Also popular - now traditionally - is Egypt. Bulgaria and Croatia are doing well, and many people want to go to Crimea. But, as an employee of one of the Kiev travel agencies explained, people go to the Southern Coast of Crimea only out of old memory. In fact, the same Turkey will cost the client less than such a native and close Crimea, and the service abroad is undoubtedly higher. In addition, in Turkey there is something to see. For example, 10 days on the other side of the Black Sea will cost you (at minimum, of course) $199 per person, including airfare, accommodation and meals. In Crimea, you definitely won't be able to have a good rest for that kind of money.
At the same time, despite the fact that for several weeks now the water temperature at the Southern Coast of Crimea has not risen above 9-16 degrees, this has not affected the influx of vacationers, reported Anna Galperina, head of the resort department of the Ministry of Resorts and Tourism of Crimea. The health resorts of the peninsula are filled at the level of last year, and some even more. Anna Galperina also noted the increased interest of vacationers in treatment.
Compared to last year, no significant changes have occurred: the same resorts are popular, the same demand for them. True, this year there have been fewer people wanting to vacation in Spain due to visa problems. People have become less likely to buy sightseeing tours and more often - ordinary "exclusive" recreation.
Russian travel agents, in turn, note that the local client is increasingly interested in recreation abroad, and before taking a well-deserved vacation, checks information about tourist trips on the Internet. At the same time, the rating of resorts in the CIS and neighboring countries is somewhat falling, yielding to countries and cities with more developed tourism infrastructure. But many Russians still come to our country, although they prefer apartments for daily rent in Kiev or the same Crimea to hotels and boarding houses, and therefore it is difficult to track the real tourist flow. Along with this, there is increasing competition in the tourism business sector.
Experts assure that no single indicator will play a key role in the significance of a resort for fulfilling the main task - treating existing diseases and strengthening a person's overall health. Therefore, it is clear that the priority indicator of a resort's capabilities is the climate, the influence of its hydromineral resources on human health. Service conditions and communications can be created anywhere, while the climate at each point on Earth is unique.
Therefore, special ratings of the world's resorts are practiced all over the world. Ukrainian scientists are not lagging behind world practice either. Not long ago, a special book was even published in Simferopol, "Comparative Medical and Climatic Characteristics of the Main Seaside Resort Areas of Europe and Adjacent Regions of Asia and Africa," which presents a rating of recreational regions of the world. Naturally, Crimea is not in last place in it. It is amusing that Europeans, who have their own rating, do not think so. The authors of the book established that the recreational value of resort zones decreases in the following order:
Madeira and the Canary Islands; the continental coast of Portugal; the northern Mediterranean (southern France, northwestern and northeastern Italy, northern Croatia, the Southern Coast of Crimea); the southwestern Mediterranean (Spain, southern Italy, southern Croatia, northern Tunisia); the northern Black Sea region (northwestern part of the Russian coast, the coast of Ukraine except the Southern Coast of Crimea, Romania, Bulgaria); the southeastern Mediterranean (Greece, the southern coast of Turkey, Cyprus, Israel, southern Tunisia); the Caucasus (southeastern part of the Russian coast, Georgia); the coast of the Bay of Biscay (the northern coast of Spain, the Silver Coast of France); northern resorts (the coast of the English Channel, the North and Baltic Seas).
Leading world oceanologists assure that secluded islands far from civilization are the best place for swimming, and accordingly for recreation in general. In short, the first place in the rating published by the site Time.Travel.ru is occupied by the Seychelles and the Caribbean islands. The water there is ideally transparent, and the sea near the islands is very warm all year round. Strong ocean currents near the islands help restore the ecological balance, and the bottom near the shore drops off sharply into the depths - this also prevents waste from stagnating. Although there are actually few wastes: there is no industry at all, and oil tanker routes are far away.
The second place goes to the Portuguese coast and the Dead Sea. The Atlantic coast of Portugal is slightly inferior to
secluded islands. Low-waste industry, deep bottom, and besides, the ocean - it is much more difficult to pollute than a sea. But in the ocean, it is not always safe to make long swims. If there are reefs nearby and the depth of water near the shore changes sharply, during high tide a strong underwater current begins and a bather can be carried into the open ocean.
As for the Dead Sea, it is also very clean there, but there can be no talk of any marine flora and fauna: the sea is so salty that neither flowers, nor fish, nor algae live there. And you won't be able to swim properly either. True, there is enough benefit from it: here they treat not only skin, but also rheumatism and depression.
