for summer 2023. Particular activity was observed in three directions. This was told by travel agents as part of the Coral Travel event. AboutTurkish hoteliers, in turn, outlined the price picture for the summer season.
Issues of the upcoming summer season-2023 were discussed by representatives of the tourism industry the day before, on January 24 in Moscow as part of the Workshop Coral Travel & Sunmar.
The event caused a rush among travel agents – about 800 retail partners of the Coral Travel tour operator were present.
Professionals actively communicated with hoteliers, listened to presentations of Coral Travel summer destinations from leading specialists of the company, tasted treats and discussed with each other, as well as with the correspondent of ATOR Vestnik, the tourist preferences of their tourists for the summer season 2023.
RUSSIAN TOURISTS STARTING BOOKING FOR TURKEY FOR SUMMER-2023
According to travel agents – partners of Coral Travel – the TOP foreign destinations where Russians would like to spend their summer holidays, at the moment looks like this: Turkey,Thailand, UAE, Egypt, Russia< /strong>.
Early booking of tours to Turkey shows the best results among other destinations.
“According to early booking, tours to Turkey are now most actively bought. Buy both regular customers and newcomers. We inform our tourists that hotels in Turkey will rise in price in the summer season, and we recommend that you book your summer vacation in advance, while there are good prices and a wide selection of hotels. Tourists listen to our recommendations,” said Ekaterina Kirsanova, a representative of the franchising agency Coral Travel from Mytishchi.
Experts also note that they mostly book hotels on the Antalya coast in advance. Holidays in other Turkish resorts within the framework of early booking are bought later.
TURKEY HOTELS IN THE SUMMER SEASON INCREASE BY 15-25%
Hoteliers have confirmed that in the summer season 2023, hotel rates will be higher on average by 15-25%. At the same time, early booking sales do not yet meet their expectations.
“Prices for the summer in our hotels have grown by 15-20% by 2022. Tourists from Russia have already started booking their summer holidays. But while the volumes are slightly lower than in the same period last year. As for the volumes of early bookings in 2019, then they were 10% higher than the current ones. Mostly 5* hotels are booking now for the summer,” said Osman Aydin, a representative of Coral Group Hotels & Resorts (the new name of OTI Hotels & Resorts, which includes the brands Xanadu, Seven Seas, Otium).
However, due to high competition, many hotels cannot afford to raise prices, he said.
For example, they will not noticeably raise prices at the Laur Hotels in the resort of Didim on the Aegean Sea. The hotel is interested in increasing the proportion of Russians among its customers. Now, according to General Manager Ferhat Aydin, the share of Russians in the hotel is about 10%.
“Until February, we offer discounts of up to 51% on summer accommodation especially for tourists from Russia. Further, the discount will be 40% with a subsequent decrease,” Mr. Aydin pointed out.
Mustafa Khalid, a representative of the Voque Hotel in Bodrum, confirms the trend. He says that while applications for the summer are still single, summer bookings will traditionally enter the active phase in March. As for prices, according to Mr. Khalid, they were raised by 25% compared to 2022 values.
“If we take the price of August 2023 in our hotel, then this is 600 euros per person per day. The share of the Russian market in our hotel is at the level of 30%,” Mustafa Khalid said.
MANY RUSSIAN TOURISTS WANT TO Spend THE SUMMER IN THAILAND AND THE UAE
In addition to Turkey, tourists are showing interest in summer tours to Thailand and the UAE, which somewhat surprises travel agents.
“We have a lot of bookings to Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, although these destinations cannot be called summer destinations. We recently booked a tour to Pattaya for June for 150.9 thousand rubles. for two,” said Alzira Gureeva, director of Tropic Land.
Tours on regular flights, charter programs for the summer season in Thailand have not yet been announced, but it is known that tour operators are looking at this option.
MANY RUSSIANS ARE IN NO HURRY TO BOOK TOURS FOR SUMMER 2023
Fear for the stability of the geopolitical situation in the world does not allow many tourists to plan their holidays for summer 2023 now.
“Tourists show a high interest in summer Turkey, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, they ask Sri Lanka for the summer. But in most cases, interest does not translate into real bookings. Tourists are afraid that the situation in the world may change and the planned trips will not take place, ”says Gulnara Osmanova, a representative of a travel agency from Moscow.
Tourists who expect to receive more attractive prices closer to departure dates are in no hurry to make reservations. There are those who are counting on the imminent opening of Europe.
Alexandra Polyanskaya