The demand for domestic tourism in Russia is growing. The number of tourists at the resorts of the country will increase due to those who will not travel abroad this summer. This was stated by the vice-president of ATOR, the head of the Alean National Tour Operator Ilya Umansky.
According to the statistics of the tour operator, in 2019 39% tourists planned to go abroad, while in 2021 ― only 9%. The resorts of the Black Sea coast are in the greatest demand among Russian tourists.
Beach leisure and health improvement are the priorities
According to the Alean sales data, in summer 2021 many organized tourists traditionally choose seaside hotels and health resorts. Beach vacations account for 61% of all vouchers, for wellness treatment in health resorts, which also includes beach leisure vacations, ― another 21%.
According to Ilya Umansky, the TOP 3 popular resorts among organized travelers are those of the Krasnodar Territory, Crimea and Caucasian Mineral Waters. Speaking specifically about the cities for a beach vacations, the TOP 3 looks like this: Greater Sochi, Anapa and Greater Yalta. In addition, tour operators mark the demand for vacations in Abkhazia.
Popular summer cities are also Gelendzhik, Eupatoria, Saki, Greater Alushta, Theodosia and Koktebel.
Excursion tourism
This summer excursion tours were chosen by 9% of the tour operator's clients, river cruises ― by 4%, event and active tours ― by 3 and 2%, respectively.
St. Petersburg leads the top sales of excursion tours this summer. It was preferred by 25% of the tour operator's clients. Sightseeing trips to Kaliningrad took second place (16%), almost the same number of excursion trips (15%) was chosen to the cities of the Golden Ring. Crimea is also among the leaders in the excursion segment ― 10% of tours bought to Crimea.
Other destinations, the Russian travelers chose for cultural and educational tours, were Tatarstan, Karelia, Lake Baikal and Altai.
As previously reported, Crimea became the most affordable holiday destination in mid-June. According to ATOR (Association of Tour Operators of Russia), the cost of 10-day tours with a flight transfer for two starts from 26 thousand rubles ($ 347).
