Armenia and Georgia form the main trend in 2013 among the CIS countries for Russian tourists, the Executive Director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR), Maya Lomidze, said.
"If we talk about the CIS countries, most of all Russians like to go to Ukraine, namely, to the Crimea. This is followed by Belarus, which enjoys great success as a spa resort. Completing the top five countries are Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and then Armenia, but not so far behind the first two," ITAR-TASS quotes Lomidze.
According to her, Armenia and Georgia are the trend of the past year.
"Armenia already has a lot of individual tours. Mostly to the mountains on winter trips. As for Georgia, the situation is more complicated. This spring, several tours for tour operators have been organized. They came back in total admiration, they liked everything: prices, the level of security and the service. Everything but one thing – the price of the flight. It is expensive, from 14.000 to 18.000 rubles. It is for this reason that mass tourism in this direction is not possible yet," the director of ATOP explained.
According to her, there are also "difficult countries" to where Russians hardly go. These are Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova. "There are prospects there. But very little information is available on the market. And the prices are high. As soon as information appears, and prices drop, there will be demand," Lomidze concluded.
