28 of May. By the end of 2014 Crimea was visited by over 4 million people. The head of the Republic Sergey Aksenov plans to increase this figure by about a million. It is planned to receive 5 million tourists.
Not all tour operators share such positive thoughts, however, agree that interest in the Crimea has increased. Director of the Institute for Caspian cooperation Sergei Mikheev believes that the interest in the Peninsula has increased due to "the Crimean spring" and at the expense of subsidies for air travel, which allowed to increase the number of flights and reduce the cost of tickets.
Commercial Director of tour operator "Alian" Oksana Bull reported that currently the sale of vouchers to the Crimea is much higher than projected and more than 4 times higher than the figures for the same period in 2014. Demand growth, according to her, is recorded in those regions where there are direct flights to Simferopol. The lead in this respect, the Moscow, Tyumen and Sverdlovsk region. Oksana Bull does not deny that in 2015 the Crimea can reach around 5 million tourists.
So hope is not shared by the General Director of tour operator "Dolphin" Sergei romachkin. According to him, the number of tourists visiting this season, the Crimea, stop at the level of 3.5 – 4.5 million people. However, he notes a steady growth of interest in this area.
"In our company sales in Crimea in the period from 1 of January to 25 may 2015 55% better than 2014 and 30% higher than 2013. This indicator is much higher than we expected in the beginning of the year. The top five leading cities sales: St. Petersburg, Moscow, Samara, Krasnodar and Ekaterinburg. Similar to the city was in the lead and all the last time", - said Sergey Romashkin.
The representative of the "Biblio Globus" reported that their company does not expect any over flow of tourists in Crimea, a forecast of 3.5 million tourists.
"Compared with 2014, the demand for this area has increased about two times. We implement the Crimea exclusively with departures from St. Petersburg and Moscow"
New to the market
One of the important trends of the Crimean summer is entering the market of a number of major tour operators who had previously expressed a preference for outbound destinations. The lower demand for travel abroad, the fluctuation of exchange rates contributed to the increasing interest of tour operators to the Peninsula.
One of these newcomers is Anex Tour. The tour operator plans to open flights to Crimea on 2 of June from 10 cities of Russia.
Russian airlines also increase the volume of traffic in Simferopol. This is due to the increasing popularity amid declining demand for international destinations.
These carriers argue that the number of passengers will grow. Only Aeroflot, starting from 29 March, carried in the Crimea 90 thousand people.
"Transaero" also confirms the increasing demand for flights in the Crimea. The company's representative Julia Udodova reported that traffic in April 2015 is 4 times higher traffic volume in April 2014.
Direct flights to Simferopol airlines will make more than 40 cities of Russia, including: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Khabarovsk, Saratov, Ufa, Tyumen, Orenburg, Irkutsk, Rostov-on-don, Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Kemerovo, Novokuznetsk, Perm, Mineralnye Vody, Penza, Chelyabinsk, Krasnodar and etc.
The Crimean authorities are ready
Crimean authorities took into account problems encountered in the maintenance of a large number of passengers, so actively have begun to modernize the air hub. In the terminals "A" and "b" opened new areas of control and expectations. Work is underway on the renovation and construction of 2 Lounges and gate, additional Lounges, a large arrival hall.
The airport of Simferopol has significantly improved the throughput. Plus, the local management has committed to the tour operators desks in the arrivals area for meeting clients, allocated Parking space for buses that will transport tourists to the accommodation places.
The regional authorities argue that in General solved the problem of the Kerch ferry. Recall that last year there had been notable delays and congestion. The assistant to the head of the Crimea, who is in charge of this transport artery, Anatoly Tsurkin said that at present the daily capacity of the Kerch ferry is 50 thousand passengers, in 2014 the peak load amounted to 22 thousand.
Sergey Aksenov reported that the ferry will run ten ferries.
Whether the optimistic forecasts of the Crimean authorities the truth, will show summer.
By 2020 Crimea expects to welcome 7.7 million travelers annually, while in the following ten years the number of tourists to the region could reach 8.3 million people.