As last year, the local authorities decide for themselves in what format to celebrate the New Year holidays. Let’s tell you what the situation is in the traditional tourist regions.
Since the beginning of the special operation, a ban on the use of fireworks has been introduced in the Krasnodar Territory, so there will be no urban fireworks in the resort towns of the KKK (resorts of the Krasnodar Territory) for Christmas and New Year. The governor of Kuban, Veniamin Kondratiev, called on residents and guests of the region to abandon the use of pyrotechnics during the meeting of the New Year, 2024: “We will not grab people by the hand – a New Year, a holiday… Let’s stop on a sparkler, maybe, because fireworks are not the time.” Sochi Mayor Alexei Kopaigorodsky called on major hotels and restaurants to also abandon fireworks.
There are no plans to hold large-scale mass events, fireworks and fireworks in honor of the New Year and Christmas in the Republic of Crimea. The main priority is safety. Stavropol Territory and Kaliningrad Region will also celebrate the New Year without fireworks.
There were no fireworks in St. Petersburg for the New Year 2023, but there were fireworks on May 9 and on the City Day. Therefore, the interested parties show restrained optimism: “Most likely, yes.” Interestingly, in St. Petersburg, the New Year’s fireworks were traditionally held at 03:00 in the morning. In the capital and the Moscow region, the authorities have not yet announced their decision, but last year the decree of the governments of Moscow and the Moscow region prohibiting the launching of fireworks at municipal funds on New Year’s Eve came out closer to the New Year.
Prices in December
Two studies of the cost of travel have attracted our attention. It should be noted that prices for the current December were considered, excluding New Year holidays. The first study, from one of the domestic hotel and apartment booking services, attracted by its ambiguity and at the same time originality. The service has identified the most expensive travel destinations in December 2023. In the first place among the service’s customers was the Baikal resort Listvyanka, where the average cost of a night’s stay was just over 27 thousand rubles, in second place was Korobitsyno in the Leningrad region with a cost of a night of 16.5 thousand rubles. And in the third place is Veliky Ustyug in the Vologda region, where a December night costs an average of 11 thousand rubles.
In general, if you know the situation in the country, it is difficult to believe that the prices for hotels in Korobitsyno (where the Golden Valley ski resort is located) are higher than in Krasnaya Polyana in Sochi or at the Manzherok ski resort in Altai – and these accommodations are present in the rating of the service much lower than Korobitsyn. AN-Tourism looked at the cost of living in the Manzherok hotel complex for a day from December 10 to 11 – from 27 thousand rubles. That is, the price cross-section of the service is not relevant, but interesting for understanding trends. Plus, there is no attempt to advertise both yourself and the ski resort in the Leningrad region, which in principle is useful for the general development of those interested in domestic tourism.
Let’s take the second study provided by ATOR (Association of Tour Operators of Russia) more seriously – they consider organized tourists nationwide, and their coverage is incomparably higher compared to even the most popular travel planning services.
According to ATOR, more than 84% of the tours booked by organized tourists for December 2023 are in 5 countries – Egypt, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Turkey. Interestingly, if you look at user search queries when selecting tours, the order of places in the ranking is slightly different: Egypt, UAE, Thailand, Turkey and Russia. That is, I want to go to the UAE, but we fly to Thailand, I want to go to Turkey, but we go to Russia. And we are going to Egypt because there is a 43% drop in the cost of a week-long tour compared to November 2023. It’s a pity, there is no comparison with December 2022.
In Thailand, most organized tourists want to relax in Phuket (80% of search queries), although in reality 58% went there. Tours to the UAE show an even greater spread of “expectations – reality” – 87% of search queries for holidays in Dubai, although as a result, only 34% of customers bought tours to the most popular emirate. It’s even cooler in Turkey. Resorts in Antalya province account for 93% of requests in general, in reality 43% went to Belek, Alanya and the city of Antalya itself. And Istanbul turned out to be among the leaders in sales of December tours to Turkey – 30%.
Will the passports be withdrawn?
