In the legendary movie “The Irony of Fate, or With a light steam”, Zhenya Lukashin, having found out the schedule of planes from Leningrad to Moscow, gave out: “The devil knows what it is – they leave every half hour!”
And now, 50 years later, Aeroflot is returning to Soviet standards – Aeroflot and Rossiya aircraft on the route Moscow – St. Petersburg (Leningrad) – Moscow promises to fly from June 1 with an interval of 15-30 minutes. But the Aeroflot group also has Pobeda, which also flies to St. Petersburg. In short, 90% of the air transportation market between the two capitals is chartered by the national carrier.
AN-Tourism, looking at this riot, is a little perplexed – is there really such a passenger flow? And this is despite the fact that Aeroflot shuttles are still inferior to Peregrine Falcons in comfort and final travel speed – but this is our opinion, and we do not impose it on anyone. Aeroflot is confident that the new Economy Shuttle baggage-free fare will attract frequent flyer business passengers. Well, we will sum up the results in the autumn.
Surprisingly, the next day after the announcement of the Economy Shuttle program, the Aeroflot website was closed: “Due to the large volume of offers in this direction, the time for issuing flights may be increased” – such a notification appeared when trying to purchase tickets for a flight between the two capitals. We still do not think that the problems are related to hype, most likely, technical shortsightedness or, quite unexpectedly for the national, a PR move.
In any case, Aeroflot’s Economy Shuttle program is perhaps the loudest aviation news of the past week. But there was other news, of course. For example, AN-Tourism believes that Rospotrebnadzor is a “handsome man”, since it ordered the IrAero airline through the court to refuse to impose paid services – when buying a ticket on the carrier’s website, not only insurance, but also the choice of seat is automatically included in the price.
Of course, it is not only IrAero that sins with such an ugly practice, and we are waiting for the continuation of other airlines from Rospotrebnadzor, but we left the funniest thing in this news for last. It turns out that even IrAero, according to the profile portal Turdom, spat on the court: “The correspondent of the portal today (05/13/2024. – Note “AN”) tried to purchase air tickets. During their registration, the system automatically selected a paid place and added insurance. Thus, inattentive tourists still remain at risk – if they do not notice that additional services have been added to the ticket price and do not turn them off manually, they may still overpay.”
The third and last aviation news for today will tell about the amazing ordeals of tourists from the Kaliningrad region. It is known that the Moscow – Kaliningrad route is one of the most popular in Russia, and this is good. But what is the current situation with the recreation of residents of the Kaliningrad region? Where can they rest, except at home? To put it mildly, the situation in Kaliningrad is not very good. Already the third Turkish airline, Corendon Airlines, has been forced to cancel its flight program from Kaliningrad to Antalya. The reason is still the same – the inability to coordinate a flight over the territory of the European Union. As was previously the case with the Turkish airlines Southwind and Tailwind.
And today’s transport part will be completed by the wonderful news “From the courtroom” – The Intinsky City Court of the Komi Republic managed to fine Russian Railways for the heat in the reserved carriage of the Moscow – Anapa train and decided to pay compensation to passengers. It was in August 2023, in the reserved carriage of the Moscow – Anapa train, the temperature was 33 degrees Celsius. Adult passengers received compensation of 15 thousand rubles, children – 22.5 thousand rubles.
Trends of the summer season
Before we talk about the trends of the summer season, let’s look at the results of the May holidays. According to a large domestic insurance company and a tour search and booking service, Russians traditionally bought trips to Turkey over the past long weekend (57% of all vacationers). Next are Egypt (13%), Russia (11%), the UAE (6%) and Thailand (5%). Among independent travelers, the situation is completely different: Russia (39%), China (32%) and Belarus (5%).
Let’s move on to the trends. The head of Crimea, Sergey Aksenov, said that the demand for holidays on the peninsula has increased significantly this season – booking volumes have increased by 50% compared to last year. Four- and five-star hotels are in high demand. According to hoteliers interviewed by Turdom, the activity of tourists was influenced by the possibility of earlier booking train tickets, as well as the congestion of resorts in the Krasnodar Territory and high prices for holidays in Sochi, Anapa and Gelendzhik.
The domestic travel planning service analyzed hotel bookings for June and found out which foreign destinations have become more popular with Russian independent travelers compared to last year. Greece showed the most serious growth: at the beginning of summer, 3 times more hotels were already booked there than in 2023. Georgia took the second place, where the growth of hotel orders amounted to 88%. And China closes the top three, whose share has grown by 82.6%.
Several European countries also entered the top 10: after the break, Russians began to plan holidays in Spain more often (an increase of 80%), Montenegro (57%) and Italy (49%). Among the Asian destinations in the ranking were Japan (55%), Vietnam (40%) and Indonesia (36%). Qatar is worth mentioning separately, with a 50% increase in popularity – travelers who want to get to know this country are not afraid even of the summer heat.
The data of the Border Service of the FSB of the Russian Federation and statistics of foreign countries for the first quarter of 2024 were analyzed by ATOR. The tourist flow to popular foreign countries increased by 16%. Turkey led the top of the most popular countries among Russian tourists in January – March, but Thailand and the UAE lag behind it quite a bit. Interestingly, approximately the same directions are shown by ATOR’s own surveys of sales data from tour operators (TO): Turkey has 63% of all tour sales from all tour operators, Egypt, which is cheaper on average, has the second place (18%), the UAE has the third (7%), Russia and Thailand close the top five (6% each).
Schengen in 2023
The European Commission summed up the results of the issuance of Schengen visas for 2023: the total number of applications for Schengen increased by 37% to 10.3 million applications. Russia closes the top five countries in terms of the number of requests from 520 thousand people. By the end of 2022, Russia was in second place, and now the number of applicants from Russia has decreased by 25% due to difficulties with registration and new country restrictions.
The average failure rate for all countries is 16%. The refusal rate for Russian citizens remained, in fact, at the same level: 10.6% (in 2022, 10.2%). Iranians have the most refusals – 30%.
Records
According to a study by the largest player in the real estate market, according to the results of the first quarter of 2024, Sochi hotels outstripped Moscow in value by 79%. That is, accommodation in Sochi resort real estate is the most expensive in the country. The average price for a room in the first quarter of 2024 was 17.8 thousand rubles. Whereas the average price for a room in Moscow is 10 thousand rubles. In addition, the number of vacationers in 2023 in the Krasnodar Territory amounted to 18.6 million people, which became an absolute record for the region in the entire history of observations.
Michelin Keys
The Michelin Red restaurant guide has compiled its rating of hotels located in all regions of France for the first time. Instead of traditional stars, hotels are given “keys”, and Michelin hopes that the “keys” will soon become an analogue of the famous stars awarded to restaurants. The selection of the first “keys” was made from 600 French hotels already recommended on the Michelin guide website by anonymous inspectors, similar to the selection of restaurants, but with different criteria: architecture and interior design, quality of service, individuality and character, value for money and integration into the local experience. In total, the Michelin France 2024 Guide list includes 24 3 Keys hotels, 38 2 Keys hotels and 127 1 Key hotels.
The most expensive
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) conducts a cost-of-living study twice a year. The company’s experts compare more than 400 prices for 200 products and services in 173 cities. They have been doing this kind of work for 30 years. According to the results of the latest study, Singapore took the first place in the ranking of the most expensive cities to live in. This is what the top 10 most expensive places to live in the world looks like:
1. Singapore.
2. Zurich.
3. Geneva.
4. New York.
5. Hong Kong.
6. Los Angeles.
7. Paris.
8. Copenhagen.
9. Tel Aviv.
10. San Francisco.
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Источник: argumenti.ru
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