Informe semanal de noticias del mercado ruso elaborado por la Oficina de Turismo de Tenerife en Moscú

Aviation News

Coral Travel tour operator canceled flight program from Belgorod to Thailand

In the upcoming winter season, Belgorod residents will not be able to fly from their city to the resorts of Thailand. Coral Travel tour operator canceled the flight program, which was carried out from the region last year. As a result, the range of travel agencies in Belgorod has actually no winter destinations.

According to the director of Great Travels Agency, Inna Polevnichy, the residents of neighboring cities of Kursk and Voronezh, who actively used Coral Travel flights to Thailand, suffered. Tourists are not ready to go to Moscow – winter train tickets’ cost is about 10 thousand Rubles (137 Euros) per family.

Pegas Touristik also reduced the number of flights to Thailand – from 33 cities of departure to 29 cities this year. The rest of the Thai players still retain their last year volumes. Biblio-Globus reported that the program has not changed: as before, there are five flights a week from Moscow to Phuket and twice a week to Pattaya. All flights are on the boards of Rossia Airlines. ANEX Tour, where the situation is similar, added that on some routes the airplanes were replaced by bigger ones – for example, Boeing 777 with a business class will fly from Moscow to Thailand.

Collision with gulls forced a plane to land in a field

A Russian Airbus 321 has crash-landed in a cornfield outside Moscow shortly after take-off, after birds were sucked into the plane’s engines. The pilot brought it down with engines off and the landing gear retracted. Passengers and crew on the Ural Airlines flight, which was flying to Simferopol in Crimea, were evacuated safely, although officials say 23 people received minor injuries. Passengers inside the plane filmed the birds and are reported to have felt a thud as they hit the engines. According to TourDom, some tourists who were on the board refused to wait for a new flight from Moscow to Simferopol and canceled their vacation.

Air traffic between Russia and Georgia will not be restored within a year

Presumably, Air traffic between Russia and Georgia will not be opened until the parliamentary elections in Georgia, scheduled for October 2020. According to the vice-president of the Russian Union of Travel Industry Yuri Barzykin, the tourist flow from Russia to Georgia decreased by 70%, however, Russian travelers still travel to Georgia by connecting flights or by train.

Travelers

Russian tourists made more purchases during their foreign trips this year

In 2019, tourists from Russia made more purchases during their foreign trips: the number of transactions increased by 11%. However, the average amount of expenses per person for the entire period of a trip decreased by 8%, the amount of the average check decreased by 12%.

But the tourists save on entertainment, their average bill decreased by 21%, as well as expenses on jewelry (decreased by 14%) and fur (decreased by 76%). Russian tourists are still reducing transportation costs. Surprisingly, they are spending more money on sports equipment and dental treatment abroad, as well as the purchase of gadgets and even garden supplies.

 

Travel Industry

Rostourism excluded 10 more tour operators from the register list

Rostourism excluded ten tour operators from the unified federal register list of tour operators this week. There are no large companies among them.

Recall, from the beginning of July, Rostourism excluded 69 companies from the unified federal register list of tour operators. According to the orders of the Federal Tourism Agency, they were excluded due to the failure to provide full information on the financial provision of responsibility to tourists for a new term.

Competitors

The demand of Russian tourists for tours to Israel increased

According to The Central Bureau of Statistics (Israel), in July 2019, about 322 thousand visits of tourists were registered, which is 10% more than in July 2018, and 19.1% more than in July 2017. For the period from January to July 2019, 2.587 million visits of tourists were registered, last year this figure was 2.356 million. Intourist’s sales of tours to Israel increased by 13% compared to last year. Russian tour operators expect successful sales of tours to Israel this fall season. Beach vacations are most popular among Russians, however, the specifics of the destination are such that it is quite easy to combine with excursion programs, as well as wellness offers.

Destination News

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs may let foreign tourists visit Russia without confirmation document from a tour operator

On Tuesday, August 13, a draft law on simplifying the procedure for issuing Russian visas to foreign citizens was published on the website of regulatory acts. The initiator of the development of the document is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. According to the draft law, amendments are planned to be introduced in the Federal Law “On the Procedure for Departure from the Russian Federation and Entry into the Russian Federation”. In particular, it’s planned to exclude the clause on issuing a visa to a foreign tourist only if he or she has a confirmation of tour from a Russian tour operator. Under the new rules, for obtaining a visa to Russia, it is enough for foreign citizens to have a confirmed hotel reservation. This rule will be only valid if the purpose of the trip is tourism.

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