By the end of the year, all those employed in the tourism industry traditionally began to sum up the results. We have chosen the most interesting, in our opinion, and we will tell you about current events.
One of the domestic travel services conducted a study among 30 thousand of its users and found that women travel more than men – 65% versus 35%. Most often, trips are made by women aged 35-64 years (75%) with an income in the range of 16 to 75 thousand rubles per month (67%), living in Moscow (23%) or another million-plus city (22%). To reassure male travelers, we note that there are about 11 million more women in Russia than men. And women live 10 years longer.
From this study, we will highlight another interesting fact, already without gender coloring. It turned out that the majority of respondents plan a trip on their own or with other participants of the trip (84%), and only one in ten prefers to choose a ready-made tour (10%). In fairness, it should be noted that fans of organized tourism among users of such services have always been and are in the minority.
Another survey of the travel service together with JSC “TCH” (TCH is the executive management body in the system of mutual settlements in air transport) summed up the preliminary results of 2023 in passenger aviation. No special surprises were found, for example, according to the All-Russian data (from the TAP) and according to the service, the first three positions in terms of the share of passengers among domestic destinations have remained unchanged since 2022. These are the routes Moscow – Sochi, Moscow – St. Petersburg and Moscow – Kaliningrad. And if we analyze the results only among the customers of the travel service, then analysts note an increase in demand by one and a half times for flights between Moscow and Grozny. The direction has risen in the ranking from 27th to 17th place. Moscow – Chelyabinsk and Moscow – Novosibirsk routes are also among the leaders in demand growth from the top 20 destinations.
It is also noted that the behavior of passengers is gradually returning to what it was before 2020 – before the coronavirus pandemic. That is, people started buying tickets in advance again. On average, in 2023, plane tickets in Russia are bought more than 15 days before departure.
Among the foreign destinations (according to the TAP), the leaders also did not change, the first and second places, as last year, were taken by the Moscow – Istanbul and Moscow – Antalya directions. Even a significant increase in prices for a holiday in Turkey in 2023 did not change their position. Yerevan is in third place, which, in addition to the net tourist flow, remains also a popular transit hub for further flights to Europe. Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada occupy the fourth and sixth positions. Phuket is in fifth place.
Find everything
Yandex analyzed the search interest of Russians in foreign and domestic tourist destinations in 2023. Turkey is traditionally the leader in terms of the number of requests for holidays abroad. Egypt is in second place, and the UAE is in third place. Abkhazia is in fourth place. And China closes the top 5. At the same time, China ranks first in the top 3 countries that have demonstrated the most noticeable increase in the number of search queries this year (compared to 2022). Cuba is in second place in terms of dynamics, and Thailand is in third.
In terms of rest duration: users who are interested in traveling for 7 days have increased by 5% this year and reached the 30% mark. But 10–day vacations have become less popular – 26% versus 29% in 2022.
In 2023, according to Yandex, the “tours” category accounts for 11% of the total number of search queries. Hotel services account for 51.8% of the total number of search queries. Then there are air tickets – 16, 1%.
According to Yandex statistics, Russians most often look for holidays on the Internet in the Krasnodar Territory, on the routes of the Golden Ring, in Karelia, Altai, the North Caucasus, in the Caucasian Mineral Waters, on Lake Baikal and the Curonian Spit. The Kola Peninsula became a breakthrough destination in 2023 – an increase of 16% compared to the data of 2022.
The most-the most
The Economist magazine has presented its annual ranking of the cost of living in different cities of the world (Worldwide Cost of Living Report). The study takes into account the real prices of hundreds of goods and services: clothing, food, drinks, rental housing, entertainment expenses and others. It should be noted that Caracas was excluded from the participants this year: since 2022, prices in the Venezuelan capital have increased by 450%.
The top 10 most expensive cities in the world include Singapore, Zurich, Geneva, New York, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Paris, Copenhagen, Tel Aviv and San Francisco. Singapore retains its leading position as the most expensive city in the world for the ninth time in the last 11 years. The top 10 cheapest cities to live in are Damascus, Tehran, Tripoli, Karachi (Pakistan), Tashkent, Tunisia, Lusaka (Zambia), Lagos (Nigeria), Ahmedabad (India), Chennai (India) and Buenos Aires. Damascus has also been the cheapest city in the world for more than a decade.
