Tours abroad have already increased in price by 50% and may become 30% more costly. Prices for tickets to Europe have increased by 50-70%, to Asia by 20-30%. The tourism flow may drop by 30-40% this year, Kommersant reports.
Maya Lomidze, the executive director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia, relates such a dramatic increase of expenses to the weakening ruble.
Marina Makarkova, a spokeswoman of Coral Travel, admitted a drop in demand for summer tours by around 50%. Tour operators are offering hotel discounts to attract tourists.
Yevgeny Shukhlin, the director for the development of Anywayanyday.com, said that the average price of plane tickets in the summer went up by 14%.
DaTravel.com Director Vladislav Shevtsov is more pessimistic: tickets to the Czech Republic became 55% more expensive, tickets to Spain and Italy 64-73% more costly.