A lot of noise was made by the government decree, according to which Russians deprived of the right to travel abroad will have to hand over their passports. Previously, they simply warned that if a citizen is banned from leaving, then the passport may be seized at the border. Now bankrupts, debtors, employees with secrecy, conscripts, mobilized, suspects or accused in criminal cases (the latter, however, had their passports withdrawn anyway) must hand over their passport within five days after the announcement of the restriction of the right to leave. You can, of course, not hand over your passport, it remains valid, but you should not be released abroad. Explanations in the media (we would say exaggerations) that if the passport is not handed over, it will be invalidated, are true only for citizens who have access to state secrets (art. 8.1, paragraph 14, Federal Law No. 212 “On the procedure for leaving the Russian Federation and entering the Russian Federation”).
In fact, nothing is changing globally, the amendments to the law of 06/13/2023 have streamlined the restrictions on conscripts and mobilized, which were introduced in Russia after the announcement of mobilization in September 2022. According to the Main Directorate for Migration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, in 2023, in January–October, Russians received almost 5 million foreign passports, which is 20% more than in the same period a year earlier. Due to the fact that in February-May 2023, new generation foreign passports (for 10 years) They were not issued, most of the issued passports (3 million) were for 5 years.
News from the airfields
Two news items concern the Airbus A320, which landed on a wheat field near Novosibirsk. Firstly, the pilots of the aircraft were allegedly offered to write a statement of their own volition and resign from Ural Airlines. According to information leaked to the media, the pilots refused to leave voluntarily. The airline does not comment on rumors about the dismissal of pilots. Secondly, the management of Ural Airlines is inclined to the fact that the aircraft will be disassembled for spare parts. However, a final decision has not yet been made.
And a couple of news about expanding opportunities for international flights. S7 Airlines has opened ticket sales on its website for flights of foreign partner airlines. For example, you can take a flight to Sri Lanka or the Maldives by Gulf Air with a transfer in Bahrain. It is clear that Russian bank cards are accepted for payment on the S7 website. But the airline from the United Arab Emirates, Air Arabia, also accepts cards from Russian banks of the MIR payment systems, Visa, MasterCard on its website.
EP Passions
About a couple of weeks ago, a group of lawyers working with travel retail travel agents (TA) announced a boycott of a large tour operator (TO) Biblio–Globus and initiated the mass sending of a protocol of disagreement to the proposed new agreement in connection with the transition to a new state information system “Electronic Voucher” (EP). The boycott was followed by an “Open Letter from travel agents to tour operators, government agencies, and tourists”, which analyzed all violations of current legislation in all new contracts between major tour operators and travel agents. According to the assurances of the initiative group, more than 1,300 people have already signed the letter.
It is too early to sort out the details of the differences between the TWO, it is not yet clear how this intraspecific struggle will affect tourists. AN-Tourism will monitor the development of the long-awaited conflict unfolding against the background of the introduction of EP.
“PEACE” in Cuba
The two-year epic with the introduction of the “WORLD” map on Liberty Island seems to be coming to a happy ending. At first, in the spring, it became possible to withdraw cash pesos using ATMs, and recently Cuban Minister of Tourism Juan Carlos Garcia Granda assured that debugging of payment terminals for compatibility with MIR would be completed by the end of 2023.
Now, payment for goods and services using the MIR card is already being tested in individual hotels, retail outlets and restaurants. But tour operators are still insured and ask tourists to bring cash dollars and euros with them to Cuba as the main means of payment, and not rely only on the MIR card.
The most budget resort
Eurochange researchers have determined that the Bulgarian ski resort Borovets is the most budget destination for winter holidays in Europe this season. The researchers compared the cost of lift tickets, accommodation prices, ski rentals, and food and drink prices at all resorts. Next in the top 5 of the most budget ski resorts in Europe are Eurochange: Vogel (Slovenia), Les Houches (France), Livigno (Italy) and Grindelwald (Switzerland).
Invitation to partnership – t.me/snn1964
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Источник: argumenti.ru
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