The number of Russian citizenstaking a vacation on Russia's
resorts has increased by around 25-30% this year, while the number of tourists
travelling abroad decreased, as well as the number of foreigners entering the
country. These preliminary results of the end of the season have been shared
with reporters by Oleg Safonov, the Head of the Federal Agency for Tourism.
According to his words, the number of Russians, going on vacations has grown
from 52% to 63% and the average cost of an itinerary has come to around 30
thousand roubles. The spending spree of Muscovites and residents of
Saint-Petersburg has been more significant – around 38 thousand.
According to Mr. Safonov, Europe has
lost a big number of Russian tourists, while such “dollar - destinations” as Turkey, Egypt and Thailand
bear losses less. Fluctuations of exchange rates that leads to the rise of
prices for trips abroad and the unstable political situation in the world –
these are the main factors, that brought to the structural changes on the
tourist market, says Oleg Safonov.
He also underlined that this season
in Crimea wasn’t failed; around 2% of Russians
have managed to get to the shores of peninsula. “The exact number will be known
later this year”.
One of the features of this season
is a line of the bankruptcy of travel agencies, which caused a deep crisis in
the travel industry. Around 20 companies have shut down their businesses, says
the Head of the Federal Tourism Agency. The Turpomosch (Tourist Help -
compulsory bonding system) brought back to Russia
around 38.4 thousand tourists, and more than 100 thousand people couldn't go
for their already paid for vacations.
Anatoly Pakhomov, the Mayor of
Sochi, noticed during the press conference, that the Olympic capital has
successfully changed the image of a summer resort. The tourists started to
perceive it as all-year-round family resort, which specializes in three main
activities – spa, winter sports and balneology health resort. He also noticed a
30% rise of the tourist flow. Moreover, he compared it to the best year for the
city - 2008. Olympics contributed to the development of the domestic and
inbound tourism. According to the Mayor's words, the negotiations with Iranian,
Chinese and Korean airlines about direct flights to Sochi are in progress. We believe, Sochi will not yield to
well-promoted global tourist brands soon, says Anatoly Pakhomov.
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