At this stage of the Arab-Israeli confrontation, the Russian authorities have decided to do without evacuating compatriots from Israel and Palestine, but there are already export flights. Let’s explain the difference.
Let’s start with organized tourism – everything is simple with it. At the time of the outbreak of the conflict, there were no more than 100 people in Israel, all of them were vacationing far from the Gaza Strip, and none of them wanted to interrupt their vacation and fly home ahead of schedule. However, by last Sunday, all the organized tourists had finished their tours, and all of them had already returned home. At the same time, no more than 150 people had been going to Israel since October 7. The Ministry of Economic Development, which is now responsible for tourism, has banned sending tours to a country where there is a war, so tour operators (TO) offer their customers different options – cancellation and refund, change of direction, tour shift, etc. In short, the planned work is underway, nothing extraordinary is happening.
On the contrary, everything is difficult with independent travelers. Firstly, none of the ministries and departments responsible for tourism knows their number. This problem has long–standing roots – since the time of covid, AN–Tourism has been paying attention to this problem – we, traveling independently, do not seem to exist for the state, the slogan named after Maria Zakharova “Abroad is not for beggars” lives and lives. But there is a caveat. If during Covid, when the collapse of air travel was instant, widespread and hitherto unprecedented, AN‑Tourism did not understand this position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, now we are equally disapproving of the attempts of some individuals to hype from scratch.
For example, at the beginning of last week, a video was posted on the Internet in which someone Vyacheslav, the head of a family of three, complained about the Russian Foreign Ministry and Russian air carriers: “At the airport (named after Ben-Gurion. – Note “AN”) there are many employees of embassies of different countries, and all are engaged in the evacuation of their citizens. And only the Russian Foreign Ministry says that everything is fine. I have just called the Foreign Ministry in Moscow and talked with the consulate in Israel. They say that the flights (evacuation. – Note “AN”) no. Red Wings offers to fly on October 13 for 170 thousand rubles per person. That is 510 thousand for a family of three people.”
As a result, the man bought tickets to Sochi on his own for 372 thousand: “And we are from St. Petersburg. We still have to spend the night there and buy tickets home.” We perfectly understand the outrage and add that the original return tickets purchased at the end of October will probably also be lost. But! On the same day, it was possible to fly from Ben-Gurion Airport, as numerous commentators rightly noted, for 80 thousand with a transfer. This is the first thing. Secondly, we do not impose anything on anyone, but since the time of Covid, we have decided that we should rely only on ourselves in independent travel. Don’t believe, don’t be afraid, don’t ask – something like that. You are either a traveler, or a mattress maker, or more popularly: “Either put on your underpants, or take off your cross.” We suggest that you decide too.
Dynamic pricing of outbound flights
Indeed, a lot of countries are engaged in the evacuation of their citizens from Israel. Someone sends military transport planes, someone organizes charters. The United States, as in Covid, offers to buy tickets for outbound flights on credit from the government. Against this highly inflated background, the Russian Foreign Ministry maintains icy calm and reminds that “everyone who wants to leave Israel can do so with the help of regular flights of Russian and foreign airlines.” Indeed, Azimut Airlines, Red Wings, and El Al continue to fly to Israel. If you try to fly immediately, day in, day out, or the next day, then tickets, for example, for October 11-12 cost 170-250 thousand rubles.
Several hundred Russian citizens, as stated by the Russian Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov, “are asked to provide for the possibility of their export, if any.” As we understand it, in most cases it is not about tourists, but about repatriates and relocators. But let’s tell you about them. As of October 13, 30% of all flights were canceled at Ben Gurion Airport, and Israeli airlines operated half of the remaining flights. Russian Red Wings introduced an additional outbound flight from Tel Aviv to Moscow from October 11 to 16. The flight costs about 150 thousand rubles. Red Wings explains the increase in tariffs by the fact that due to the lack of demand, planes fly empty to Israel.
“Foreign Assistant”
Given the attitude of government agencies towards independent travelers, we cannot but tell you about the epic fail of the Ministry of Economic Development with the official mobile application of the Russian Foreign Ministry “Foreign Assistant”, through which the Ministry of Energy recommended Russians in Israel to track “current messages”. Actually, the “Foreign Assistant” was created “for the interaction of the Russian Foreign Ministry with citizens of the Russian Federation temporarily abroad, notifying (informing) them about predicted or occurred emergency or crisis situations in the host country.”
Interestingly, the professional publication Vestnik ATOR (ATOR – Association of Tour Operators of Russia) tested the “Foreign Assistant”: “The editorial office could not find it on Google Play (84% of Russians have Android phones). It is doubly strange that it is not in the RuStore Android version, the official Russian app store that is not subject to sanctions. It is available in the App Store, but after downloading it requires registration via a code from an SMS that does not arrive. We tried from Russia and abroad, with and without VPN: the result is the same. The most important options are not available without registration: emergency information and a callback. In the iPhone app, among the important events abroad in the news feed in the October 9 app are a cyclone in Hong Kong and rains in Scotland. It is possible that only those who have installed it and registered earlier will be able to use the service.”
