Season in Crimea is thwarted, but the situation is not hopeless — experts

Russians refuse to rest in Crimea. According to online booking data, demand for the peninsula in June collapsed by 40-60%. About whether there are chances to save the high season on the peninsula and what Russians are changing holidays in the Crimea for — in the material of "Profile".

The Russian Union of Travel Industry (PCT) explicitly stated: "The 2026 season in Crimea, in fact, has already been disrupted." And if the peninsula manages to get at least half of last year's tourist flow by the end of the year, "you can clap your hands."

Gasoline washed away tourism

The fuel crisis in Crimea, which began in late May — early June, had seriously worsened by the end of June. If earlier it was possible to buy gasoline on the peninsula (albeit in limited quantities) at least using a special QR code, then on June 21 the regional authorities announced that the free sale of gasoline at gas stations was being stopped, and scarce fuel would be supplied only to special and city services.

On June 23, the energy crisis was added to the gasoline crisis: due to the accident, electricity was lost for almost a day in half of the peninsula, mainly in the north and west of the region. The lights went out, including at popular resorts: in Yevpatoria, Saki and some other areas. Residents of Simferopol and part of the Simferopol district also reported short-term outages. The situation was aggravated by the fact that the generators in the hotels this time turned out to be practically useless: due to the shortage of fuel, there is nothing to fill them with.

The result of the crisis was not long in coming — tourists began to refuse trips to the peninsula. The TravelLine hotel business platform for two weeks (from June 6 to June 20) recorded a record drop in demand for holidays in Crimea, by 63% compared to the same period last year. The same figures were announced by the press service of the Alean tour operator: "In comparison with May in June, the demand for summer tours in Crimea has decreased by 60%."

In general, from June to August 2026, the total volume of accommodation orders in the region decreased by a third, minus 33%, according to data from the OneTwoTrip travel planning service.

"Most noticeably, by 40%, the demand for accommodation decreased in June (year-on—year), in July we record a drop of 35%, and in August so far only by 10%," said Elena Shelekhova, head of the OneTwoTrip press service.

Most often refuse to travel to Crimea tourists who have to travel to the peninsula the other day, experts say. And first of all, these are those who planned to get to the region by private car. According to various sources, from 30 to 70% of holidaymakers come to the peninsula in their own cars in the summer.

The general nervousness is also added by the incomprehensible situation with gasoline in other regions of the country: over the past couple of weeks, reports of a shortage of some types of fuel at gas stations and the introduction of limits on its sale in one hand were also recorded in Moscow, and in St. Petersburg, as well as in Lipetsk, Voronezh, Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar Krai, that is, in almost all regions through which the M4 highway passes — the main "southern road" for most motorists.

Therefore, most potential tourists now simply do not understand whether they will be able to get to their vacation destination by car and, most importantly, return from And then home.

Children are being taken out of Crimea

In addition to classic tourists, this season Crimea has already lost organized children's holidays. On June 22, the head of the region, Sergey Aksenov, issued a decree suspending the admission of children to Crimean camps until September 1. The restrictions also apply to the "placement of children to participate in tourist, sports, educational and other events."

After that, organized removal of children already vacationing in camps began on the peninsula. Some of them were sent home, some continued their shift in other regions of Russia.

Tatyana Ivanova, director of the Dial-Tour travel company, head of the PCT Committee on children's recreation, said that parents of children whose vacation in Crimea has been disrupted are offered alternative options in other camps, including in Krasnodar Region, so that the children, as planned, have a rest at sea.

"I recommend all parents to use redirection, because in this case, children's holidays, children's rest will be preserved. In the case of a demand for a refund for a ticket, it may be delayed. After all, the camps, when they received these payments, sent them to prepare equipment, paint infrastructure, new games, new playgrounds, and so on. Therefore, there is no living money from the camps to return now overnight," she explained.

Hundreds of thousands of vacationers need to be "redirected". Just for comparison: Artek alone planned to accept more than 50 thousand children this season — a record figure for the camp for the entire time of its existence.

The PCT assures that all "Crimean" children will be able to be accommodated in the camps of the Krasnodar Territory without any problems, there is no shortage of places.

Prices do not rise against the background of the flow, assure Alean.

"Applications are quickly confirmed, and it is possible to find a tour at a suitable price. Now in the resorts of the Krasnodar Territory, vouchers to children's camps are available for an amount of 74 thousand rubles per child for 21 days, " the press service of the tour operator assured.

But if parents want to redirect their child to a camp closer to home, then in some regions there may already be problems with finding places, for example, in the Tyumen Region, Perm Krai, Leningrad Region, Altai, shifts in children's camps are 100% full.

"But our country is big, the workload is uneven, so there are still places in camps in many regions. And in Moscow region, and in Nizhny Novgorod region, Vladimir, Kaluga, Volgograd. Yes, and in In the Krasnodar Territory — Gelendzhik, Tuapse, Sochi — there are places, children are waiting," Tatyana Ivanova assured.

