Crisis and Resumpion of Black Sea Kurorts

During the Soviet period, many kurorts and other facilities for tourism development had been planned and implemented, along the Black Sea coast, aimed mainly at Soviet domestic tourism. Kurorts were places of vacation and treatment, sanatoria and health resorts equipped with medical services and leisure facilities. Labor unions, syndicates, government boards, factories were involved in the kurort management (2). Following USSR collapse and related structural changes, with decentralization and lack of state subsidies, most kurorts had entered a period of crisis, sometimes collapsing. Since 2000 some of the above sites have been recovered. Neverthless, comprehensive integration and interconnection among heritage resources have always been missing, both in the Soviet period and in recent times. Therefore an integrated approach towards a sustainable cultural system is needed, combining archaeology, architecture, tourism and the environment. The paper focuses on the Crimean peninsula and Georgia tourist sites, two interesting and sensitive areas in the Black Sea.