The top three are closed by the resorts of Indonesia (Bali), Malaysia, Singapore, and Australia. Tropical seas are very warm and clean. At the same time, marine life is the only source of trouble. Contact with a jellyfish nicknamed "sea wasp" with 5-6-meter transparent tentacles saturated with paralytic poison will result in at least a burn. Sea urchins, hated by snorkeling enthusiasts, are found in abundance. For example, it is better to stay away from the crazy handsome man nicknamed "diadema". You also need to be careful with coral reefs: if you touch a "fire" coral, at best you will get a burn. On the beach you can stumble upon a large cone-shaped shell of heavenly beauty, in which lives a mollusk - the owner of a deadly dangerous proboscis with which it kills fish. A person, understandably, will not be healthy either.
In fourth place in this ranking is the Eastern Mediterranean - an excellent place for lovers of ecological swimming and seafood: the sea there has hardly suffered from the costs of civilization. The Greek beaches, as well as the Mediterranean beaches of Israel and Turkey, have the cleanest and most "alive" sea in the entire Mediterranean.
The Mediterranean coast of Egypt takes fifth place. That is because the Nile has practically ceased to flow into the Mediterranean Sea. About ten years ago, the water hyacinth plant entered the river, quickly multiplied, and the Nile bloomed. This vigorous plant evaporates all remaining river water in large volumes, and all other water is taken for field irrigation and practically does not reach the sea. As a result, it has become cleaner.
Next in the ranking are the Aegean and Red Seas. The Aegean Sea is relatively well-off: the proportion of industrial discharges is moderately modest. No plankton mars swimming off the coasts of Greece, and freshly caught fish is very good. The Turkish coast of the Aegean Sea is becoming problematic: due to wastewater, red tides rich in phosphorus and nitrogen are increasingly occurring off the coast from Izmir to Istanbul.
Despite the proximity of the Suez Canal, through which oil tankers travel, the Red Sea quickly "digests" pollution, like any tropical sea where there are many hungry algae, fish, and other inhabitants, and little food.
The Mediterranean beaches of France, Spain, and Italy are in seventh place. The Mediterranean Sea, of course, can "digest" everything. Although France, Italy, and Spain are sources of three-quarters of the industrial and agricultural pollution that enters the Mediterranean Sea. But soon the sea's self-regulation forces will be exhausted; Greenpeace is already sounding the alarm - one in ten beaches on the stretch from Cannes to Capri does not meet European Union standards.
The Adriatic Sea, the coast of Tunisia, and California are in eighth place in this ranking. In the waters of the northern Adriatic and off Tunisian beaches, chlorophyll exceeds the norm - when water temperature rises above 25-26 degrees, the sea may bloom. Along the coastline in these areas, water exchange is not intensive, and industrial discharges are retained longer. This is exactly the effect of the ring current found in any enclosed sea: the current along the shelf (the gentle coastal part, just where the beaches are) carries all possible pollution with it and prevents it from mixing with the deep layers of the sea. So it is not worth choosing the closed bays and lagoons of Trieste and Venice for swimming.
The Baltic Sea, scientists say, is not the best for swimming - it is somewhat dirty. Baltic fish are also not of the best quality. The geographical position of the Baltic Sea is to blame: it is surrounded by industrialized countries (Norway, Sweden, the Baltic states), and oil tankers travel on it. Moreover, because of the low water temperature, the sea slowly recovers after pollution.
And finally, the Black Sea. Experts say it is hopeless: it is physically impossible to restore it. The ratio of the catchment area to the area of the sea itself is the most disadvantageous - 6:1, water exchange is very slow, and, on top of everything else, the waters of the Danube flow here after traveling through three dozen European countries. The dirtiest Black Sea resorts are Gelendzhik and Odessa, the cleanest places are the Southern Coast of Crimea and Yevpatoria. The Black Sea coast of Bulgaria is much cleaner thanks to environmental protection measures.
If you are going to swim in the Black Sea, it is better to do so in cold water (up to 20-21 degrees): as soon as the water becomes warmer, the microflora (a possible carrier of infections) multiplies with threefold enthusiasm. Swimming in a dirty sea can cause not only skin irritation but also infectious diseases of the ear cavity and nasopharynx, and in rare cases, dysentery and even cholera.
But most experts agree that the European Union and Greenpeace set fantastically high environmental standards for the purity of sea water. In theory, this strictness is justified, but no one has ever heard of a person swimming in the sea and immediately coming out in red spots or contracting cholera. Therefore, if you know that the sea off the coast where you are vacationing is not quite clean, do not sit in the water for 10 hours a day. But be careful with fresh fish: all marine life accumulates toxic substances in higher concentrations than the water.