Crimea's tourism on the edge

Crimea boasts dramatic landscapes and a mild climate, and aside from Russia's military base at Sevastopol, tourism is still its main industry.

But of the 6 million to 8 million holidaymakers who come in a year, more than 60 percent come from Ukraine, from which Crimea has just seceded, and only a quarter from Russia, the country it has voted to join.

Some locals now hope to attract a bigger market of Russian tourists, but that will be a harder task.

Russians arrive by air rather than train, so Crimea will now have to compete with further flung destinations like Bulgaria, Turkey, Egypt, Greece or even Thailand.

Many of Crimea's hotels are well worn, without the luxury Russian visitors can find at other easily reached destinations on the Black Sea or Mediterranean.

Crimea's appearance has changed a great deal since its days as a favoured tourist destination of imperial Russia's social elite.

Holidays on the peninsula feature in the work of Russia's great writers, including Anton Chekhov, whose best-loved story, "Lady With Lapdog", tells of fin de siecle adultery between a middle aged banker and a bureaucrat's wife who meet during languid evenings under the cypresses of the Yalta seafront promenade.

Crimea is also home to the elegant Livadia Palace, the last residence built for the tsars before the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.

In February 1945 the site hosted the seven-day Yalta Conference, when Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt made key decisions on the post-war order. Today it is a museum.

Director Larisa Dekusheva said she hoped to see more Russian tourists come to the area, now that Moscow has said it is determined to make Crimea a more popular holiday destination.

A general view shows the Crimean town of Yalta on the coast of the Black Sea.