Team for the rally: tourist interest in Gelendzhik doubled before the airport opened
The demand for flights to Gelendzhik increased 40-fold in the first few days after the announcement of the airport's imminent opening, and the number of requests for holidays in this resort city doubled, representatives of the tourism industry told Izvestia. Aviagavan will take the first flight on July 18 from Moscow. Further, the number of flights and destinations will grow. Passengers will find a new modern terminal, which has no analogues in our country. It was planned to open three years ago, and during the forced break, not only the airport was being prepared, but also the entire city, which will now rightfully compete with Sochi. For more information about how and how Gelendzhik will greet air travelers, see the Izvestia article.
Bird over the bay
The new terminal, built in just 18 months, combined the most modern architectural trends. The main design feature of the building was the roof: it is assembled from 2.5 thousand unique steel spheres, which is not found in any other airport in the country. It will be possible to evaluate it from the air on approach to the resort. The designers were inspired to create such an airy silhouette by a bird soaring over Gelendzhik Bay — smooth lines emphasize the idea and give the building a softer outline. The transparent, almost invisible facade is a continuous ribbon of unique curved glass produced by only one manufacturer in Russia.
The concept of the project was developed by the Italian Studio Fuksas bureau Massimiliano Fuksas. The architect himself is particularly proud to talk about the unique interior and the ceiling lighting, which changes throughout the day: the starry sky, the sun reflected in the sea water, and the most spectacular combination — the Russian tricolor.
— This is what I really wanted to do — the outlines seem to be constantly changing. And the surfaces are shrinking, then increasing. Everything is moving, becoming dynamic. And the light is changing — it's much more realistic inside than outside," Massimiliano Fuchsas told Izvestia.
The forecourt of the new terminal has a 1-hectare landscaped park, and 45 Crimean pine trees have been planted.
In general, the airport is ergonomic and thought out to the smallest detail. The renovated terminal has an area of almost 17,000 square meters. It has 13 check—in counters, six boarding gates, and parking for 430 cars. The capacity is almost 900 passengers per hour, which means that ten flights can be unloaded at the same time, and the airport will be able to serve about 1 million people per year. According to Anton Chichkanov, the project manager for the construction of the Alfa Stroy air hub, the building's structure is so reliable that it can withstand an earthquake of 8 points.
The investors of the project were Joint Stock Bank ROSSIYA and VTB Bank.
First flights to Gelendzhik
Regular flights to Gelendzhik from Moscow will start on July 18, and Aeroflot will operate them only during daylight hours. Further flights are scheduled for July 20 and 23, and from July 25 they will become daily. From August 6, a second flight will be added, which will be operated every day from August 8 to mid-September. The flight time will be about four hours.
Almost all tickets for the first flights were sold out in a few hours. The cost started from 21 thousand rubles for a flight to Gelendzhik, and from 8.5 thousand rubles back. It's more expensive than in Sochi, but the airport wasn't closed there, so there's a lot of competition among airlines.
In addition to Aeroflot, negotiations are underway in Gelendzhik with other carriers. S7, for example, noted that they are going to resume flights to the resort city from Novosibirsk and Moscow from August 7 and 8, respectively.
"Flights on these routes will be operated on comfortable Boeing 737-800 aircraft, as well as on Airbus A320neo," the press service said.
The Association of Tour Operators has already announced the imminent expansion of the list of cities from which flights to Gelendzhik will begin.
Final preparations for the reception of passengers are underway at the air hub itself. Ivan Taranchenko, General Director of Aviagavan, said that during the forced break from February 2022, training flights took place weekly at the airport, where all systems, including baggage, as well as transport, were checked.
"We're ready." The staff is not lost, and this is the greatest value of the company. Currently, intensive work is underway with all airlines. We are working on and want to cover the volume of flights from different regions of Russia as widely as possible," he told Izvestia.
Sochi, Sirius, and now Gelendzhik
Gelendzhik is a special resort town. The largest bay of the coast, surrounded by mountain ranges, creates a special microclimate. After the launch of passenger flights, the resort has every chance to take the second most popular place after Sochi, said Yuri Barzykin, vice president of the Russian Union of Travel Industry.
