Russia is experiencing strong growth in domestic travel this summer, Russians prefer to go on vacation in Krasnodar Territory and Crimea, the press secretary of the Russian Federal Tourism Agency, Irina Shchegolkova, told Vestnik Kavkaza, adding that the North Caucasus resorts is expecting an influx of tourists during the winter season.
"According to preliminary estimates, the interest of Russians in spending vacations in Russia increased by 40% over the year," Schegolkova said.
"There are traditional areas – for summer it is, first and foremost, beach regions – Krasnodar Territory and Crimea. Then there are Moscow, St. Petersburg, cities of the Golden Ring and cruises on the rivers. For example, Moscow is much more popular among the residents of the Central Federal District than the Far East," the press secretary of the Federal Tourism Agency said.
Schegolkova noted the popularity of resorts in the North Caucasus, but most of the tourists will visit it in the winter. "The Caucasus regions, of course, are not included in the top five during the summer season, because winter sports resorts are more popular. But the Caucasus has its own contingent who regularly come back. Let me remind you that last year 685,717 people visited the North Caucasus Federal District, and these are only the official statistics," she said.
According to Schegolkova, the growth of domestic tourism has a positive impact on the development of the tourism industry in the Russian Federation. "Since this market is dictating its terms, the industry is responding to the growth of demand with the growth of supply. I should note that now there is a demand for the quality of services. Therefore, not only quantitative indicators are growing but also qualitative ones," Irina Schegolkova noted.
The vice president of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia, Ilya Umansky, confirmed the official data of Rostourism. "The choice of destinations for summer holidays is affected by a simple motivation: most people associate it with vacations near the sea, so Russians choose the Black Sea region. We can identify two major tourist destinations in Russia: Sochi and the Crimean peninsula, which received significant media support. It is clear that there are other quite popular Black Sea resorts, but these two have received the main increase of tourist traffic compared to last year," Umansky said.
Caucasus Mineral Waters is especially popular this summer among the Caucasian resorts. "But you shouldn't forget that, in general, almost all directions this year gained an increase of tourists compared to last year. I can assume that we will finish this season with a growth of at least 30 %, and this is a very big gain for domestic tourism," the vice president of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia concluded.
