Despite the fact that the Russian Foreign Ministry urged to refrain from traveling to Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine and did not say anything about Egypt bordering the Gaza Strip, tour operators have to stimulate sales to Egyptian Red Sea resorts with serious discounts.
As a result, a 7-night tour to Hurghada is now cheaper than a direct flight there from Moscow. For example, a tour from October 21 to 28 for double accommodation in a 4–star hotel could be bought from the for 97 thousand rubles – including flights and all inclusive meals. At the same time, if you buy only a flight, then the cost of direct flights from Moscow to Hurghada on the same dates started from 103 thousand rubles for two. The travel industry notes both a decrease in sales activity and a decrease in booking depth.
AN-Tourism was surprised by such an almost panicked reaction of a Russian organized tourist – we told in the last issue that the aggravation of the Arab-Israeli conflict does not affect security in Sharm el-Sheikh and Dahab. They are located at the other end of the Gaza Strip, but on the same Sinai Peninsula. And Hurghada is generally on the other side of the Red Sea! But, actually, who are we to worry about the income of the travel business. Just note that it is necessary to somehow adequately assess the risks. Moreover, there is a panic drop in sales of tours to Egypt after all organized Russian tourists refused to interrupt their holidays in Israel after October 7 and returned home on pre-planned dates.
This world is generally a troubled place. Just last week in Uganda, terrorists shot newlyweds at the entrance to the Queen Elizabeth National Park, where a couple of tourists, citizens of Britain and South Africa, together with a guide went on a honeymoon safari. In the same Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, a US Navy missile destroyer intercepted several missiles fired by Houthi militants involved in the armed conflict in the region. And the military in Taiwan accidentally fired at a boat with tourists who went to sea to observe whales. In addition to the works of human hands, we do not forget about natural disasters. So, on the island of Bali, an emergency situation was declared for two weeks due to fires.
Meanwhile, the hype demand for tickets from Israel has waned. If in the early days of the conflict the cheapest tickets to Russia started from 150 thousand, then on October 21 it was possible to fly to Sochi for two times cheaper, and tickets for October 25 cost 40 thousand.
Aeroflot got hit
Aeroflot got into a loud scandal. According to the airline, due to a technical malfunction, super–cheap (8-15 thousand rubles) tickets on the Yekaterinburg – Phuket route were thrown on sale. The national carrier does not disclose the number of “lucky ones”, while observers name from 500 to 2 thousand people.
The next day after the failure, all customers received notifications that the tickets were “incorrectly issued” and canceled. Aeroflot offered everyone to buy new tickets with a 30% discount on economy class seats. Here you need to know that the discount promo code from Aeroflot has a strange feature – it is one–time, that is, you entered the code – buy a ticket, the discount will not be displayed a second time, even if the ticket was not purchased the first time.
The “lucky ones” have already organized themselves into groups on social networks and messengers, where they develop a strategy of behavior, since there is a violation of the rights of law-abiding consumers and the chances of buyers winning disputes in court are good. Aeroflot, apparently, is also weighing the odds, because in the same chat rooms, some passengers whose flights are scheduled to take place in the next two weeks report that the airline has backed down and cancels ticket cancellations.
The situation is interesting, we will keep an eye on it, and the Sverdlovsk Transport Prosecutor’s Office is interested.
Towards holidays and holidays
Participants in the tourism market continue to post statistical preferences of their customers on the eve of the autumn holidays and New Year holidays. For example, a popular Russian travel planning service analyzed hotel bookings that include at least one child during the school holidays (October 27 – November 6).
Everything is standard in the standard Russian top: St. Petersburg, Moscow, the resorts of the Krasnodar Territory (Adler, Esto-Sadok, Sochi – in descending order), Kazan, Kaliningrad, Nizhny Novgorod and Kislovodsk. The only surprise is Pskov. Last year, during the holidays, this aggregator had two such surprises – Tula and Veliky Novgorod.
Foreign cities are located in the top in the following order: Istanbul, Dubai, Minsk, Rimini, Tokyo, Rome, Osaka, Beijing, Abu Dhabi and Verona. In 2022, a dozen popular foreign destinations looked completely different: Barcelona, Tashkent, Yerevan, Seoul, Milan and Paris were present.
