Russia's
inbound travel market has been stable for several years now; although some may
call it a stagnation with the demand going up and down slightly. This season
hasn't brought any radical changes, too. However, as most market players
report, China showed a great
upturn in the number of visitors, while some companies mark the tourist flow
from Latin America as well. The itineraries
remain almost the same since the Soviet times - sightseeing trips to Saint Petersburg, Moscow
and The Golden Ring of Russia are still on offer for foreign visitors.
Director General of
Svoy TT Company MR. Sergey Voytovich sees the connection between the tourist
flow growth and the events of the Year of Russian Tourism in China. A significant increase was
shown by Brazil, Argentina and Colombia. "As you can see
these are the countries that have visa-free agreements with Russia" -
Mr. Voytovich pointed out.
He says that other
countries are "going in circles", too; first of all it concerns
Europe with its tourist flow to Russia
even going down. Sergey Voytovich brought up an unpleasant incident in France, when the opening of a visa center in Paris only complicated
the visa application procedure, causing it to become even longer and more
expensive as before. The Spanish, unlike Russians, have to pay more than twice
as much for their visas. "It turns out that our overseas visa centers are
just getting in the way of our work" - regrets Mr. Voytovich. At the same
time he marked a positive experience of 72-hour visa waiver for cruise ships'
passengers arriving to Saint
Petersburg. "The number of visitors is growing
and the city is starting to look like a modern tourist center".
"The inbound
tourism is not changing; 90% of the flow go to Moscow
and Saint Petersburg,
the rest head to the Golden Ring" - states the Vice President of Intourist
Company Mr. Nikolay Kakora. He adds that Europe
sticks with the last year's results. While China
(with up to 100% growth) and Iran
are almost the only ones performing positively. Latin
America just can't compete with the latter two as it only
contributes some 15-20% to the tourist flow increase.
"For some years
now the inbound market has been showing quite the same volumes, gaining only
from the Chinese, which is especially obvious this year. At the same time,
other markets, for example Europe, go down; so we don't see any special
increase in our sales" - explains Mr. Kakora. In his opinion the best way
to draw tourists to Russia
is to waive visas completely. Clearly such move should be mutual, so the
Russians, too, could travel to other countries with no visa.
However, the Vice
President of Academservice Company Mr. Leonid Isakovich claims that the real
number of tourists from China
amounts to just below 5% of the total inbound flow, while arrivals from Latin America reach 20 thousand a year at best. "Of
course more and more Chinese tourists come to Russia
each year, but this can't be considered a serious tourist flow as it just
doesn't compare with the numbers of Chinese visiting Europe.
All in all our inbound market has been like this for the last seven or eight
years with the demand gaining or losing some 5-10%" - says Mr. Isakovich. Among
other sources he cites official statistics from the museums of Moscow Kremlin,
which confirms his company's figures for the past five years. It begs the
implication: it is either the Chinese and Latin Americans don't visit the
Kremlin or there's not that much of them coming to us. At that, he goes on, this
year does show an increase in the number of foreign tourists.
Managing Director of
Tari-Tour Company Mr. Igor Kuzmin mentions a similar tendency. Thanks to joint
promotional efforts of the market players, we can see rather active inbound
flow to the country. "We have a fair growth of visitors from Japan, Australia,
America and even Europe - all in all from 5 to 15% depending on a
destination.
He points out that
this year quotations requests for 2013 itineraries started to come in much
earlier than in 2011; some contracts have already been signed. As a rule such
requests don't start until August - November, but this year the peak fell to
April - June. On the one hand, the expert explains, their British partners
wanted to seal the deals before the Olympic hustle, on the other - the almost
forgotten shortage of hotel beds for certain periods. "I think our
partners decided not to take risks, but to get guaranteed rooms beforehand.
Tourists
from Japan and South-East
Asia mostly visit the well-known places - Saint Petersburg,
Moscow and the
Golden Ring are still in the lead. Most visitors come in groups, FITs are quite
rare - the proportion is stable: 85% to 15%. Despite the fact that this year
brings much more overseas visitors than the previous one, Elena Rousova noted
that the inbound market is growing despite all the problems of Russia's travel
industry. Even the capital has many outstanding issues, for one, parking lots
for tourist buses: "It's practically impossible to drop the tourists off
at the Red Square without violating traffic
laws."
Mrs.
Elena Lardi - Director General of Tsar Voyages Company, a niche tour operator,
mostly dealing with French tourists - reports quite a successful promotion of Moscow. The capital's
advertisement at their office in Paris brought
fairly good results; this summer the advantage finally went from Saint Petersburg to Moscow.
According to Mrs. Lardi's estimations the tourist flow from France to Russia grew by 20% compared to
2011.
Lake
Baikal
is one of those destinations that are beloved and frequently visited by foreign
tourists. "We sell a lot of winter Baikal, explains Elena Lardi, but this
year summer tours to the lake are in demand as well". Usually the tourists
travel from Moscow on Transsiberian Express, spend up to a week on Baikal and
head further to Vladivostok, Beijing or back to Moscow. "We offer
itineraries for every budget. For example a moderately priced 7-day package
tour to Baikal including return airfare from Moscow to Irkutsk, accommodations,
meals, and excursions with French-speaking guide, stands in around $1000 per
person".
Russian
Way Company reports a significant upturn in the number of FITs - it has gone
some 20-25% up. Nevertheless, the Director General Mrs. Natalia Odinochkina is
absolutely sure that it's the visa issues that slows the demand down, particularly
the one from America and the
UK.
"For some years now the Americans have been complaining about complexity
and high price of the services of visa application agents. The Brazilians, on
the other hand, don't need a visa, and we see 40% more of them in Russia this
year".
According
to Mrs. Odinichkina, Brazilian tourists have already tasted leisure in Europe,
and now they start to take on Russia.
"I have been on two business trips to Brazil already, meeting our travel
agents; and I can say that such personal contacts with partners definitely pays
back" - says Natalia Odinichkina. She also mentioned the Brazilians' high
budgets, that include luxury suites at top hotels, huge shopping expenses and
expensive meals in fancy restaurants in Moscow
and Saint Petersburg.
On average such trip costs from $8 to $12 thousand, excluding the airfare.
"Of course if you compare Russia-bound tourist flow to, say, that to Italy, ours
stays far behind. But it develops anyway, claims the RATA-news' source,
especially thanks to the marker players' promotional efforts".