Promised Egypt
The State of Israel borders Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. And although all these countries have undoubted tourist potential for connoisseurs of the Middle East (offhand: Petra, Palmyra, Beirut) – only the Egyptian resorts of the Red Sea are among the top 5 mass destinations of Russian tourism. Naturally, customers are interested in the safety of holidays in Sharm el-Sheikh and Dahab. They are located at the other end of the Gaza Strip, but on the same Sinai Peninsula. According to the Russian Union of Tourism Industry (PCT), the aggravation of the Arab-Israeli conflict has not led to a decrease in sales of tours to these resorts, and ATOR recalls that the Russian Foreign Ministry did not impose any restrictions on visiting Egypt.
Since then, there has been only one serious incident in Egypt – on October 8 in Alexandria, an Egyptian policeman shot a bus with Israeli tourists “on a wave of hatred”. Two Israelis and their Egyptian guide were killed.
Death in the Himalayas
Nadezhda Oleneva, a 37-year-old Russian mountaineer, died in the Himalayas. The tragedy occurred during the ascent of Mount Dhaulagiri (8,167 meters). It is the seventh highest peak in the world. It is considered one of the most difficult climbing routes in the Himalayas. The expedition was organized by the Ministry of Sports and the Russian Mountaineering Federation.
The master of sports in mountaineering and a member of the Russian national team, Nadezhda Oleneva, fell into a crevice at an altitude of 6680 meters. Nadezhda’s colleagues hoped for a miracle to the last: “They saw her stick and traces of sliding. Let’s follow the tracks down. After 200 meters, the slope became steeper. In parallel, the sky was covered with clouds. The guys packed up and went down to the base camp by nightfall. There was a flyby in the morning. We saw the body from the helicopter.”
Aviation is the queen of the fields
Arable work has begun around the Ural Airlines aircraft standing in the field. The land belongs to the cooperative “Kolkhoz im. Lenin.” Its head, Alexander Komarovsky, said that he did not have any agreements with the airline and does not have any: “I asked them to mark the lane that they do not need to plow. They to me: “We’ll think about it, we’ll call you back.” They still think no one called.”
The head of the Ubinsky district of the Novosibirsk region Oleg Konyuk
The airport, on the territory of which the field is located, confirmed the information that the airline plans to lift the liner into the sky with the onset of frost. He also noted that, in words, Ural Airlines still agreed with the cooperative that the strip with a width of about 40 meters would not be affected. However, somehow nothing was documented: “If they do not agree, then he (Komarovsky. – Note “AN”) in fact, everything will plow,” Konyuk noted.
We are watching this aviation and arable attraction with surprise.
Meanwhile, S7 Airlines has more serious problems – it will have to reduce the autumn-winter schedule by 10-15% compared to last year due to difficulties with servicing the Airbus A320/A321peo. The problem is in the repair of American GTF engines of the American company Pratt & Whitney installed on these aircraft, since neither Russian nor Iranian specialists can fix them. The fact is that it is virtually impossible to maintain modern aircraft engines without official support, since they are very dependent on software that needs to be updated.
As a result, 21 S7 aircraft (20% of the fleet) are currently idle. Industry experts are already predicting an increase in ticket prices.
Statistics confirm forecasts
Taking the data of the Turkish official statistics for 9 months and subtracting from them their own data for 8 months, ATOR determined that the Russian tourist flow to the resorts of Antalya province in September 2023 decreased compared to the same month in 2022: “It turned out to be 6.1% less than in September last year, for all estimates of a “low–success” year for Russian tourism in Turkey,” Vestnik ATOR writes. According to those interviewed by the editorial board, the decrease in demand relative to last year is primarily caused by an increase in prices for tours and the volatility of the ruble. So, in September 2022, the minimum price of a 10‑day tour to Antalya was at the level of 99 thousand rubles for two with flight and all-inclusive meals, and in September 2023. – already 136.6 thousand rubles (an increase in ruble prices for the year by 38%).
A domestic payment provider, a booking service and a large company conducted a study of the market for Russian bookings of accommodation for the New Year holidays. The conclusions are from the series “Captain obvious”. For example, rental housing for the New Year holidays in Russia has risen in price by 15% over the year. But there are also interesting observations: from the traditional three leaders – St. Petersburg, Moscow and Sochi – Kazan managed to “cut down” Sochi, which moved to 4th place. This is if you believe in the lack of engagement of the study. Other popular cities are not surprising: Kaliningrad, Kislovodsk, Zelenogradsk, Nizhny Novgorod and Sheregesh. Foreign preferences are also standard: Thailand, UAE, Egypt, Sri Lanka and Turkey.
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Источник: argumenti.ru
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