Officials and the tourism business have voiced forecasts about the recovery of tourist flow to Anapa.

Since the beginning of 2026, about 3.2 million tourists have visited Anapa, and the authorities expect an increase in their numbers next year, said the Minister of Economy of the Krasnodar Territory, Alexey Yurtaev. The Russian Union of Travel Industry expects a full recovery of tourist flow by 2027.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", Anapa showed significant growth in tourist flow in the 2026 season, but this is primarily explained by the sharp decline in the number of vacationers in the 2025 season after the oil spill, the Association of Tourist Aggregators (ATAG) reported at the end of September. At the same time, tourists and locals have repeatedly pointed out problems with the quality of sand brought to the beaches after the oil spill: it has "turned into a dense clay mass".

The tourism industry of Kuban continues to experience the consequences of the ecological disaster that occurred in December 2024 in the Kerch Strait, although the authorities consider its consequences to be eliminated. The Minister of Economy of the Krasnodar Territory, Alexey Yurtaev, speaking at a meeting of the "Stolypin Club", acknowledged that the consequences of the oil spill continue to affect tourists' decisions and their choice of travel destinations, "Vedomosti Yug" reports.

"We have resolved the ecological situation, but for tourists, it still represents a moral limitation. Moreover, it concerns most of the Black Sea coast of Kuban, conditionally from Tuapse to Temryuk," Yurtaev stated.

According to the official, about 3.2 million tourists have visited Anapa since the beginning of 2026, and the final figure for the year is expected to be higher. Before the oil spill in 2024, Anapa, according to regional authorities, was visited by 5.5 million tourists, while in 2025, the resort received less than 3 million people.

The total volume of tourist flow in the Krasnodar Territory for 2026 is projected by the authorities to be around 18 million people. By 2029-2030, the Ministry of Economy of Kuban expects an increase in tourist flow to 21-22 million people.

A decrease in the number of vacationers "does not necessarily" lead to a comparable reduction in the region's tax revenues, Yurtaev believes. According to him, the decline in tourist flow is partially compensated by rising accommodation prices.

Business expects a full recovery of tourist flow to Anapa by 2027 – such a forecast was presented by a board member of the Russian Union of Travel Industry and the general director of the tour operator "Dolphin", Sergey Romashkin, "Utrenny Yug" reports.

According to the publication, due to the oil spill, tourist flow to Anapa fell by about half in 2025, while in 2026, the resort managed to regain almost half of the vacationers lost after the ecological disaster.

According to Romashkin's assessment, current attendance figures occupy an intermediate position between the results of the successful 2024 year and the crisis 2025 year. The final number of vacationers in 2026 was influenced by the timing of the opening of beach areas, Romashkin noted. He suggested that opening the beaches before the beginning of June would have allowed Anapa to host about 5 million guests already in the concluded season.

A video showing that some beaches in Anapa have turned into clay cliffs was published on July 25 by the news portal "City". The publication explains that the storm washed away the sand that had been brought in earlier, which was supposed to replace the sand removed with oil after the ecological disaster in December 2024.

On December 15, 2024, two tankers carrying oil sank in the Kerch Strait. As a result, one crew member of one of the tankers died. In addition, there was an oil spill, which led to catastrophic environmental consequences, according to the report of the "Caucasian Knot" "Oil spill in the Kerch Strait". Materials on the consequences of the oil spill have been collected by the "Caucasian Knot" on the page "Ecological disaster in Kuban".