Bookings in Tuapse are on hold after the oil spill.

Demand for travel packages to the Tuapse region has stalled following the oil spill, with some tourists canceling their previously booked packages. Meanwhile, Anapa, where the first beaches have already opened, is seeing an increase in bookings.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," sections of the Black Sea coast near Tuapse contaminated by oil products from the local oil refinery are being cleaned unevenly: active work is underway near city infrastructure, but remote and "wild" beaches are being neglected, local residents and volunteers stated.

If the situation with the oil spill in Tuapse does not improve within a month, tourists will cancel their travel packages and go to Anapa, according to Sergey Romashkin, vice president of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia and general director of the tour operator "Dolphin".

"The Tuapse region is not a very populous and not a very important destination. Its share of the total flow of beach tourists in the Krasnodar Territory is 4-5%. Even if Tuapse does not accept anyone at all, the region will lose these 4-5% of occupancy. Growing Anapa will pull "This sad story. Tuapse is currently on hold, while Anapa is growing," Turbiznes quotes him as saying.

Anapa has almost completed the cleanup of the oil spill that occurred in December 2024, he believes. "Following the anticipation of the beaches opening, tourist flow is growing quite well—Anapa is growing by approximately 30-40% year-on-year. However, this won't allow flow to return to the level of the successful 2024: it will be worse than in 2024, but 30-40% better than in the disastrous 2025. Everyone—tourists, hoteliers, and tour operators—has high expectations for Anapa. It is a very important destination for Black Sea tourism. Prices in Anapa have so far increased slightly—by 2-3%. It is currently the cheapest resort on the Black Sea, with anti-crisis prices, dumping them. But if the beaches officially open in the coming weeks, prices will increase by approximately 10%, to the level of neighboring Gelendzhik and Crimea. Such anti-crisis offers will no longer be available," Romashkin emphasized.

Expert of the Russian Union of Tour Operators, Product Director of the tour operator "Multitour" Evgeniya Kizey believes that tourists' initial, heated reaction to news of the fuel oil spill in Tuapse has given way to a more balanced approach to the situation.

"The number of cancellations has noticeably decreased. Anyone who wanted to cancel their vacation could do so without penalty, and many have reoriented themselves to other destinations—most often, Abkhazia, Anapa, and the Moscow region. Everything else is already quite expensive, including Crimea, where budget accommodations have already run out." Many tourists are willing to wait, realizing they're unlikely to find anything else for the same price now, as they booked their vacations early or on special offers, according to her words on the union's website.

According to Travelline, a platform for hoteliers, the increase in summer bookings for Tuapse as of early April 2026 reached 25% compared to last year. At the beginning of May, Tuapse showed a 43% drop in demand. Bookings for resort villages in the Tuapse District, for example, Dzhubga, fell by 17%, Lermontovo by 54%, and Novomikhaylovskoye by 35%, Interfax reports.

A regional state of emergency is in effect throughout the entire Tuapse District. You can read about emergency assessment criteria, response levels, structures, and resources for eliminating the consequences in the Caucasian Knot's document "Emergency Situation Regime (ES)".

Materials about the consequences of the fuel oil spill have been collected by the Caucasian Knot on the page "Eco-disaster in Kuban".