— This is an extremely interesting and unique territory, which is cheaper to stay in than Sochi and Sirius. There are many restaurants and cafes there, they work at a very high level. If the airport opens there, it means that security measures are fully secured in this region," he told Izvestia.
He noted that representatives of the tourism industry had also previously petitioned for the opening of airports in Krasnodar and Simferopol.
— Of course, the number of cities from which it will be possible to fly to Gelendzhik will gradually increase. It is this territory that today is able to provide Russians with affordable and sought—after holidays," the expert explained, noting that previously travelers' choice fell solely on Sochi, where it was more convenient to get to.
Gelendzhik itself has a lot of interesting places for tourists. For example, the world's first marine floating light and music fountain. And in the area of the Thin Cape, the largest yacht marina in Russia was recently completed. They made the water area deeper, built jetties.
— Everything is created for tourists, for vacationers from all over the country and at a very high level. And besides, of course, we understand and it is obvious that the number of tourists will grow, because unique facilities are being built in Gelendzhik itself," Veniamin Kondratiev, Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, told Izvestia.
Another symbol of Gelendzhik will be a unique media screen that is clearly visible from various points of the city and allows you to broadcast 3D videos. It will show the entire rich history of the resort city.
In addition, the city is becoming a center of medical and wellness tourism. Firstly, the climate, and secondly, excellent doctors and equipment. My Medical Center is the leading multidisciplinary clinic on the coast, the only private medical institution in the region to which the Ministry of Health annually allocates quotas for high—tech compulsory health care.
"On the eve of the opening of the Gelendzhik airport, we are ready to expand the number of our patients from other cities of our large country within the ecosystem," said Evgeny Tokorenko, chief physician of the My Medical Center clinic in Gelendzhik.
Georgy Ostapkovich, head of the HSE Center for Economic Studies and Economic Analysis, believes that the reopening of the airport will give an impetus not only to the development of tourism, but also to other industries in the south of the country, including winemaking.
Thus, the most ambitious project and the future point of attraction not only for Gelendzhik, but also for the entire Krasnodar Territory is the Bely Cape wine city, created by the ROSSIYA Group of Joint—Stock Bank, which has been investing in the industry for several years. In a unique project with an area of 42 thousand square meters. m. It includes restaurants, a wine library with the largest collection of domestic wines in the country — over a thousand items from 150 producers from all wine-growing corners of Russia, a wine museum, venues for gastronomic and wine festivals, a laboratory center, tasting rooms and even a cinema.
Interestingly, guests of the city will be able to taste not only local wines, but also the entire domestic palette of varieties already at the airport, in the "My Wine" lounge, for example, and resolve their financial issues. Joint Stock Bank ROSSIYA has opened a branch here, where all banking services are provided.
According to Georgy Ostapkovich, the opening of the airport is an economically significant event for the entire region. Competition in the service sector will begin to increase, and prices will decrease. In addition, this will lead to the development of the entire transport infrastructure of the Black Sea region, since, for example, it is more convenient to get to Crimea and Anapa from Gelendzhik than from Sochi.
And local residents will be able to fly to Moscow, said Aleksan Mkrtchyan, President of the Alliance of Travel Agencies of Russia.
"Now, for example, residents of Krasnodar, which is a huge regional center, are forced to go to the nearest airport, Sochi," he said. — This is a minimum of six hours of travel. They can easily get to Gelendzhik in three hours, so everyone wins in this story, and first of all it is the residents of the Krasnodar Territory.
As Izvestia was informed by the online hotel and apartment booking service Ostrovok, the number of search queries for accommodation in Gelendzhik almost doubled immediately after the news of the airport's opening, and the number of bookings increased by 14%. At the same time, they noted that the resort city is already in third place after Sochi and Sirius. And now it can well claim the second place among the seaside resort towns, the company's press service said.
Analysts at the OneTwoTrip travel planning service told Izvestia that demand for flights to Gelendzhik has increased 40-fold. According to Yandex Travel, the resort city also entered the top ten most sought-after destinations among Russian tourists in flight searches along with Sochi, Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg. Since the official announcement of the airport's opening, interest in this area has grown significantly, the demand for hotel searches has increased almost one and a half times, and this is just the beginning.
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