Visits to Lake Ritsa and New Athos Cave become more expensive in Abkhazia

Visits to Lake Ritsa and New Athos Cave are getting more expensive in Abkhazia

In Abkhazia, the government has increased the cost of tickets to visit the most famous natural attractions – Lake Ritsa and the New Athos Cave. Tour guides and social media users are outraged, believing that this will negatively affect the tourist flow.

The new ticket price, which will be valid from May 1, will cost twice as much as before for a tourist who decides to visit the Ritsa Relic National Park. The ticket price increased from 350 to 700 rubles (from 4.5 to 9 dollars).

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A ticket to the no less famous New Athos cave will rise in price from 500 to 700 rubles (from 6.5 to 9 dollars).

In the government, this increase in ticket prices is called a forced measure, since the cost of maintaining the Ritsa National Park and the New Athos Cave, which were visited by more than half a million tourists in total last year, have increased dramatically over the past few years.

The new tariffs clearly did not go down well among numerous tour companies. Its representatives believe that the high ticket price will lead to a reduction in the number of tourists wishing to visit these two main tourist sites in Abkhazia.

Social media users are also indignant:

“Mostly a budget tourist comes to us, for whom every ruble counts. Now, after everything has risen in price over the past month – from gasoline to groceries, even the price of tickets to Lake Ritsa and the New Athos Cave looks almost blasphemous”.

“In Russia, amid the sanctions, a very difficult economic prospect is emerging. Accordingly, this will primarily affect ordinary citizens. They will think a hundred times whether to go to the sea this year or not. And here we are with our requests. As a result, from our own greed, we will “persuade” many Russians not to come to Abkhazia this year.

“At the moment, when hostilities are ongoing in Ukraine, and the citizens of Russia and Belarus have been subjected to colossal sanctions pressure from the leaders of Western countries, raising prices is simply not taking into account the new prevailing realities. Citizens of the Republic of Abkhazia know very well what war, sanctions, blockade and collective international pressure on the people are, so it is worth thinking about how to support people, help them. A sharp increase in prices is definitely inappropriate now”, said Akhra Aristava, former head of the economy department of the Presidential Administration of Abkhazia.

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