More than half of Russians don’t go on vacation at all

Russia Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) conducted a summer in review monitoring.  The survey of 1600 people from 138 settlements of different Russian regions showed that from year to year more and more of our compatriots stay home for their vacation, and this summer was not an exception. This year percent of those who stayed home in summer without even going to the country side amounted to 54%. According to the recent years’ survey, the popularity of summer house vacation is growing: 14% have chosen in in 2008 and this year it already amounted to 24%.

Nevertheless, the tourist flow growth can be noted as well. Every fifth participant of the survey (20%) reported that in summer he traveled either in Russia or abroad. This rate is one of the highest for the last eight years: in 2005 the tourist flow was 15%.

If we speak about certain travel destinations, most of Russians prefer cultural-cognitive trips across cities and villages of Russia (9%) or the resorts of the Black sea coast (8%). And the demand for the Krasnodar region is much higher than for Crimean resorts (1%), for example.

While the domestic travel market doesn’t show a significant growth from year to year, the popularity of non-CIS states is slightly growing: from 2005 to 2010 the growth was not more than 3%, and this year it amounts to 5%. The least popular are the countries of the former USSR, only 2% of the respondents prefer to spend their vacation there.

The overwhelming majority of the travelers (89%) have positive impression from their vacations. And those Russians who stayed home or went to the country house in summer evaluate their holiday less positively: only 45% are satisfied.

53% of home-stayers don’t travel because they don’t have such opportunity. Main reasons are private life circumstances: health problems, the lack of money and so on, 35% of respondents reported about it.

55% are tourists having visited cities of Russia and the cities of the Black sea, and only 27% are those, who traveled abroad are not satisfied with the hotel service. An immediate problem of Russian resorts is high prices: it was noted by 40% of those, who traveled in Russia, and 30% of those who traveled abroad.