor a special transport scheme developed
by the Russian Transportation  Ministry is so far helping Ukraine’s Russian-annexed peninsula to fill its hotels and beaches with tourists for the May holidays.

Palace in Bakhchisaray, one of Crimea’s main tourist attractions, didn’t look crowded on May 2. (webcam.ikrim.net)

According to the Crimean Resorts and Tourism Ministry’s  official website, almost 6 million people visited Crimea in 2013. In the last two years, the number of tourists who came to Crimea for May holidays had been growing by some 20 percent every year.

Seafront in Yalta, Crimea’s busiest city and most popular resort, as seen on May 2. (webcam.ikrim.net)

Seafront in Sevastopol on May 2.