09:54, 25 April 2026

Tour operators have ruled out the impact of the environmental situation in Tuapse on resort vacations.

Oil spill response in Tuapse, April 24, 2026. Photo from the Telegram channel of the head of the Tuapse District https://t.me/glavatuapseregion/5412

Air pollution from the fire and oil spill in Tuapse affected the industrial zone, and popular hotels are located dozens of kilometers from the port. Tour operators said no decline in resort tour sales is expected.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," a fire broke out on the night of April 20 after a drone attack at an oil terminal in the port of Tuapse. Residents reported that "an oil rain" had fallen in the city and considered the burning oil terminal a source of environmental threat. On the afternoon of April 24, the governor of Kuban announced that the fire at the port had been extinguished.

On April 22, authorities acknowledged that benzene, xylene, and soot concentrations in the air in areas near the marine terminal (Grozneft, Sortirovka, and Zvezdny, as well as part of the Central District) had exceeded permissible levels by two to three times. These data were based on measurements taken on the evening of April 21. The fire at the marine terminal poses a risk due to the release of combustion products, which are carcinogenic and toxic. The "black rain" that fell in Tuapse reduced the level of harmful substances in the air, but led to soil pollution, environmentalists emphasized.

The fire at the oil terminal in Tuapse affected only the industrial zone, and not popular beach villages, the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) announced on its website on April 24.

The resort villages, where almost all the hotels popular with tourists are located, are located tens of kilometers from the site of the incident, explained ATOR Vice President for Domestic Tourism and CEO of the tour operator "Dolphin" Sergey Romashkin.

"In Tuapse itself, we do not have popular tourist locations. All the resort hotels are located tens of kilometers away. For example, the well-known resort of Olginka, where almost all the popular hotels are concentrated, is located "20 kilometers away. Everything is fine there so far: there's no smoke, the water is clear," he was quoted as saying in the publication.

A representative of the company "Atelika," which manages a chain of hotels in the Tuapse district, confirmed that there are no oil spills on the beaches in the resort areas. "Everything is fine in the hotels," he was quoted as saying in the statement.

On April 24, after booms broke due to the rising water level of the Tuapse River, an oil spill occurred into the Black Sea. Kuban authorities previously attributed the leak to heavy rains, without mentioning a breach of the barriers.

Operators don't expect a decline in tour sales to Tuapse

The tourist season in the Tuapse region has not yet begun, as it is a "purely summer destination," noted Sergei Romashkin.

"And overall, the Tuapse region's share of Black Sea tourism is minimal, not exceeding 3% by the end of the year. What we see from Olginka and neighboring beaches is not yet a cause for concern. "We don't expect a decline in sales," he stated.

The vice president of ATOR added that the characteristics of local sea currents "make it extremely unlikely" that any pollution will appear in the beach area, the publication states.

The question of the beach season in Anapa remains open

As a reminder, on April 14, the Association of Tour Operators reported that Sochi had yielded its lead to Anapa in the number of tour bookings for the May holidays. According to tourism industry representatives, the situation in Sochi had a greater impact on demand than the oil spill zone. In May, tourists "choose a leisurely resort vacation rather than swimming," a representative of Coral Travel explained.

Sochi, like other resort towns in Kuban, regularly finds itself in the path of drone attacks. For example, on September 24, 2025, when two people were killed in drone and unmanned boat attacks in Novorossiysk and Tuapse, people in Gelendzhik and Sochi were ordered to evacuate beaches. However, in Sochi, some vacationers returned to the sea. People in coastal areas risk becoming accidental victims in attacks, so the evacuation of beachgoers was justified, experts noted.

In Anapa, amid government announcements about the imminent reopening of beaches, hotel reservations have increased. However, tourism industry representatives, as well as local residents, have cautiously assessed the prospects for the start of the resort season. Bookings in Anapa are brisk at hotels where beach vacations are not the main focus, tour operators reported.

Work to replenish beaches with new sand should be completed by the start of the beach season, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister stated. He added that if the work goes according to plan, the beaches will be open by June 1. Environmentalists, however, believe it is too early to talk about the beaches' suitability for tourists, as the sunken parts of the fuel oil tankers have not yet been raised, and residual pollution remains on the sand. Following the fuel oil spill in the Kerch Strait, Rospotrebnadzor (the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing) declared 141 beaches in Anapa and nine beaches in the Temryuk District unsuitable for recreation. In 2025, following the fuel oil spill, Anapa saw 60% fewer tourists than in 2024, while demand for other resorts in the Krasnodar Territory and Dagestan increased. Some tourists only went to Anapa because hotels were forced to offer significant discounts. On December 15, 2024, two fuel oil tankers sank in the Kerch Strait. A crew member of one of the tankers died as a result. Additionally, an oil spill occurred, leading to catastrophic environmental consequences, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Fuel Oil Spill in the Kerch Strait".

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

Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/422730