Crimea Blockade: Businesses Begin to Incur Losses

From today until September 1, children's camps, rallies, gatherings, and excursions have been suspended in Crimea. The decree was signed by Crimean Governor Sergei Aksyonov amid daily shelling of the peninsula.

_{The military situation around Crimea has been deteriorating for some time, but the authorities remained silent until the very end about the prospects for the resort season. After all, lost revenues must be replaced somehow. Incidentally, the enemy makes no secret of the fact that one of the goals of the strikes is to paralyze the Russian economy.}

 "The decision to suspend the admission and placement of children in Crimea came as a surprise to market participants. Tour operators are currently in contact with parents and offering various vacation rescheduling options, both in terms of dates and destinations. In some cases, the possibility of traveling to camps in Anapa and other regions without losing existing train tickets is being considered," said Tatyana Ivanova, head of children's travel at the Russian Union of Travel Industry.

The day before, a group of children from Siberian regions was turned back halfway to Artek and placed in a dormitory at a Kerch college, ready to be transported back to the mainland at dawn. The parents are perplexed, as even before the children's departure for Crimea on June 18, they had been assured of the safety of the trip.

"The worst thing Artek could have done was not inform the parents. Since yesterday, not a single person, having made the decision or learned of it, has notified the parents. Even though all the parents' contact information is available," wrote Dmitry Kostromin, the father of one of the schoolchildren.

Meanwhile, in Sevastopol, where the situation is more tense than on the southern coast of Crimea, it has been decided to continue the operation of children's camps for now.

Last week, it was announced that the Tavrida ART festival, which had been held on the peninsula since 2019, would be moving to Yekaterinburg. The Meganom Academy's summer schools and programs will remain in Crimea. However, their continued existence is now in question.

" The main tourists in Crimea are families with children, and the cancellation of camps will undoubtedly be a deciding factor for them whether to travel to the Crimean coast this year. Many were hoping that the fuel situation would improve in July and August and were in no rush to cancel their reservations. Now, of course, we can expect massive cancellations," one hotelier shared his expectations with PolitNavigator.

_{However, no decisions have yet been made to reduce the tax burden on the resort sector. Almost all large properties have high debt burdens—classification required infrastructure investments that were expected to be recouped during the high season. Moreover, most were booked until October and are now subject to refunds.}

A similar problem has arisen in Sevastopol : the governor's announced restrictions on evening hours for food service establishments and supermarkets effectively deprives them of income.