Clear skies and sandy beaches will not be enough to draw Ukrainians to the Crimean coast during the May holidays. After Russia’s annexation of the peninsula on March 18, Crimea is scratched off the travel list of many Ukrainians. Some say they won’t go until Russia returns the territory to Ukraine.
Others, such as Tetiana Gebre, are conflicted.“It feels like a wound,” Gebre said. “There were lots of people who enjoyed spending time in Crimea. So, this spot cannot be replaced…it was something special for us.”
Crimea’s resort towns Evpatoriya, Alushta and Partenit were among Gebre’s favorite Crimean cities. Now she says she won’t go there because “it’s dangerous.”
Russian’s occupation has also killed European interest in Crimean vacations.
The European Union suspended its Crimean Tourism Diversification and Support Project in May, which aimed to bring more tourists from abroad to Ukraine’s peninsula. The $5 million project became impossible to continue after the March 16 bogus referendum used as a justification by Russian President Vladimir Putin for annexing Crimea.
Acting Crimean Minister for Resorts and Tourism of Crimea Alexander Liev said that the number of tourists to Crimea could drop by 30 percent, or to 4.1 million people, because of the ongoing political crisis.
Maya Mamenko of Yalta, one of the Crimean tourism hot spots, has been working as a tourist guide in Crimea for over 10 years. But no more. She has decided to all but shut down her business.
“I still expect to do some individual tours, but I can already tell it is not worth it to be a private entrepreneur in tourism there,” she says. Further, Mamenko says, her business would be “technically impossible because the transition to Russian system.”
Until March, she worked mostly with foreign tourists, but they are not coming. “The last group of Australians cancelled their May holiday trip a few days ago,” she says sadly. “Ukrainians won’t come as well and I can’t blame them.”
Ukrainians traditionally make up the lion’s share of tourists to Crimea, accounting for up to 70 percent of the total, according to the Crimean Resorts and Tourism Ministry. Russians, meanwhile, comprised 25 percent while foreigners from outside the former Soviet Union account for less than 5 percent.
Mamenko notes that foreign governments are officially telling foreigners not to go to Ukraine’s occupied territory while others “are simply scared.” Mamenko said that Russians are not likely to fill the void. “There are not enough flights. There is a ferry to Kerch, but how many people can take a ferry?” she wonders. They can, however, always fly or take trains.
The Russian Union of Tourism told Echo of Moscow radio station that the tourist season in Crimea will likely fail, partly because of transportation problems.
The May holidays have proved to be a bust. “Yalta is empty now. Who could imagine that?” Mamenko said.
Oleksiy Onyshchenko, who owns a small hotel 40 kilometers from Sevastopol, doesn’t expect much from the upcoming season.
“Most of the tourists don’t want to take the train now to get to Crimea, and it’s impossible to take the ferry because of the long queues,” Onyshchenko said.
Furthermore, “many tourists are scared to travel through Ukraine,” Onyshchenko says, noting that “the fear of electricity and water cuts is another troublesome point.” Typically, 95 percent of the tourists who stayed at Onyshchenko’s hotel are from the Moscow and St. Petersburg areas.
“All bookings from Ukraine have been cancelled, but Russian ones remain,” Onyshchenko said.
Russia is suffering a drop in tourism as well, The Moscow Times reported on May 6. The Russian Union of the Travel Industry stated that tour operator bookings are down 10 to 15 percent for the nation that hosts about two million tourists annually.
“We’ll see what happens this summer,” Onyshchenko adds. “The one thing I can promise to my customers, however, is service.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected]. Kyiv Post staff writers Evan Ostraznyuk and Daryna Shevchenko contributed to this story.
