Crimean tourism on the rise

This year the Crimean peninsula has been visited by a larger number of tourists than in the previous year. From January to August 2010, the number of people vacationing in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (ARC) was 48,093,700. This was 579,900 tourists, or 13.4 percent, more than during the same period in 2009. This information was submitted by the ARC Ministry of Economy. Health resorts and travel agencies stated that during the first eight months of 2010, 849,900 people spent their holidays in the Crimea, this number being 6.4 percent more than the figures for the same period last year. As a reminder, the amount of foreign tourists visiting Ukraine dropped by 24.2 percent compared to 2008. Earlier it was reported that January through May this year the number of tourists in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea reached 1,472,000, which is 18.6 percent more than during the same time period of the previous year, says UNIAN.