Tour operators predicted demand for Russian resorts this summer

The demand for summer holidays is now somewhat lower compared to sales of the same period last year, the press service of the tour operator TUI admits. “There are many requests, but few sales. People are interested, but actively buying is not. Because everyone is wary about the future,” explains Olga Sanaeva, vice-president of the Russian Union of Travel Industry.

Demand this year “will falter a little towards foreign holidays, because abroad has been closed for a long time, and now the recovery process is beginning,” Sanaeva expects. There is already tangible competition with open mass foreign destinations, primarily Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt and Greece, says a representative of the Intourist tour operator. At the same time, he notes that there are more tourists who are no longer afraid to book summer vacations, and the depth of bookings has increased.

Early booking promotions allow you to buy tours at a discount of 15 to 25%, reminds the executive director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) Maya Lomidze. Early booking sales are stronger this year than last year, she said, because it is clear that prices will be higher this year in the summer. Tourists, like last year, are actively booking premium and budget vacations – in these segments, sales, according to ATOR, are 10-15% higher than last year. But the peak of sales has not yet come, it will be in March, Lomidze points out.

Of the tour operators surveyed by RBC, Alean observes an increase in tour sales: compared to the beginning of February 2021, summer tour sales increased by more than 20%. For the past five years, in January-February, tourists have been booking highly liquid hotels for the summer, which are in short supply. “The earlier the accommodation is booked, the more likely it is that the tourist will be able to stay in the exact hotel and in the category of rooms they want, and at the lowest price,” explains the representative of the tour operator.

RBC sent a request to Rostourism about forecasts for the summer season.

So far, the leaders in sales for the summer among Russian resorts among tour operators are expected to be Krasnodar Territory, Crimea, Stavropol Territory, lists Maya Lomidze. In the Krasnodar Territory, Sochi and Anapa are most booked, in the Crimea – Yalta. Kaliningrad and Altai Territory may also be among the most popular destinations this summer, according to ATOR, but the top preferences will still be adjusted. In addition to the listed traditional resorts, tourists are interested in summer holidays in Primorsky Krai, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, Baikal, adds Olga Sanaeva.

Sochi accounts for almost half of all bookings for the summer season, although sales have not yet started in all directions, a TUI representative clarifies. The hotel operator Azimut Hotels Company has hotels in the Rosa Khutor resort booked for the summer at an average of 35–40%, says Elena Kolmogorova, regional revenue director of the company. However, Sochi this year has “dipped” in early bookings by 18% compared to last year, an Intourist representative points out. But Anapa is in high demand for the summer of 2022, which is now in second place for many tour operators in terms of sales: according to Intourist, this direction shows an increase of 68% compared to last year on early bookings.

Crimea, continues in Intourist, is in stable demand, but the increase in bookings compared to last year is now only 1%. The Dolphin tour operator, on the contrary, book Crimea more actively than other destinations: 25% of tours for the summer have already been sold there.

In 2021, the top preferences of the Anex Tour tour operator were Sochi, Krasnaya Polyana, Anapa and Gelendzhik, as well as the Kaliningrad region and Abkhazia, which, although not a domestic destination, is as close as possible to rest in Russia in terms of entry conditions. This year Anex Tour took the second and third places in popularity among tourists after Sochi with sightseeing tours to St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad.

The average cost of a tour purchased through an early booking promotion for the summer of 2022 is now comparable to the price of last year: the price increase is insignificant – within 7%, says Lomidze. According to her, now prices are at least 20% lower than they will be in summer, but there is reason to believe that in April-May, after the end of the early booking campaign, the cost of holidays within the country will increase beyond these 20%. “There are always more people vacationing in the country than going abroad. We have only one region – in the Crimea – the same number of vacationers as they go to Turkey, ”reminds the executive director of ATOR, adding that Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory, taking into account the pandemic, exceed the total volume of the outbound tourism market by about one and a half times.

Prices for tours and hotels in Russian resorts have increased compared to last year, but not significantly, Sanaeva agrees. The cost of accommodation in hotels, and therefore tours, has increased by an average of 10–20% depending on the region, according to TUI. In “Intourist” they are talking about the growth of rates in hotels from 10 to 40%. Hotels on the Black Sea coast, according to Alean, raised prices for accommodation in 2022 by an average of 10%, in Abkhazia – by 15-20%, accommodation facilities in other regions mainly left prices for 2021: if rooms have risen in price, then within 5%.

Hotels have raised prices by 10-15%, since food prices have risen significantly – by more than 20%, utility bills have increased, staff salaries have grown by 25-30% over the year, says Sergei Romashkin. At the same time, accommodation facilities respond flexibly to demand and are ready to reduce prices if they do not see a good load closer to summer.

The opening of sales of foreign destinations will unambiguously adjust the dynamics of bookings in Russia, but by how much, it will be possible to estimate no earlier than March-April, when the list of countries available to Russians and the conditions for receiving our tourists are determined, says the representative of Alean. “At the same time, it is clear that Turkey has been and will remain the main competitor, but Turkish hoteliers have also raised prices and will continue to raise prices,” RBC’s interlocutor notes.

Since there is no hype at the resorts this year, prices are likely to be adjusted due to a drop in demand for more expensive four- and five-star hotels, Vadim Prasov believes. Hotels of 3-star level and below were less in demand, there was no significant increase in prices.

The Radisson Hotel Group this year is seeing a slight increase in prices on average in Russia in the region of 6-8%, says the company’s representative in Eastern Europe, Russia, Turkey and Poland, Violetta Romero de Torres. At hotels managed by the Accor group (Ibis, Novotel, Mercure) in Sochi, prices for this summer are the same as last year, said Alexis Delaroff, General Director of Accor in Russia.