Rescuing Crimea tourism: Putin 'recommends' summer destination


Russia’s public sector workers are expected to spend their summer holidays in Crimea: Rostourism, the federal tourism agency, sent out letters last week to the country’s biggest state-controlled corporations with a ‘suggestion’ to buy package tours to Crimea for tens of thousands of employees.

To pull Crimea’s travel business out of fire, the President of Russia advises public servants to make reservations at Crimean hotels and health centres. At that, it is their enterprises and trade unions that will be obliged to pay for recreation, German magazine Focus reports.

According to its information, Moscow region has already devoted $4 bn for subsidising while Chechnya is ready to cough up $3 mln. Russian giants Gazprom and Rosneft are giving $500,000 each towards their employees’ holiday season.

Earlier Ukrainians made up about 75% of 8 mln tourists who spent their summer holidays in Crimea. But after Russia’s annexation of the peninsula, most Ukrainians have put Crimean beaches under boycott.

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