ST. PETERSBURG, June 26. /ITAR-TASS/. Crimea will welcome its millionth Russian tourist this holiday season on Saturday, June 28, deputy head of Russia’s tourism authority told the sixth international Sea Tourism Forum in St. Petersburg on Thursday.

According to Deputy Head of the Federal Tourism Agency (Rosturizm) Dmitry Amunts, all in all, about three million Russian tourists are expected in Crimea this holiday season. Focusing on the development of the region’s tourism potential, he said that “to return the status of a world-class resort to Crimea, Rosturizm has drafted proposals on setting up three tourism recreation zones,” he said.

He said Crimea also offered possibilities for the development of sea cruise travels, for which four ports, Yalta, Sevastopol, Kerch and Yevpatoria, had all necessary infrastructure. A record high demand for the calling of cruise liners at Crimean ports was registered in 2013, when 108 ocean liners and 16 vessels for river-sea navigation, carrying all in all 63,000 tourists, called at Yalta.

“We hope that 2014 will be as successful as 2013,” the official said. “Despite difficultiesconnected with the situation with Ukraine that prompt a number of companies to refrain from calling at (Crimean) ports, they are now once again considering this possibility,” Amunts added.

In reply to an ITAR-TASS question, he specified that he had been referring to European operators of cruise tourism. He said that this year 62 ocean liners and 51 river-sea ships were expected at the port of Sevastopol alone.