MOSCOW, April 02. /ITAR-TASS/. Moscow tour operators have pledged to attract huge tourist flows into Crimea this summer season, according to Sergei Shpilko, the president of the Russian Union of Tourism Industry.

Shpilko told a meeting of the Russian Public Chamber on Wednesday that Crimea’s natural and cultural potential could hardly be overestimated. He predicts that transport will be the key problem this summer.

“We do not know what’s going to happen to railway transportation but there have been positive shifts with air flights,” Shpilko said.

“We need to understand the geography of flights and possible passenger flows fast because the tourist season is starting soon,” the president of the Russian Union of Tourism Industry said, adding that tour operators needed to get concrete information on the number of flights and flight schedule as well as air ticket costs before starting selling tours to customers.

“Moscow has had a traditional tourist donor for Crimea. Moscow tour operators have already started sending vacationers to the peninsula and are determined to exert maximum efforts in their work,” Shpilko went on to say.

He added it was necessary to promote Crimea as a tourist destination and health improvement resort.

“A quarter of Russians who visit Crimea now go there to improve their health. So, health resort treatment should be the priority in our work,” Shpilko explained.

Huge tourist flows could really stream into Crimea from Russia on the wave of a patriotic upsurge.

“We, for our part, will do everything within our power to make that possible,” Shpilko pledged.