By the way, the governor of the Krasnodar Territory, Veniamin Kondratiev, also announced his readiness to accept children from the Crimea. According to him, the Vita and Zhemchuzhina resorts in Anapa are ready to receive young tourists who were supposed to go on vacation to the Crimea.

Business is waiting for help from the state

"There are grounds to say that the tourist season of 2026 in Crimea, in fact, has already been disrupted," Ilya Umansky, president of the Russian Union of Travel Industry, wrote on his Telegram channel on June 22.

And the rapid recovery of demand, in his opinion, should not be expected.

And this means that many accommodation facilities in the Crimea: hotels, sanatoriums, guest houses, children's camps, because it is in the summer that their main revenue is generated.

Aleksan Mkrtchyan, director and founder of the Pink Elephant travel agency network, vice-president of the Alliance of Travel Agencies of Russia, is confident that mass bankruptcies of accommodation facilities on the peninsula will be avoided, but "no one will be able to earn for sure."

He believes that luxury segment hotels will remain a small gain, which even in such conditions will be able to attract both the residents of Crimea and neighbors from the Krasnodar Territory to rest.

"It is clear that from Few people will go to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, so all their attraction programs are now aimed at residents of the Southern Federal District who don't need a lot of fuel to get to Crimea," Mkrtchyan explained.

But such accommodation facilities on the peninsula, according to him, can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

"The worst will be hotels of category one, two, three stars, hotels without stars, family guest houses and others. They will now begin to lay off staff — maids, waitresses — and somewhere in July-August they will close. By autumn, few of them will be working. Large hotels will be open until September-October, and then the same thing — they will lay off staff and close. And they will wait for state support measures. By the way, I am sure that the country's authorities will provide assistance to Crimean hoteliers," the head of the travel company believes.

By the way, Ilya Umansky has already stated that the PCT will soon send its proposals to the Ministry of Economic Development to support the tourism industry of Crimea. The industry believes that, first of all, the Crimean tourist business needs to be granted a deferral for the payment of property taxes, and also work out mechanisms for providing interest-free loans to refund canceled bookings, because hoteliers have already started all the money received to prepare for the season.

Umansky is sure that it is necessary to make a decision on support as soon as possible.

"The usual approach of "let's wait and see how events will develop" is obviously not suitable in this situation," he stressed.

Pyramids instead of a "Swallow's nest"

"Is it still possible to save the season in Crimea?" — the main issue that is of concern to everyone on the peninsula right now. OneTwoTrip is confident that the situation is not hopeless yet and demand can still recover.

"Given the unstable information background and the situation in general, tourists are not ready to book accommodation facilities in advance. Tourists have taken a wait-and-see attitude, and most of them, almost 68%, make reservations a maximum of a week before the arrival date. Travel decisions are now being made spontaneously, literally on the eve of departure, after making sure that the logistical situation on their route has stabilized," Elena Shelekhova believes.

At the same time, Alean emphasized that, despite the general decline in demand, new applications for Crimean hotels continue to arrive both for the coming dates and for autumn.

"In many accommodation facilities there are discounts from 10-30%, reduced booking prices in June, additional services as a gift (for example, wellness treatments)," the press service of the tour operator added.

Experts are sure: in case of stabilization of the fuel situation in Crimea refusals will stop and tourists will go there again. Especially since accommodation in Crimea is now 30-50% cheaper than in the neighboring Krasnodar Territory.

By the way, it is there that tourists "move" who have definitely given up their vacation on the peninsula. First of all, this is the Anapa region, where most of the beaches have been opened for swimming this year (they have been closed since last year due to a tanker accident and a fuel oil spill). According to the Association of Tour Operators of Russia, demand for Anapa doubled in June compared to last year.

Also, some of the Crimean tourists will move to Abkhazia (a 10% increase in the number of bookings has already been recorded there), Gelendzhik, Sochi, and so on.

"Those who planned to rest in the health resorts of the peninsula are reorienting to the sanatoriums of the middle strip, the Urals," Aleana assures.

And some of the travelers have already decided that they will just stay at home and not go to the sea at all this year.

In those areas where tourists from Crimea are reorienting, there is no massive price increase.

"In Anapa, for example, many hotels offer discounts of 10-15%, extend early booking promotions. And in Abkhazia, as in previous years, affordable prices: "all inclusive" from 63 thousand rubles for a family of three for seven nights," the press service of the tour operator reported.

"Those tourists who have passports will go to Egypt instead of Crimea," Mkrtchyan adds. — By the way, we are already seeing a huge increase in demand for it. They will not go to Turkey, because Turkey is more expensive than Crimea, but Egypt is cheaper in some cases, and demand is already flowing there."

According to his estimates, if the situation does not improve, the peninsula may lose about 3 million holidaymakers this season. By the way, this is almost half of last year's tourist flow (in 2025 the region received 6.9 million tourists).

"If Crimea reaches at least 4 million vacationers this year, you can jump with happiness and clap your hands," Mkrtchyan said.