Squeeze the maximum: instead of improving quality, Russian resorts are raising prices

Novye Izvestia has already repeatedly addressed the topic of import substitution in domestic tourism, which is especially relevant since the beginning of the summer vacation season. It is quite obvious that no Sochi and Crimea will replace the Russian inhabitant of Turkey and Egypt, not to mention Bulgaria, Montenegro or Greece. This is once again confirmed by the experts, whose opinions are quoted by the telegram channel Proeconomics .

All of them agree that "import substitution" in tourism, as always in Russia, leads exclusively to a rapid rise in prices without an increase in the quality of services / products.

• Vice-President of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Russia Vadim Prasov: "In Russian hotels of the 4 and 5 * level, prices have grown by 50-150% compared to the dockyard 2019 ..."
• Estate: Immediately after the closure of the border with Turkey in Sochi, accommodation prices increased by 30-50%.
• CBRE: According to the results of the first quarter of 2021, the average rate in Sochi hotels grew by almost 70% compared to the same period last year.
• General Director of the hotel operator PLG Ekaterina Lisovskaya: “There are no significant investments in traditional Russian resorts - Krasnodar Territory and Crimea - that could modernize accommodation facilities and raise the quality of service to a fundamentally new level. At the same time, the closure of Turkey provoked a rapid rise in prices and an emergency recruitment of additional personnel, which means that these regions will receive a flow of tourists, despite the quality of the service offered and the inflated prices ... "
• Lada Samodumskaya, General Manager of the Baltschug Kempinski Moscow Hotel: “Despite the fact that hotels in resort areas are tripling and doubling their prices against the backdrop of a boom in demand, they still face a colossal shortage of professional workforce. A critical situation is developing with high-quality accommodation facilities for the invited staff. As a result, tourists are likely to face a lack of quality service at the highest cost of rest ... "

However, the situation is such that the Russian man in the street has absolutely nowhere to go, since Turkey, recognized (albeit tacitly) as an unfriendly country, will not open to Russians until autumn, and an extremely unfavorable epidemic situation has developed in Egypt.

In these conditions, the Russian authorities, instead of investing in the development of tourist infrastructure on the Black Sea coast of the country, rudely want to shake out as much money as possible from vacationers.

Analysts of the popular Nezygar channel write about this:

“... As for the internal political situation, the statements of the Kuban Governor Veniamin Kondratyev are noteworthy here. Kondratyev made it clear that he is not planning to play for a long time, but will try to squeeze the maximum out of the tourist season while Turkey is closed.

The governor of Krasnodar declared that he does not intend to apply state regulation measures, and prices at the resorts of the region will probably remain sky-high.

Moreover, the issue of raising the resort tax from 10 to 50 rubles is now being worked out.

Yes, they plan to raise the resort tax for vacationers in premium hotels, but together with statements about unwillingness to reduce prices, the head of Kuban Kondratyev is doing everything so that tourists in the near future prefer the Turkish resorts of Sochi, Anapa and Gelendzhik. "

And journalist Dmitry Kolezev , who is now resting in "hostile" Turkey, writes from there:

“For obvious reasons, there are few Russians in Marmaris now, but there are Ukrainians and Belarusians; European languages are also heard - apparently, in conditions of lockdowns, they went here from England and Germany. Prices in Marmaris are now quite low, food in restaurants is cheaper than in Yekaterinburg, not to mention Moscow and Sochi - it is clear that if flights are resumed, Russian tourists will gladly go here again, taking part of the flow from the Krasnodar Territory and Crimea ... "