In the old days, the overwhelming majority of citizens of the USSR, who wanted to relax in the summer on the warm sea, did not have much choice: either the Crimea, or the Azov region, or the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. Therefore, the famous resort city of Sochi, located on the territory of the Krasnodar Territory, literally attracted many people - both vacationers on trade union vouchers in sanatoriums and rest homes, and "savages", that is, visitors who rented rooms from local residents.
After the collapse of the USSR, when people had the opportunity to freely travel abroad, the glory of Sochi as a health resort faded. Russians were scared off by high prices and a very low level of service. They preferred to vacation in inexpensive budget resorts in Turkey and Egypt, where they could get much better service for less money. The leadership of the resort town and Krasnodar Territory had to make a lot of efforts to revive the former glory of Sochi. This was also helped by the choice of the city as the capital of the 2014 Winter Olympics. Thanks to a large-scale federal program, a major overhaul of local sanatoriums, health resorts, hotels was carried out, and the city's infrastructure was improved. As a result, the Russians again began to go to rest in Sochi.
In 2011, the recreation industry brought the resort town 3.6 billion rubles in taxes. This year, at least the same number of vacationers was expected and, accordingly, the same income. But nature intervened. Due to continuous heavy rains of great force, on the night of July 7, a catastrophic flood occurred in the Krasnodar Territory. After a massive runoff of water from the mountain slopes, the overflowing river flooded the low-lying part of the city of Krymsk, which entailed numerous human casualties. According to incomplete information, over 150 people died in Krymsk. Several people died in the seaside town of Gelendzhik. Such a large number of victims, in addition to natural disasters, is explained by the unsatisfactory work on warning and evacuation of people by local authorities.
Although Sochi is located quite far from the places where the tragedy occurred, the Russians were frightened and chose to refrain from traveling to this resort city. Repeated cases of refusal from previously purchased vouchers are already known. It is still too early to sum up the results of the 2012 holiday season, but the fact that this terrible disaster has led to a decrease in the number of tourists in Sochi is undeniable.
