Sochi mountain resort visitors prefer private housing, not hotels, for New Year

Traditionally, Russians come to Sochi mountains to welcome the New Year and spend their winter holidays. This year, visitors to ski resorts prefer to stay in the private housing facilities. Hotels state free rooms available on the eve of the New Year.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 26, the village of Krasnaya Polyana in Sochi officially opened the winter season. According to the forecasts, cited by the TASS, at least 270,000 tourists will spend their New Year holidays at the resorts.

Zhanna Grigorieva, the head of the department of perspective development and holding significant events of the Sochi administration, said that, according to her data from the winter resorts of Krasnaya Polyana, on the eve of the New Year, the rooms at the resort "Roza Khutor" were occupied by 55%, at the "Gorod-Gorki" – by 87%, and at the "Gazprom" – by 40%.

This year, at the resort "Roza Khutor", the small hotel business is in the lead, ahead of big hotels, Elena, a Sochi broker, believes. She is also sure that the pricing policies of the 3-5-star hotels, built for the Winter Olympic Games, are deterring potential Russian clients.

Earlier, the authorities of Sochi said that they had restricted access to Krasnaya Polyana for the New Year holidays – from December 30, 2015, to January 10, 2016. The restriction was introduced to regulate the transport situation in anticipation of a large inflow of tourists, explained the Mayoralty.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.