Achievements of the people’s Abkhazia – Newspaper Kommersant No. 152 (7353) of 08/20/2022

The summer season turned out to be better for the tourist market than its participants expected. Due to the recovery in demand and rising prices, the volume of bookings in physical and monetary terms increased compared to the previous year. Abkhazia has become the most growing destination for summer trips this year, partially replacing Crimean resorts and some foreign destinations. Restrictions on air travel did not allow businesses to reach pre-pandemic indicators.

According to Travelata.ru, the volume of tour bookings for June-August exceeded the figure for the same period last year by 12%. In money terms, sales increased by 35% against the background of rising prices: the average cost of a booked tour abroad for the summer, according to analysts, amounted to 162.2 thousand rubles, which is 46.9% more year-on-year. The average check for tours around the country increased by 26.7% to 65.6 thousand rubles.

Igor Blinov, a representative of OnlineTur.ru, adds that in physical terms, summer sales abroad were 30% lower than pre-pandemic 2019, but price increases provided revenue to the tourism industry.

Turkey, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the Maldives have become the most popular summer destinations for organized tours, he says.

Similar estimates are given by tour operators. Fun & Sun points out that sales of tours abroad for the summer season this year were comparable to last year and slightly behind the pre-pandemic 2019. The gap is associated with restrictions on air travel and the inability to send mass tourists to Cyprus, Cuba, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Montenegro, the company adds. This factor also affects the flow to Turkey: the demand for the direction is high, but the volume of traffic is limited. Intourist also notes that the season turned out to be quite positive, but the lack of carrying capacity and departure cities does not allow approaching pre-crisis levels.

Revival began in the segment of independent tourism. According to Tutu.ru, the share of foreign trips exceeded last year’s figure twice and by 2% – the level of 2020, but was 23% lower than the pre-crisis 2019. A similar trend was noticed in OneTwoTrip: the share of tourist trips to foreign countries increased by 2.2 times over the year, to 11%, but it did not reach the pre-pandemic value of 14%. The most popular destinations among travelers are, as expected, the destinations of the near abroad and Turkey. OneTwoTrip names Armenia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan as five popular countries.

According to Tutu.ru, Georgia and Israel also entered the top 10 in the summer. According to Ostrovok.ru, Italy, Spain and France were also in demand.

Daria Domostroyeva, a representative of Intourist, calls the growth in demand for trips to Abkhazia a pronounced summer trend: the number of bookings increased by 25% over the year.

The general director of Dolphin, Sergey Romashkin, speaks of a growth of 15-18%: last year, the popularity of Abkhazia also grew in the context of the pandemic restrictions in effect in the Krasnodar Territory. Ostrovok.ru notes that Abkhazia also entered the top 10 destinations for booking by independent travelers, although last year it was outside the rating.

The average cost of a night here was 4.3 thousand rubles, which is 16% higher than a year ago. Daria Domostroyeva assumes that part of the tourists who are accustomed to traveling to Europe have reoriented to Abkhazia. “We have clients who traditionally make three or four short trips during the summer, many of them chose Abkhazia as one of the destinations,” she notes.

Sergei Romashkin does not rule out that Abkhazia could be chosen by some of the clients who refused to rest in the Crimea this year. According to his estimates, the demand for holidays on the peninsula has decreased by 50% year-on-year. At the same time, the growth of interest in Sochi this season is estimated at 5-7%.

According to Mr. Romashkin, this season was also successful for the resorts of the Caucasian Mineralnye Vody and all excursion destinations, which showed a 30% increase in sales.

Ostrovok.ru confirms that the volume of hotel bookings in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Kazan increased by 10-17% over the summer compared to the last year season. These cities, according to the service, have become the most popular domestic destinations. Daria Domostroeva also speaks of a significant increase in interest in the North Caucasus, where the regions were partially unprepared for such a sharp increase in flow.

Alexandra Mertsalova