Tour operators have identified the main problems of the Crimea
The head of the Crimea, Sergey Aksenov, set the task for representatives of the tourism business to “create such conditions so that we can compete with Turkey.”
Market players believe that the current marketing policy and the emphasis on working with an organized market create difficulties. “The peninsula is now characterized by a bet on independent tourism in addition to unhealthy competition from hotels in relation to the tourism sector. The main task is to prepare conditions for real competition of Turkey to other resorts. The ratio of price and quality in this format is decisive. The government of the Republic of Crimea is ready to help our desirers to create conditions for work for the autumn-winter period, said Sergey Aksenov.
Industry professionals believe that there are important problems in attracting an organized tourist flow, which the authorities should first of all pay attention to. This is, for example, the marketing policy of Crimea. Officials and business agree that the flow of tourists to Crimea began to decline – official statistics indicate a decline of 4.5%, business – about 10-15%. In our opinion, the reason is that in the past three years, Crimea has received its stream on the wave of media popularity. It was a powerful advertising of the Crimea, and now the effect of this advertising is disappearing, and a new advertising offer from the Crimea is not coming, says Sergey Romashkin, CEO of the tour operator Dolphin. The expert believes that it is necessary to deal not only with infrastructure, the development of the peninsula can hope when the Kerch bridge opens.
At the moment, up to 80% of tourists on the peninsula are unorganized tourist flow, which actively uses the services of the private sector. At the same time, the private market is in the shadow economic zone, which leads to dumping on its part. The second problem is the relationship between travel companies and hotels. All hoteliers are now actively engaged in issues of their own direct sales and we can already talk about the trend of reducing costs for agency remuneration, says Ilya Umansky, General Director of the tour operator Alean.
Another problem is that industry players often meet with trampling on the ethics of partners - guests of the region are shamelessly lured to direct booking, not excluding even discrediting the reputation of tour operators and travel agents before the consumer. This is a key point that raises serious concerns from the travel agency community. You need to understand that agencies work for a regular client. And if a tourist is offered a better price on the spot, then the agency of this client loses once and for all, Umansky said.
Photo: tourprom