Crimea entered the TOP-3 leading destinations for the New Year holidays. Maya Lomidze, executive director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR), announced this at a press conference in the TASS press center.
"The obvious leaders for the New Year holidays are Krasnodar Territory and Crimea. According to our analysts, almost half of all clients of tour operators who have chosen Russia for their New Year holidays go to the warmer places. That is the Krasnodar Territory and Crimea, as well as Abkhazia that joined them. These are the three undisputed leaders," emphasized Maya Lomidze.
By the way, according to the press service of ATOR, the average cost of already sold New Year's tours to Crimea from the international tour operator Intourist, for example, was 80,200 rubles (about $ 1,084) for two.
At the same time, M. Lomidze adds, the North of Russia is in unexpectedly high demand for the New Year's holidays. In addition to the traditional St. Petersburg, it is Karelia, where New Year's charter flights will fly for the first time, Murmansk and Velikiy Ustyug − the home land of Father Frost (Russian Santa Claus). In addition, in the top is the Sheregesh ski resort, where charters will also fly for the first time. The Caucasian resorts are also interesting for tourists as a place for winter recreation.
"New Year's holidays are being sold quite actively. Tour operators expect this activity – selling Russian destinations − to increase in early December, as people try to book at the last moment just in case: any changes may happen. Nevertheless, the demand for New Year's holidays is significantly higher than it was in 2020, and this is already encouraging. There are also more opportunities for recreation, despite the fact that many regions have introduced restrictions. Our tourists choose the regions where these restrictions are minimal or not burdensome. That is, people are still determined to have vacations," the head of ATOR summed up.
If we talk about the general, average change in prices for New Year's tours in Russia − according to the press service of ATOR, they increased by 5-10% compared to last year (although fluctuations vary from hotel to hotel, and somewhere prices remained even at the level of last year). Tour operator companies note that the evident increase in prices for such tours is within real inflation, and is dictated by an increase in prices of service providers.
