By Vestnik Kavkaza
The last summer season was one of the most difficult in recent 7-8 years, according to players at the tourist market. According to the head of the Association of Tour Companies of Russia, Maya Lomidze, the market and tourist companies had to correct their plans quickly, reduce flight programs and change prices to attract a consumer when the demand was very low. The market was shivering because of consumer behavior. It was connected with the economic situation in the country and the fact that Russian citizens felt economic insecurity, so they were ready to buy tours at the last moment or buy very cheap tours.
According to Lomidze, an average tour cost 24-28 thousand rubles. The flow distributed traditionally. The first place was taken by Turkey. Serious enlargement of the tourist flow took place in Greece. According to preliminary estimates by the Greek side, about million Russian tourists spent vacations in resorts of this country this year. According to the Association of Tour Companies of Russia, the number doesn’t surpass 850 thousand. Anyway the growth of the tourist flow to Greece is connected with tough competition at the market and rather low prices. A similar growth was in Spain – plus 18-20% in comparison with the last year level. Even though the competition wasn’t as though as in the Greek direction, diversity of offers and extension of flight programs from various cities of Russia encouraged enlargement of the flow.
Concerning negative trends, Lamidze noted a serious reduction in Egyptian, Cyprus, and Croatian directions (Croatia launched a visa-regime with Russia).
Recommendations on winter from Lomidze:
“If a person is a downhill skier, the most affordable is apartments in Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and Andorra. If a skier has family with little children or has no experience, it is Finland. If a person wants to go to the sea, it is Egypt, despite the recommendation by the Foreign Ministry. If you want some exotics, you should choose Thailand. Due to visa changes, this year you can visit two countries using one visa – Thailand and Vietnam, and add Laos to them, because there is visa-free regime for Russian citizens. If you want something especially exotic, this autumn a charter flight to Jamaica becomes regular. The number of places will be increased, and we believe tickets will be sold at promo prices.”
Predicting the situation over selling New Year tours, Lomidze stated: “As we have been watching changes in consumer behavior during the whole summer, there are no reasons to say that economic surety appears and that our tourists’ incomes grow. More or less stable situation over mountain-skiing tours; they began to be booked in August, and the process is rather intensive. The leader is Austria, the second place is Italy, and in many resorts about 90% of rooms have already been booked by our tourists.”
Speaking about the directions of “the winter sun”, Lomidze called the countries of Southeast Asia, Egypt, the UAE, and Thailand. Among New Year bestsellers she called “Christmas, New Year Europe” – France, the Czech Republic, Finland, Italy in les extent. “There are bookings, but in comparison to the last year we can say that booking trending decreased. There are fewer of them in comparison to the same period of the last year,” she stressed.
