MOSCOW, July 02. /ITAR-TASS/. More than a million tourists have visited the Crimean Black Sea coast since the beginning of the year, the Russian republic's Minister of Resorts and Tourism, Yelena Yurchenko, told a Moscow-Simferopol teleconference at ITAR-TASS on Wednesday.

“The holiday season is in full swing in the historic new environment. Everything is new,” she said. “Mainly holiday centers and health resorts are being packed at the moment. Children’s camps are also filling quite well.”

Privately owned facilities serving or starting to meet the Russian market were also attracting business, she added, noting that some six million tourists travelled to Crimea's Black Sea coast last year.

“Since the beginning of 2014 until June, a little more than a million tourists came here," Yurchenko said. "In this new context, we are ready to host three million travellers,” she said.

This year's tourist season will be successful for Crimea, says acting head of Russia’s Federal Agency for Tourism (Rostourism) Oleg Safonov.

“The high season in Crimea has started successfully. According to our data and our Crimean counterparts’ records, a million of Russians have already visited Crimea,” he told ITAR-TASS on Wednesday, adding that “this is a great achievement, considering current limited transport accessibility”.

“We have July and August ahead. And we are sure that this season will be successful for the Crimean tourist market,” he said.

Crimea’s resort and tourism sector has 825 outlets, of which 151 are holiday centers and spa resorts, 224 are health resorts and 92 are resorts for children.