Two studies relate to the New Year holidays. In the first service for travelers, they found out where their customers will fly from Moscow to NG: Kaliningrad, Sochi, Mineralnye Vody, Irkutsk and Murmansk. And by train from the capital, customers travel to St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Krasnodar, Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod.
In the second travel planning service, we analyzed where it is easiest to find an inexpensive hotel (from 2 to 5 thousand rubles per day) for the New Year holidays. In Russia, Yekaterinburg has the most budget hotels (88% of such accommodation facilities in the city), Tyumen is in second place (81%), St. Petersburg is in third place (75%). Anapa, Moscow, Gelendzhik, Kazan, Sochi, Vladivostok and Kislovodsk also entered the top 10.
The top 10 foreign destinations where cheap hotels are more likely to be found open four locations in Thailand at once: in Phuket, the share of such offers is 67%, in Bangkok – 65%, Pattaya – 62%, and on Koh Chang Island – 45%. Goa closes the top five, and the top 10 includes Hurghada, Tashkent, Almaty, Baku and Antalya.
Smart uphill…
Smart up the hill or go to the invention – we don’t even know what proverb to describe the ingenuity of Russian border shopping tourists, who literally immediately, after the ban on entering the EU in cars with Russian license plates, solved the problem. Since they were reluctant to transfer to public transport, they found a solution in renting a car with Belarusian license plates. “We entered through Norway, returned through Finland. There is not a single question on both borders. We are very satisfied,” tourists share their life hack on social networks.
By the way, according to the observations of the Finnish media, there are no fewer Russian citizens engaged in cross-border shopping on buses and minibuses.
The machinations of unfriendly countries are not the only trouble. According to Dmitry Gorin, vice-president of the Russian Union of Travel Industry, foreign travel packages have risen in price by 40% over the year due to the collapse of the ruble. Against this background, the share of tours that Russians take on credit is growing. People try to go to familiar places, even for a shorter period of time, and to simpler rooms. And with borrowed money.
But hotels in the ski resorts of Sochi have risen in price in the winter season not by 40, but only by 20-30%.
Promising does not mean getting married
Last week, a number of media outlets rushed to wishful thinking, announcing that Sri Lanka had abolished visa fees. In fact, the Minister of Tourism of the island of Harin Fernando only offered the government to completely exempt tourists from Russia, China, India, Thailand and Indonesia from the visa fee.
“Tourists from these five countries will be able to obtain visas without a fee. When visiting Sri Lanka, they will have to obtain visas, but there is no fee for this. Visas must be obtained for security reasons,” the minister said. The purpose of this decision is to increase the tourist flow to Sri Lanka to 5 million tourists per year.
The Russian Embassy in Sri Lanka immediately issued a statement: “The government of the island state is indeed studying measures to stimulate the tourist flow from a number of countries, including Russia. However, so far, the decision of the country’s governing bodies to reset the consular fee has not been adopted, the cost of a Sri Lankan visa is still $ 60 per person.”
But in Venezuela, judging by media reports, the acceptance of MIR cards has already begun for the fifth time. It first happened back in June. But this time it’s not worth blaming everything on the media, as in the case of Ceylon, because every time different government officials announced the start of work. Last week, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Government Novak announced the start of work of Russian cards, specifying that more than 80 thousand terminals are available throughout the country. In June, by the way, according to officials, there were only 40 thousand terminals accepting Russian cards. The Chairman of the Central Bank of the Republic added that it is indeed possible to pay “in peace” throughout the country, but only in the terminals of the Bank of Venezuela.
Despite all these reports, travel companies working with Venezuela still do not confirm any successful attempts to pay with MIR on Margarita Island, where Russian tourists mostly rest. But in fairness, experts note that it is already possible to pay with our cards … at the Russian Embassy in Caracas when processing any documents.
An even longer story is happening with the acceptance of the “WORLD” cards in Cuba. We have already told you many times, we would not like to repeat ourselves, but we have to – Boris Titov, the commissioner under the President of the Russian Federation for the protection of the rights of entrepreneurs and Chairman of the Russia – Cuba Business Council of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, following his next visit to Liberty Island, said that the opportunity to pay in rubles on the MIR card “will appear in the near future in Cuba.”
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Источник: argumenti.ru
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