And the research company Euromonitor International has published the next annual rankings of the most visited and most attractive cities in the world in 2023. Istanbul leads the top 10 most visited cities in the world in 2023, followed by London, Dubai, Antalya, Paris, Hong Kong, Bangkok, New York, Cancun and Mecca. If everything is clear with the rating of the most visited cities, simple statistics, then Euromonitor International calculates the rating of the most attractive cities based on 55 indicators in six key blocks, including indicators of the economy, tourism, business activity and so on. And the ratings are very different. So, Paris is in the first place in the top 10 most attractive cities, followed by Dubai, Madrid, Tokyo, Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, New York, Barcelona, London. Explaining how it happened that 7 out of 10 attractive urban destinations ended up in Europe, Euromonitor International highlights rapid urbanization and widespread technology adoption in European cities.
A retaliatory strike
The story of Aeroflot with the cancellation of cheap tickets to Phuket from Yekaterinburg received an unexpected continuation – 54 failed passengers filed a class action and demand about 12 million rubles from the airline. Customers demand to refund the difference between the cost of tickets according to the full price list of Aeroflot and the amount that they received as a result from the carrier. It turned out to be about 7.5 million rubles. Another 4.5 million are penalties, fines and compensation for moral damage.
Recall that in October, due to a technical malfunction, Aeroflot sold several thousand tickets to Thailand from Yekaterinburg for 6-7 thousand rubles. The market price of tickets on this route at that time was about 50 thousand rubles. The national carrier cancelled the tickets and offered passengers to purchase new ones at a 30% discount from current prices, and also promised to credit additional miles in the corporate bonus program. According to Aeroflot, about a thousand people have already used the discount, who have issued 2.2 thousand air tickets. According to lawyers commenting on the situation, consumers have a high chance of winning a lawsuit from Aeroflot. We will keep an eye on it.
Visa News
Iran has abolished visa requirements for 33 countries, but only Russia is included in this list with restrictions – for Russians, visa-free trips to Iran are possible only as part of tourist groups. At the same time, the list of the remaining 32 countries includes, for example, Saudi Arabia, Croatia and Belarus. Tour operators (TO), by the way, pay attention to the fact that in autumn sales of winter tours to Iran sank significantly. According to TO, the decline was influenced by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Another interesting news came from Kenya, where visa-free entry for tourists from all countries has been announced since 2024. No one from any corner of the globe will have to bear the burden of applying for a visa in order to come to Kenya anymore,” William Ruto, the president of this African country, announced pompously. However, he immediately added that in order to implement the visa-free policy, the government has introduced a digital platform and all travelers will have to obtain an electronic entry permit (ETA) before visiting Kenya. Regarding the “filing burden”, it is even more interesting – a single-entry e-visa to Kenya cost about $ 50, and the fee for processing an ETA will be about $ 30. Plus, now citizens of more than 45 countries do not need a visa to visit Kenya. And starting from the new year, they will have to fork out for ETA. So it is clearly not the tourists who will benefit, but the Kenyan treasury.
The news from Georgia is not visa–related, but it is related to border crossing – from June 1, 2024, mandatory insurance will be introduced for all foreigners visiting Georgia. For those who try to come to Georgia without insurance, a fine of 300 lari (about 10 thousand rubles) is provided.
By the way, about health insurance. According to one domestic insurance company, the statistics of summer holidays in 2023 do not confirm the well-established opinion among tourists that Turkey is the most dangerous destination for Russians. This opinion arose due to the fact that, in absolute numbers, Turkey actually accounts for almost half (44%) of incidents involving our compatriots. But Turkey is the leader in the number of tourists, so it is logical that there are many incidents there. A better criterion is the frequency of insurance claims. And according to this indicator, in the summer season of 2023, the highest frequency of insurance cases among insurance company customers was noted in Thailand – 5.2%. The United Arab Emirates is in second place with 3.4%. The third place belongs to the countries of the Schengen area – 2%. But Turkey is not in the top 3, it is only in fourth place.
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Источник: argumenti.ru
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