According to tour operators interviewed by TASS, there is an increase in demand for vacations in Dagestan, Moscow, Altai and Kazan in June 2022 as compared with the same period of 2021. According to Intourist, Dagestan was among the top five most popular domestic Russian destinations in June, while Moscow became an alternative to travel to Europe for many tourists.
"Among the domestic Russian destinations the leaders were the traditional beach destinations - Sochi, Anapa, the Crimea (dropped from second place to third), Kaliningrad and Dagestan. Moscow has become a leader among sightseeing tours compared to St. Petersburg. Tours to Moscow are gaining popularity for two reasons: lack of direct flights to Europe made short city-tours there unavailable for most Russians and Moscow has become an alternative to travel to Europe for many people, " said the press service of the tour operator.
The second reason is available rooms, which used to be occupied mostly by foreigners. Hoteliers offer reasonable room rates for domestic tourists from the regions, the company explained. The tour operator also recorded a demand for tours in Sochi, Abkhazia, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad and the Caucasian Mineral Waters, sightseeing tours in Kazan, Karelia and Lake Baikal. The volumes of tours booking in cities with closed airports at Intourist have decreased at least by one third, at the same time the cancellations are minimal. Tourists get to resorts on their own, booking only ground handling from tour operators.
The list of the most popular destinations among Anex Tour clients in June remained almost unchanged. The most popular destinations are still Krasnodar region, Kaliningrad and Leningrad region. The fourth and fifth ranks were taken by the Moscow region and Tatarstan replacing the Kemerovo region and Karachai-Cherkessia. Growth of demand for tours to Tatarstan and particularly to Kazan was also pointed out in Fun&Sun. According to the tour operator, the increase in popularity of Kazan and Altai is caused by the launch of charter programs. In addition to these destinations which make up 7 and 4% of the total number of tours booking in Russia, the top five in demand of the company in June are Sochi (46%), Anapa (18%) and Gelendzhik (6%).
Foreign trips
The most popular foreign destination for tour operators in June was Turkey. This is due to availability of the country and a large number of proposals for tours to it, explained in Anex Tour. Tours to Egypt, Abkhazia, UAE, the Maldives and Sri Lanka are also in high demand among Russians. As it was noted in Fun&Sun, demand for tours to the UAE for the year increased by 4%, to Abkhazia - reduced by 35%, to the Maldives - by 32% due to the lack of block transportation, reducing the frequency of Aeroflot flights and an increase in prices for connecting and direct flights due to increased demand. At the same time the sales volume of tours abroad in the summer of 2022 increased by 22% compared to June 2021, the company said.
Cost of tours
The average cost of a vacation in Russia in June at Intourist has increased by 9-40% for the year. The highest increase in prices has been fixed for foreign tours. Due to limited transportation, their cost increased from 30% to 2.5 times compared with 2021. The largest increase in Fun&Sun prices was recorded for tours in Hungary and Serbia (28 and 25%, respectively). The cost of holidays in Russia (10-12%), the Maldives (7%), Azerbaijan (6%), the UAE (5-10%), Mauritius (4.5%), Armenia (1.9%) and Istanbul (1.5%) has also increased.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Free-Photos/Pixabay
Based on materials from TASS