MTS Travel travel service analyzed the trips of Russians abroad during the long May holidays. Most often, travelers began their foreign trips on April 28, and it was due to the last days of April that the outbound tourist flow abroad for holidays increased by 73%.
MTS Travel analysts investigated the extended May holidays – with the capture of the previous weekends in April and short working weeks. Thus, the periods of April 28 – May 12, 2024 and April 29 – May 9, 2023, 15 and 11 days, respectively, were compared.
Due to the larger number of days, as well as four consecutive weekends from April 28 to May 1, the number of trips from Russia abroad increased by 73% compared to the holidays a year earlier. The peak of departures from Russia occurred on April 28, the first day off of the May Day holidays, and the last days of April accounted for 40% of trips abroad. Excluding dates at the end of April, the tourist flow abroad increased by 12% in early May.
Belarus and Turkey were expected to become the main destinations for foreign travel – these countries accounted for about 20% of trips abroad for the May holidays of 2024. Kazakhstan was in third place, as it was last year, with 7% of trips. Russians made almost the same number of trips to the United Arab Emirates, which turned out to be more popular than Abkhazia this year. China also entered the top 10 destinations for May holidays, rising to sixth place from eleventh, as the tourist flow there from Russia increased 3.5 times over the year.
Where Russians went for the long May weekend, the share of all subscribers traveling abroad:
This year, 53% of trips took place abroad (46% a year earlier). At the same time, the number of trips to non–CIS countries doubled year-on-year, and to neighboring countries – 1.5 times. The average duration of a foreign trip was 6 days.
In addition to Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, China and Egypt, Thailand, France, Italy, Spain, Maldives and Germany are among the top ten popular far-flung countries. As for European countries, their share in the structure of foreign trips decreased to 7% from 8%, while the number of trips increased by 54%.
The countries of Southeast Asia have significantly increased their share in foreign trips of Russians – if last May holidays they occupied about 2% of the tourist flow, then this year it is already 4%. Indonesia and Vietnam became the leaders in the growth of tourist traffic among Southeast Asian countries (about 6 times more trips).
Residents of Moscow (29%), Moscow Region (12%), St. Petersburg (8%), Krasnodar Territory (7%) and Sverdlovsk Region (3%) made the most foreign trips during the last May holidays.
Methodology
The study was conducted on the basis of depersonalized MTS data. The study involved travelers who left their home region from April 28, 2024 and returned back before May 12, 2024 inclusive, as well as those who left their home region from April 29, 2023 and returned back before May 9, 2023 inclusive. The data analysis did not take into account trips lasting less than two days in order to exclude transit visits.
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