How do we make Russian-speaking young people from the former Soviet republics visit Crimea? This was the question to be answered by the participants of the International Roundtable Discussion “Crimea Youth Tourism: Modern Conditions and Development Prospects”, which was held at the Russkiy Mir Foundation building.
Representatives of the Crimean leadership, public persons, and heads of travelling agencies and young compatriots from the former Soviet republics took part in the discussion.
According to the deputy Head of the Republic of Crimea, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Crimea to the President of the Russian Federation Georgiy Muradov, the Republic is waiting for the tourist flow to rise. In 2015, 4,6 mln tourists visited Crimea, which exceeds the numbers of 2014, but is less than the number of tourists in 2013 - 5,9 mln tourists visited Crimea then. This year predictions differ, but it is understandable even now, that this year the number will be over the previous one – 1,2 mln tourists have already visited the peninsula starting from the beginning of 2016, which is 21% more, than it was in 2015.
Geography of Crimean tourists has changed, too. The share of Russians was earlier 40%, now Crimean resorts are filled with Russian tourists for 87%. 10% is for Ukrainians (120 thousand Ukrainians have visited Crimea from the beginning of 2016). 3% come from other countries of the former Soviet republics.
- Tourist has changed, - said Muradov, - it were “wild tourists” earlier, who came to Crimea with their own tents and food. Now tourists move to hotels, pensions and bring other money.
- Crimea has to become the center of unity for compatriots, - said deputy Chairman of Crimea State Council Andrey Kozenko. According to him, Crimean touristic sector should be aimed at a wide audience and Crimean leadership is to attract compatriots to participate in different events on the peninsula – cultural, educational and events based on human rights.
Kozenko thinks that there is nothing to invent about Crimea – there are many problems on the peninsula, especially taking into account imperceptible investments into Crimean infrastructure during the last 20 years. “Crimea is what it is, and we have to prepare people to it, but it does not mean that the peninsula does not change”, concluded Kozenko.
Deputy executive head of the Russkiy Mir Foundation Sergey Shurigyn told about support of Crimean projects, having emphasized the meaning of annual international “Great Russian Word” festival, which was held for the 10th time in Yalta.
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- Our Fund supports cultural projects. You might ask how this correlates with tourism? Let’s take “Great Russian Word” festival under the auspices of Russkiy Mir Foundation. Every year, compatriots from different countries come to visit it. Coming back home, they bring the truth about the life in Crimea – that there is no war here, that it is all right with food, power supplies, security etc. here. Finally, they tell about how beautiful the peninsula is and stimulate interest to it in their countries, says Shurigyn.
Nevertheless, the situation with tourism is not too easy in Crimea. Primarily, it comes to tourism from other regions, than Russian ones. Participants of the roundtable discussion have pointed out a range of problems, which lower attractiveness of Crimea for tourists from former Soviet republics significantly and offered their decision options. Low level of service - which is a Ukrainian heritage – high prices and bad transport availability were named among common problems for tourists of all the countries.
According one of the Ukrainian roundtable discussion participant, board secretary of “Russian Community” Association Denis Tatarchenko, the biggest obstacle for a massive Ukrainian tourist flow to the peninsula is the situation on the border. There is no passenger connection between Ukraine and Crimea now, so one can only get here by car. At the same time, the queue at the border can take 5 to 8 hours, as only two border-crossing points are opened. There is also a danger to get into conflict with so-called “activists”, who organized their checkpoint several kilometers away from the official Ukrainian border. They check documents, baggage of travelers, make “lectures” on political topics.
One more problem for Ukrainian tourists is the lowered level of income. This problem is escalated by using rubles in Crimea, which made Crimean vacation unaffordable for many Ukrainians. According to Tatarchenko, potential Ukrainian tourists choose cheaper options on Ukrainian shores of Black and Azov seas or in Turkey or Egypt.
- Crimean or, maybe Russian leadership is to initiate a discussion with Kiev about opportunities to open new or to increase capacity of existing border-crossing points between the Kherson Region and the Republic of Crimea. Ukraine may decline this offer, but we will have evidence for the Ukrainians stuck in many kilometers long traffic jams, of who to blame in this situation, - said Tatarchenko.
The same problem limits tourist flow from Moldova significantly. Anton Timofeev, member of Russian Associations in Moldova directorial board told about this at the roundtable discussion. The state does not nearly have transport connections with the peninsula. In addition, Moldavian citizens are to get a special permit in Kiev to cross the border between Ukraine and Crimea, having explained their purpose of stay in the Republic. This kind of permit may be issued in case a Moldavian citizen has relatives, who live in Crimea, or in case there are his or her ancestor graves there. In order to avoid Ukrainian permit system, Moldavians have to travel through Moscow, which makes the trip very expensive.
Belorussian interest to Crimea is insignificant and it is partly connected with the already mentioned problems. But according to deputy Chairman of the “Young Russia” Association Andrey Sych, the main factor of the limited tourist flow is the negative image of life in the peninsula in the Belorussian media. The Belorussian participant pointed out that in order to attract tourists to Crimea, Russian Federation should work on creating positive image of Crimea in the Belorussian media environment more.
Armenian tourists may have come to the peninsula, but they have too little information on Crimean advantages. According to the member of Armenian human rights organization “Russian Field” Artur Garibyan, almost nothing is known about Crimea in Armenia. There is no access to the sea in the country, so Armenians usually choose Georgia and as strange as it may seem, Turkey. But according to Garibyan, many are already fed up with this lack of variety and Armenian tourist is ready to open “new lands”.
- Armenian tourists visit the places, which are connected with Armenian culture. I have to notice, that Armenians lived in Crimea during the Republic of Genoa. There are many monuments of Armenian culture in Crimea: for example, Surb Hach monastery with its 700-year history. Ivan Aivazovskiy, a world-known artist, who has Armenian background, made his works in Crimea. We should tell about it in Armenia.
Participant of the roundtable discussion from Kirgizia Nurdin Dzunushaliev noticed importance of developing extreme sports in Crimea.
- In Kirgizia, we have a very developed off-roader movement. It is a youth sports, - said Dzunushaliev and added that in Crimea this movement is also well-developed and this is the tourist “feature”, which can attract young people to travel from Kirgizia to Crimea.
Participants of the roundtable discussions also agreed that the interest of young people to visit Crimea is strongly connected with the variety of prices and events. There are not only the kind of tourists, who come to get “all inclusive”, young people usually choose cheaper and more active alternatives. Thus, Crimea should develop the network of hiking trails, make camping sites, assist creating hostel network. There are all the required conditions for winter vacations in Crimea. Developing this sector can lover the dependence of the region on season factor, as it might allow distributing the number of tourists between the seasons.
The last important aspect discussed was an opportunity to use youth tourism as a means of “public diplomacy”. Young people, visiting Crimea, take their impression of Crimea and the whole Russian Federation in general to their home country. A good impression about Crimea works as a vaccine against unfair propaganda, which is unfortunately used even in friendly states. And Crimea cannot give bad impressions! This is why, as did Georgiy Muradov say, the leadership of the republic is hoping to attract more and more young people to visit Crimea, using this kind of roundtable discussions, where problems and their solutions are discussed.
