KIEV, Sept. 6 - Crimea needs to regain its status as a priority development territory to develop tourism and the hotel business, according to Yevhen Samartsev, deputy chairman of the state tourist administration and chairman of the national public council for tourism and resorts.

"The decision to cancel the status of priority development territory in Crimea and the following cancellation of preferences were absolutely wrong, because Crimea is the only zone where preferences for hotel construction were indeed effective," Samartsev told Interfax-Ukraine.