The tourist season is in full swing, but Russian resorts aren't doing so good. The situation is approximately the same everywhere on the whole Black Sea coast - tour operator companies said about a 30% decline by 2016. The member of the presidium of the Russian Union of Travel Industry Irina Chirkunova explained that there were many triggers for this: "Starting from weather conditions, because this year summer didn't come to the Black Sea coast for a long time, to the competing Turkish direction, which was very attractive for Russian tourists."
While planning 2018, tour operators will base on the factors that form the purchasing power. "First, tour operators plan a 30% increase for tours to Turkey, because this year not all Turkish hotels were fully available or even opened. They plan to open next year, which means a lot of proposals for our tourists. Second, Russian hoteliers have experienced the complexity of the season this year, so they will be more loyal to price formation," Chirkunova said.
It is encouraging that the Crimean bridge will be opened next year. "Part of the tourist flow will go to Crimea in order to at least ride through the bridge," a member of the Presidium of the Russian Union of Travel Industry believes.
In addition, according to her, the FIFA World Cup, which will be held in Russia between June 14 and July 15 in 11 Russian cities, including Sochi, will also leave its imprint. "The transport service will go up in price during this period, the road to Sochi will be very busy,as well as additional security measures will be taken, which will impede border crossing between Russia and Abkhazia," Chirkunova explained.
She also stressed the increase in the cost of air transportation: "70% of Russians buy non-refundable tickets, which do not include the cost of transportation of baggage. Now baggage shall be paid additionally".
The president of the Russian Union of Travel Industry, Sergey Shpilko, drew attention to such a new factor, unpleasant for tourists, as resort fees: "The effective demand for travel is determined by a trip's total cost. Not just food or room costs, but a trip's total cost. The fee may affect costs, which form the cost of a product in relation to accommodation. An increase in costs owing to the transition to calculation of land and property tax based on cadastral valuation is a serious problem. It raises the costs of sanatoriums, hotels and health resorts. Everything is getting more expensive - food, household chemicals, tariffs for monopoly services, transportation. Resort fees may become the last straw to make trip costs unattractive for Russian tourists".
