. Organized sector sales are at least already a third ahead of last year. We learned from tour operators which domestic destinations are in the TOP-5 summer sales and on what factors the success of the 2023 season depends.
TOURISTS HAVE ADAPTERED TO THE CLOSING OF AIRPORTS IN SOUTHERN DESTINATIONS
Sales of tours in the domestic market for the summer of 2023 are much better than in the spring of 2022, the leading tour operator companies told ATOR Vestnik.
ATOR Vice President, General Director of the Dolphin tour operator < strong>Sergey Romashkin estimates summer booking growth in Russia at 30% compared to the beginning of last year.
In his opinion, the main factors stimulating the sale of tours to the Black Sea resorts are the acceptance by tourists of the fact that the southern airports of Russia are closed, as well as the high cost of tours to outbound destinations.
As the expert explains, if last spring and early summer tourists still had hope of resuming flights to Simferopol and Anapa in the summer season, then this year there are no such expectations.
“Therefore, everyone who needs it is planning trips taking into account the changed logistics. People understand that they will have to get to a number of southern resorts with closed airports by train or car,” Sergey Romashkin notes. According to him, this year, more active demand is also stimulated by a decrease in the level of uncertainty among Russians.
“People have already formed a clear understanding that the best hotels in resorts, like train or plane tickets, must be bought in advance . Because during the season, neither one nor the other, and especially at an attractive price, may simply not be available, ”says the vice president of ATOR.
Similar changes in the choice of consumers are confirmed by Multitour experts: according to their observations, when booking tours to Anapa, tourists are already set to get to the resort by rail or by car.
DEMAND FOR HOLIDAYS IN RUSSIA CONTINUES GROW
Different tour operators have different dynamics of booking tours in Russia compared to last year (this depends on the level of the comparison base, market share, Russia's share in the total assortment, marketing policy), but it is positive everywhere.
The press service of the Intourist tour operator reported a 40% increase in bookings for summer programs in Russia, while the National Tour Operator ALEAN recorded a 57% increase in demand for the summer. And FUN&SUN and Russian Express are reporting a two-fold increase in demand for summer tours in Russia compared to last year, while there are already applications for arrivals in the velvet season.
“If in past seasons summer tours in Russia sold well in March, this year they are actively asked already in January-February. Summer is already being booked, in connection with which we note a 30% increase in sales for the upcoming season, ”experts of the Multitour tour operator share their observations.
Steady high demand for Russian resorts and excursion destinations in the summer season 2023 was also reported by Coral Travel, BSI Group, TEZ TOUR and ANEX Tour.
Representatives of the BSI Group note the high interest in river cruises and predict sales growth in this segment. Lead GROUP specialists draw attention to the demand for medical and health tours in the summer, including the active demand for sanatorium holidays in the health resorts of the Caucasian Mineralnye Vody, Altai, Tatarstan, Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk regions.
In the opinion participants in the organized tourism market, the current dynamics of summer sales in the domestic market indicates both a certain adaptation of Russians to the current socio-economic situation and new prices, and once again confirms the growing popularity of domestic tourism.
“Rest in Russia has now become a trend. In addition, it is a stable option during turbulence,” emphasize the experts of the tour operator FUN&SUN.
“Not far away. Inexpensive. Not for long” in the behavior of domestic tourists is popular and so far it works without any changes,” they add to Lead the Group.
PAC Group experts also pay attention to such factors that stimulate domestic demand, such as periodic ticket sales from airlines and early booking rates for the summer of 2023, as well as such obvious advantages of domestic holidays as the absence of the need to issue a passport or change currency.
According to tour operators, in 2023 there is no shift in demand for trips to the “wings” of the season compared to previous years. As before, the largest number of Russians take vacations and go on vacation in July and August, and this trend continues for the upcoming season.
According to ALEAN, in early March, the majority of bookings are in the summer months: June (17%), July (21%) and August (17%). So far only 10% of tourists have booked trips to Russian resorts in May, and 8% in September.
