According to General Director of online travel agency Biletix Alexandr Sizincev, this is due to the deterioration of the macroeconomic situation in Russia.
Air ticket sales account for $4.7bn of this amount, hotel rooms - $2.4bn, railway tickets - $0.9 and tour packages - $0.3bn.
Independent online magazine Travel Russian News, website Superjob.ru and marketing communications agency PR2POINT are proud to present, as part of Travel Russian Awards, the “Rating of Russian Tour Operators – 2013”. The rating is based on a poll among Russian tourists which was conducted from November 20 to November 28 of 2013. Russians were offered a list of thirty largest Russian tour operators, from which they chose whom they believed to be the best. Among these companies were leaders of mass tourism and niche tour operators.
New Year tours to Thailand, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates are at their all-time cheapest
Also, according to a VTsIOM (All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion) poll, tourist flow in the region rose 9%.
Losses for both Russian and French economies can amount to millions of euros. TRN spoke to an employee of one of the tour operators that were stripped of their accreditation, and such was his forecast.
“This year in Russia has gone by under the slogan ‘Fostering domestic and inbound tourism’. There has been no excess in tour operators’ bankruptcies, so the bailout fund ‘Turpomoshch’ has not been used,” such was the way head of Rostourism Alexander Radkov summarized year results at a press conference on Friday, December 13, reports the TRN correspondent.
According to ATOR (Association of Tour Operators of Russia), the main reasons for the systematic decline in domestic flight numbers are as follows: unreasonably high flight prices, underdeveloped domestic air route network, excessively expensive airport service and new airline policies which hinder competition and facilitate further ticket price growth.
The lawyers at Travel Agencies Alliance (TAA) have compiled a standard form contract for selling the tourism product, which from now on will be used by travel agents and their clients
The most sought-after outbound destinations from January to September were Turkey (2.7 million people,+20%), Egypt (1.4 million people,+17%), Greece (1.1 million,+69%), Spain (887.1 thousand,+29%), China (787.2 thousand,-20%), Finland (787.1 thousand,+102%), Thailand (683 thousand,+23%), Germany (638.1 thousand,+20%), Italy (605.5 thousand,+31%).