Hungarian air transportation will increase this
spring: the low cost company Wizz Air is going to change the number of flights
from Moscow to Budapest. There will be eleven flights per
week instead of seven. The tour operators estimate the news rather positively.
Hungarian experts connect the last year's sales growth with the appearance of
the new air carrier, that has offered cheap alternative to the flights of
Aeroflot company. The price for Wizz Air ticket starts from 40 euro.
The situation is illustrated well by the statistics
of bureau adviser of tourism in Hungary.
188 thousand of Russian tourists put up at the hotels of Hungary during
the season of 2013, which is for 22% more than in 2012. Our compatriots took up
the second place after Germans according to the the number of nights spent in
Hungarian hotels - 738 thousand, which is 24% higher than in 2012. At the same
time, Russia
is in the lead in the average continuance of stay, which is almost 4 days.
Nevertheless, the experts' forecasts for the
season 2014 in
Hungary
are cautious. The tour operators are monitoring attentively the fluctuations of
the ruble against the euro for more than a month. The European currency was
holding to 49 rubles during the last week. Such a rate increases the cost of
the vacation package for extra 3-4 thousand rubles after the re-calculation to
the Russian currency. "April and May, which are considered as the high
season for Hungary,
bought up well by now. However, after this period, the customers are not as
active as we would like to"- says Anna Reneyskaya, the head of the European
department of the company "Lead Tour Groups". "We restrain our
intrinsic rate when calculating the cost of the vacation packages. Maybe
because of that, the price formation haven’t affected our sales"- says Natalia
Khomchenko, the deputy director of sales for "De Visu". According to
her words, the tourists are interested in March, April and May holidays. There are
even several applications for the next New Year.
Valery Kim, the Head of the Hungarian company
"DVM- tour" believes, that due to the collapse of the ruble, the sales
volumes are kept untouched only by the therapeutic tours. She doubts whether
the tourists refuse to recover their health on the Hungarian resorts. In
contrast, the excursion tours won’t be so popular this time. According to her
words, the upcoming dates have already started to slump.
It remains unclear whether the addition of Wizz
Air flights in such a difficult situation give more reasons for the collapse of
the Hungarian direction. "Vedi Tour Group" and "De Visu",
two Russian tour operators, presented two nearly identical charter directions
from Moscow to
Heviz. They are not going to change the flight programs for the upcoming summer
season. "Vedi Tour Group" holds a block of seats on the board of regular
flight "U-Tair". Also "De Visu» is going to offer the customers
a charter to "Yakutia.
"I don’t think that announced Wizz Air
flights to Budapest
will compete with charter tour operators, because they have different target
audience. People, who go to spa resorts in Heviz, still prefer to get there from
the Heviz-Balaton airport,
which is only 14 km
away. Whereas it’s only 200
km from Budapest",
- admits Anna Reneyskaya. Some excess in demand for Heviz destination is
expected only in June. She also reminds that at this time in 2013 the same
situation happened, but market members had taken off the unnecessary flights at
the proper time.
Igor Chukanov, the CEO of "Alces" hopes
that Hungary will keep the
number of the tourists, not taking to consideration the economic instability in
Russia,
because of the attractive prices for the tours, compared
with many others European destinations. The diversity of transportation - is an
additional bonus. According to Mr. Chukanov’s words, the two-week medical tours
to Heviz are in great demand.
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