TOP 5 MOST BOOKED DESTINATIONS IN RUSSIA FOR SUMMER 2023
Tour operators have named the TOP 5 domestic destinations leading in sales for the summer season 2023. These are Krasnodar Territory (Sochi, Anapa, Gelendzhik), Abkhazia (in the assortment of tour operators it is technically an “internal” direction, since these tours are ruble and with arrival in Sochi), Caucasian Mineralnye Vody, Kaliningrad and Dagestan.
According to Sergey Romashkin from Delfin, Abkhazia shows the largest growth: the volume of summer bookings in this direction increased by 50-60% compared to last year. As they add to Multitour, Abkhazia sells well due to affordable prices.
According to ALEAN, Sochi is the leader in the 2023 summer sales ranking with a share of 26%, while Anapa (17%) is confidently in second place with this company, and compared to last year, the share of bookings for this resort, where air traffic has been suspended, even increased (it was 13%).
The growing trend towards recovery and healthy lifestyle is also confirmed by the growth in bookings of tours to the resorts of Kavminvod: as follows from ALEAN statistics, if a year ago the share of sales of Kavminvod was 11%, then in the spring of 2023 it is already 17%.
Experts pay attention to the growing popularity of excursion destinations. So, in the top five summer sales of tour operators “VEDI GROUP” and FUN&SUN – Kamchatka, PAC Group also has Baikal and Altai in this list, ANEX Tour and BSI Group have summer tours to Kazan in demand.
“This year, sales of active tours to Baikal, Kamchatka and Sakhalin, Khakassia, Altai, Vladivostok and the Caucasus have increased by 40-45% compared to last year,” VEDI GROUP emphasizes.
< p>As Intourist explains, the presence in the TOP-5 of Kaliningrad is understandable: given the constant shortage of places in hotels and resorts in the westernmost Russian region, tourists are used to booking this destination in advance. summer! top five of Moscow and St. Petersburg in early March.
“Traditional leaders in excursion demand, such as Moscow and St. Petersburg, have a short booking depth. They will enter the TOP-5 by the end of the summer,” Intourist notes.
CRIMEA WILL RECOVER LOSSES AT THE DUE TO CAR TOURISTS
The situation with booking tours to the Crimea is still close to last year. As Sergei Romashkin notes, demand is 35-40% lower, although Crimea closes the TOP-3 in the summer sales of Dolphin in terms of the total number of bookings. Crimea and in third place in sales in the domestic market and the tour operator “Intourist”.
According to other tour operators, Crimea is in the TOP-10 in terms of demand in the domestic market, but the lag behind sales of seasons until 2022 is noticeable.
“In 2023, the number of bookings to the region decreased by 70%,” ALEAN reported.
Nevertheless, according to the vice-president of ATOR, the situation with the demand for tours to Crimea may change already in the spring.
“Crimea will win back the backlog due to those tourists who travel by car. Third place for Crimea at the current stage is a good start for further growth in sales,” the expert believes.
WHAT DEPENDS ON THE SUCCESS OF THE SUMMER SEASON ON THE DOMESTIC MARKET
According to the participants of the tourist market, in the absence of force majeure, the demand for summer holidays in Russia will only increase as we approach the start of the season. According to TEZ TOUR experts, the peak of sales of summer tours in Russia will come at the end of March – April. As ALEAN experts add, despite all the benefits of early booking, there still remains a certain audience of tourists, which will be determined with vacation plans 2-3 weeks before the date of arrival.
In forecasts, even the preliminary results of the summer tour operators are cautious in the domestic market for the 2023 season.
In the absence of force majeure and other aggravating factors, tourism industry experts expect sales growth in domestic resorts and excursion destinations. At a minimum, booking volumes may grow by 10-15%, and with the opening of southern airports, this dynamics may reach + 30-40% compared to last year.
Intourist also another important factor on which the success of the summer season depends. This is the policy of hoteliers towards tour operators and the retail travel agency.
It is not uncommon for representatives of the hotel sector to behave unfriendly towards the tourist retail, luring away customers with direct discounts, breaking contracts in the middle of the season or raising already confirmed prices.
Intourist talks about the need to maintain parity in sales during the high season and more responsible interaction with tour operators and retailers, recalling that effective cooperation is the key to loading and successful sales not only in the high season, but also in the low season.< /p>
Elena Myagkova