The United Arab Emirates along with Turkey and Egypt are among the top 3 most popular foreign destinations in Russia for November holidays, tour operators polled by TASS said.
"Intourist's most popular outbound destinations for November trips were Turkey, Egypt, UAE, Sri Lanka and Abkhazia. Last year Caribbean countries - the Dominican Republic and Cuba - were on the list of top destinations. This year, due to lack of direct flights, these popular destinations dropped out of top sales", said the press service of Intourist.
Anex Tour tours to the UAE are in second place after Turkey in terms of demand, and at Fun&Sun (former TUI Russia) - first place with 38% share in the total structure of bookings of tours abroad during November holidays. As explained in Fun&Sun, the growing popularity of the UAE is also caused by an increase in the number of flight programs to this country in 2022. According to tour operators, the top five most popular foreign destinations also included the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
As noted in Anex Tour, tourist flow abroad on November holidays this year will be less than a year ago. According to estimates of Fun&Sun, demand for holidays in this period in all destinations is 45% lower compared with last year. This is connected with closing of some destinations, such as Cyprus and Cuba, less flights programs, for example to Egypt, and in general with the current geopolitical situation. Demand for November holidays this year is described by a short planning horizon - all stays and hotels are booked a week before arrival, as Intourist reports.
Holidays in Russia
The leader among Russian domestic destinations for November holidays is Krasnodar region, in particular Sochi. Fun&Sun accounts for 70% of all stays booked in Russia. Also highly popular destinations are St.Petersburg and Leningrad region, Moscow and Moscow region, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Caucasian Mineralnye Vody and Kaliningrad.
In addition, tourists are interested in trips to Tula region, Dagestan and Murmansk region, where they traditionally go on a "Northern Lights hunt" at this time, said Intourist.
According to the company, demand for holidays in Russia bounced back to last year's figures. General Director of Delfin tour operator Sergey Romashkin said that demand for tours within Russia increased by 20-25%, in the Moscow region - by 50%. Tez Tour reported about the increasing demand for holidays in the country during the November holidays by about 50% comparing with the last year.
Cost of tours
The cost of tours during the upcoming holidays is higher by an average of 10-15% compared to October of this year and by 5-7% compared to the same period last year, said in Tez Tour. Delfin tour operator has recorded a 13-14% increase in the cost of holidays in Russia compared to the same period in 2021.
According to Intourist, the average cost of tours booked for November holidays in Russia in November 2022 increased by 10,5% compared with November 2021 and amounted to 25,8 thousand rubles per person. The average cost of tours to Egypt in 2022 decreased by 7% - down to 36.9 thousand rubles per person.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Martinschuschi/Pixabay
Based on materials from TASS