Every year, a decent number of travelers choose the option to celebrate the New Year on the road. And every year there are nuances in the choice of transport and destinations.
So this year, one of the most popular domestic travel planning services told where its customers will go on New Year’s Eve. It turned out that every fifth booking of air tickets in Russia on New Year’s Eve this year falls on an unexpected route Moscow – Krasnoyarsk. However, the second and third places in this top are also not obvious: Sochi – Moscow (and not vice versa) and Moscow – Novosibirsk. Among trips abroad, flights to China turned out to be the most popular on New Year’s Eve. For example, a flight from Moscow to Beijing accounts for 25% of air orders. In second place is a flight from Moscow to Guangzhou, and in third place is a flight to Shanghai. Next comes the route from St. Petersburg to Beijing, and only in fifth place is a trip not to China – from Moscow to Doha.
But at the New Year’s Eve meeting, there are much fewer surprises under the sound of wheels. Most Russians will travel by train between the two capitals, both from Moscow to St. Petersburg and in the opposite direction. The top 5 also includes routes from the capital to Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don and Sochi.
Another travel service surveyed customers how they dream of celebrating the New Year. It turned out that the majority of Russians (17% of the survey participants) dream of celebrating the New Year at a ski resort, slightly less (16%) – spend a holiday under palm trees on the warm sea abroad. 13% chose the “northern fairy tale”, 12% – in the warm resort region of Russia and the same 12% would like to go on a Christmas tour to Europe. 11% of Russians dream of going to the residence of Santa Claus in Veliky Ustyug or to the Snow Maiden’s tower in Kostroma, to the fabulous village in Sochi, to the Talviukko patrimony in Karelia or to the residence of Kysh Babai in Tatarstan. 10% of respondents would like to celebrate their childhood favorite holiday on Red Square, watch the chimes and fireworks. And 9% said they dream of celebrating the New Year on a plane or train with friends.
Preferences for the New Year holidays
We analyzed travel services and trips planned by clients for New Year holidays from Moscow. The top 5 most popular air destinations this year included Sochi, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Mineralnye Vody and Murmansk. Compared to last year, the changes are small – Murmansk instead of Kazan. The most popular railway destinations for New Year holidays from the capital are St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Rostov–on-Don, Simferopol. There are also changes in the last line of the top 5, Simferopol has replaced Voronezh.
If travel services are more about independent travelers, then ATOR (Association of Tour Operators of Russia) knows everything about organized tourists. The data for Russia from tour operators (TO) for New Year holidays are as follows: resorts of the Krasnodar Territory (with the unconditional leadership of Sochi), St. Petersburg, Kavminvody, Moscow and the Moscow region. ATOR’s top 5 foreign trips for the New Year: UAE, Thailand, Egypt, Turkey and Sri Lanka. It is noted that due to the collapse of the ruble in 2023, tours for the New Year holidays have risen in price. Most of all, the cost of tours to Thailand increased by almost a quarter (24.5%), Turkey rose in price by 20% and by only 10% (indeed, everything, because the ruble depreciated by 34% over the year) – UAE and Egypt.
Results of the year – hotels
Travel services summed up the results of the year for hotel bookings in Russia and abroad. It is noted that the total number of bookings abroad has almost doubled (from 7.6 to 4.2%). Of the Russian cities, the most bookings were made in Moscow and St. Petersburg, accounting for a total of about 35% of orders. Sochi, Kazan and Rostov-on-Don also entered the top 5.
Of the foreign destinations, Belarus and Turkey are the most in demand, in total they account for about half of the demand from users of the service. Besides Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Abkhazia and Georgia are popular from neighboring countries. All of them are in the top 10. Of the European countries, only Italy got into the top 10 (last year Finland was also included in the ranking). Of the distant warm destinations, the United Arab Emirates and Thailand were in the top 10. The UAE retained the seventh place, and Thailand was not in the top 10 last year.
It is noted that the depth of hotel reservations remains low. For example, 23% of orders in 2023 were made by travelers on the day of arrival (last year there were 20.5% of such orders). About one in four more orders (24.9%) in 2023 were made one or two days before arrival – this is comparable to last year.
Results of the year – railway
According to travel services, domestic destinations for independent travelers accounted for about 97% of demand, as they did a year ago. The top 3 remained unchanged: Moscow – St. Petersburg, Krasnodar – Sochi, Moscow – Nizhny Novgorod. In 2023, there was a high demand for tickets to the southern regions, where some airports remain closed. For example, the Moscow – Simferopol railway line, which rose from 50th to 6th place in popularity in 2022, is now in the top 5. Other popular southern cities are also in the top 20: Rostov-on-Don, Voronezh, Anapa, Krasnodar. Of the routes included in the top 20, demand for the Moscow – Rostov-on-Don, Moscow – Simferopol and Krasnodar – Sochi directions increased the most – by about 30%.
Debermudization
Last week, three major Russian airlines managed to settle the issues of insurance and leasing of their aircraft at once. This means that they will now be able to fly abroad without the risk of arrest. Ural Airlines “cleared” 19 Airbus aircraft, S7 Airlines – 45 airliners, which is almost 50% of the airline’s fleet, and Aeroflot completed an insurance settlement with lessors for another 28 aircraft.
Recall that now Russians can go on direct flights to 41 countries, so an increase in the fleet capable of safely flying abroad is undoubtedly a positive factor.
Pashkovsky Airport – what was it?
Rumors about the opening of Krasnodar airport did not arise from scratch – test flights were conducted, the opening date was “set” on December 25, some airlines opened the sale of tickets for flights to Krasnodar, which could be bought on aggregators. Then there was information that the opening of the airport could be postponed until February due to identified security problems, and finally, by the end of the week, the media reported that the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation had given a negative review on the opening of Krasnodar airport.
The idea initially looked strange, okay, everyone got used to the Carpet plan at Moscow airports, but during the week flight restrictions were observed at the airports of Kaluga and Volgograd.
Russia is not flying to Beijing
Aeroflot Group planned to start flying its subsidiary Rossiya airline to Beijing from Vladivostok, Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk from December 17-19. A few hours before the first flights, passengers began to receive notifications about flight cancellations. The media began to figure out why all of a sudden, and found out that back on December 15, Beijing Daxing Airport notified Russia that it was impossible to fly until additional conditions were met. And only after that, Aeroflot clarified that Rossiya would definitely fly to Dasin, but it is still unclear when. And not a word about what these “additional conditions” are for “Russia”. It is surprising, especially since Aeroflot and S7 Airlines are already flying to this airport.
Crimea is optimistic
The Minister of Tourism and Resorts of Crimea Vadim Volchenko said that by the end of the year the peninsula will receive less than 21% of tourists, but there is reason for optimism, since during the high season the volume of bookings decreased by 30%, but during the off-season it was possible to rectify the situation. Plus, the level of bookings for the New Year holidays is very high, and the depth of sales is also increasing. All this is combined with a combination, albeit forced, but still the best price–quality ratio in Russia and the unique nature and climate, and allows the Crimean tourism business to look to the future with optimism.
Fireworks in two capitals
Our forecast for New Year fireworks in Moscow and St. Petersburg, published in AN No. 49, has come true by 100%. The Moscow government, as well as a year earlier, only last week decided not to hold a festive fireworks display. In St. Petersburg, there will be a traditional fireworks display from the walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress at three o’clock in the morning. Yes, there were no fireworks in St. Petersburg last New Year, but there were fireworks on May 9 and on City Day, so we assumed that this year there would be a New Year’s fireworks in the city on the Neva.
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Источник: argumenti.ru
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