Our interviewee is Irina Pozhidaeva, director of Resort Appraisal Company.
Q.: Last week, Kuban Governor Veniamin Kondratiev announced that the process of classification of Kuban hotels is taking place ahead of schedule: about 90% of them have already been assigned ‘stars’. What factors have contributed to it?
A.: It has been a result of the systematic work initiated by the regional authorities back in 2014, and in Sochi even in 2011.
Now we have municipalities, where all 100% hotels have been certified: Ust-Labinsk, Kavkazsky and Kushchevsky rayons. In Anapa and Gelendzhik, a prevailing majority of hotels have also been registered.
Q.: There was a scandal last year, when a hotel had appropriated more stars than it could qualify for. Can you say that now the classification is being done impartially?
A.: Indeed, in Sochi a hotel had undeservedly been assigned a five-star category, but after a while it was re-classified and ‘lost’ one star.
Q.: What do you think are the strong points of Kuban hotels, and what have a significant area for further development?
A.: With regard to their material and technical resources, our hotels are not inferior to most of Turkish or Egyptian hotels. But however splendid your room may be, if you are served by untidy and unfriendly staff, it will spoil your holiday. Very often it is the level of service that is the weakest point of our hotels.
Q.: How can you evaluate the current season? Is it justifying the experts’ expectations?
A.: We can already state that the season has become a real success for the Krasnodar region. Although in spring we feared that as it was last year Crimea might be our serious rival, but Russian tourists who like good service refused to experiment once again and chose comfort rather than Crimean exotic things.
Q.: Now the Black Sea resorts are in great demand, while the Azov coast remains not very popular. How can the situation change?
A.: We cannot call holidaymaking comfortable if there is no electricity in your hotel or in the town on the whole. So it is the infrastructure that must be improved. If good money is invested in the development o corresponding municipalities, then Yeisk will also become a territory of mass tourism.
Q.: The top Russian government has decided that Russian tourists may return to Turkey. What will be the consequences of this decision for the Krasnodar region? Will the amnesty of Antalya and Kemer do much harm to Kuban tourism industry?
A.: Naturally, a certain part of tourists will prefer to go abroad, but I believe that their share will not be significant - at least because Turkey is now having big problems with security.
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