Results of summer 2015: Russians choose Crimea and Kuban

The All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) has conducted a public opinion poll to find out where Russian citizens spent vacations. According to its findings, the spending of Russian tourists this year exceeded last year by a third. At the same time, the flow of tourists abroad reduced – this summer Russians preferred tourism in Russia.

The sociologists stressed that vacations for Russian citizens in 2015 were 30% more expensive than in 2014. According to VCIOM, this summer trip cost 38.5 thousand rubles (compared to 30 thousand in 2014). It is noted that this amount was higher than the average in Moscow and St. Petersburg (more than 59 thousand).

In addition, the flow of tourists abroad reduced. This time the resorts of Krasnodar Territory (growth from 11 to 14%) and Crimea (from 2 to 6%) were popular. According to the Medialogia company, the most popular destinations are Crimea, Krasnodar, the Moscow Oblast, Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Italy, Spain, France and St. Petersburg.

The President of the Association of Domestic Tourism of Russia, Vladimir Sharov, summed up the results of summer tourist season. "Cultural and educational tourism in 2015, remain at the level of last year. Beach tourism grew by 54%, and ecotourism by 20-30%. But the indicators of recreational tourism fell," he stressed.

Speaking of conditions offered by Russian resorts, the expert noted that this year quality standards of the individual services increased.

Also, Vladimir Sharov spoke about the level of tourist flow to the South Caucasus this year. "We have conflicting statistics, because this segment is formed of air, railway, border and travel agencies' data. According to the Aviation Statistics, the increase was about 18%. According to the information of travel agencies, the indicators fell by 7%. However, the data of the travel agencies excludes the statistics of online bookings. But railway indicators remained at last year's level," the President of the Association of Domestic Tourism of Russia said.

In addition, he cited data on tourist flows in the republics of the North Caucasus, Sochi and Crimea. "North Ossetia is in demand 11% more than last year. As for Dagestan, its indicators fell by approximately 4%. The tourist flow to Ingushetia increased by 4%, in Karachay-Cherkessia by 13.5% and in Kabardino-Balkaria by 7.8%. The largest increase is observed in Sochi, where the number of tourists increased by 56%. In Crimea, the figures are 37%," Vladimir Sharov concluded.