Making Crimea top holiday destination is ambitious but doable goal: expert

ANKARA, May 14 (Itar-Tass) - The aim to attract as many tourists to Crimea as to the most popular among Russians holiday destination of Turkey is an ambitious but quite achievable task, the deputy head of the Rosturizm Federal Tourism Agency, Grigory Sarishvili, said on Wednesday. “Speaking about this ambitious goal, we must say that it will hardly be possible to solve all problems at once,” said Sarishvili, who takes part in a session of the Russian-Turkish expert group on tourism safety, currently under way in Antalya. “There are certain transport restrictions at the moment. Railway transportation, ferry links must be organized, and a bridge must be built across the Kerch Strait,” he told Tass. The current task is “government subsidies to transport companies so that citizens could reach Crimea at cheap rates,” he said. “The government has adopted certain decisions that have scaled down the prices below the half-a-year ago levels. This will certainly attract Russian tourists. We would like to see it continuing for a rather long period, while in the meantime the infrastructure in Crimea will be developing,” Sarishvili said. Focusing on the cost of holidays in Crimea, which is often higher than the cost of foreign travel offers, the Rosturizm specialist said the level of prices must be balanced through competition. “Now many facilities in Crimea are getting new owners. They will most likely invest to improve the quality and upgrade the level of these facilities. This will inevitably involve competition, as a result of which a higher quality will not be accompanied by proportionate price increase,” Sarishvili noted. Learn more on itar-tass.com