The Russians did not refuse tours because of the situation with PMC “Wagner”

The spiral of political tension due to the rebellion of the Wagner PMC, due to its short duration, did not convince the Russians to seriously change their summer vacation plans. Cancellations and transfers of bookings were of a single nature, and the sales of tours, which had sagged at the moment by almost a third, recovered by the end of Sunday. The most affected were autotourists, who faced significant delays due to massive road closures. On outbound destinations, short-term growth in ticket prices and a jump in exchange rates became problems, but they were managed to be leveled.

The aggravation of the domestic political situation did not lead to a mass refusal of Russians to travel. Sergey Romashkin, the general director of the Dolphin tour operator, assured that his company received “single appeals”. The vice-president of the Russian Union of Travel Industry Dmitry Gorin also speaks about the absence of cancellations: “The difficulties were short-term, and the tour can be canceled only taking into account the actual costs incurred.”

According to him, only a small part of the tourists postponed the trip.

The most affected, according to Dmitry Gorin, were travelers who on June 24 had to get to places of rest by car. “In summer, car tourists make up about 50% of the flow to Russian resorts, and Rostov-on-Don and Voronezh are important transit points for them, where many stay overnight,” he explains.

According to Mr. Romashkin’s calculations, 30,000-40,000 people travel by car to resorts in the south of the country every day. On Saturday, they faced delays of 6-12 hours due to the need for detours. “On Sunday, traffic was limited in places, but in general the situation was resolved,” he says.

The events of June 24 had little effect on the departure of tourists abroad: the airports worked as usual. Alexan Mkrtchyan, founder of the Pink Elephant travel agency network, explains that under the conditions of the moratorium on flights since last spring, residents of Rostov-on-Don and Krasnodar go on foreign tours through the airports of Sochi and Mineralnye Vody, Lipetsk and Voronezh – through Moscow. “We didn’t have tourists from these regions who couldn’t fly: for departure on Saturday flights, most left on Friday,” he says. In addition, according to the expert, air carriers met tourists halfway, agreeing to postpone flights for passengers with registration in cities where traffic was limited.

Sales of tours to foreign destinations on Saturday, according to Mr. Mkrtchyan, decreased by 7-8% compared to the same day of the previous week, which is associated with a sharp increase in the cost of flights in the coming days.

So, on Saturday, the last direct flight to Dubai was available for 350 thousand rubles. Now you can fly with Aeroflot from Moscow in the first half of the week from 9.8 thousand rubles. (without luggage), by the end of the week prices rise to 35 thousand rubles. Raising prices closer to weekends is a common occurrence, but at the height of the summer season, almost all tickets are already bought out for a flight, which Kommersant’s interlocutors in airlines explain the abnormal prices for flights over the past two days against the backdrop of rush demand.

Other directions also show price reductions. In Istanbul, the last weekend tickets cost from 40 thousand to 242 thousand rubles, now – from 9.7 thousand rubles. The same amount now costs a minimum flight to Antalya instead of 60-100 thousand rubles. the day before. To Yerevan, where the last tickets on Sunday cost 70 thousand and 200 thousand rubles, now available from 37 thousand rubles, in Almaty – from 25 thousand rubles.

Dmitry Gorin explains that on the day of departure, carriers usually have three to five empty seats on the flight, which are expensive and not getting cheaper. He draws attention to the fact that airfare prices this time have not come close to the highs that were in the spring of last year, after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine. Representative of OnlineTur.ru Igor Blinov says that a sharp jump in the exchange rate has also become a problem for tourists, which led to an increase in the cost of tours on Saturday by 10-15% at once.

Along with the stabilization of the cost of flights and exchange rates, the demand for foreign tours has recovered, says Alexan Mkrtchyan. According to him, the demand for domestic destinations on Saturday fell by 30%, but on Sunday the booking dynamics returned to normal.

Market participants note that objective assessments of the impact of political aggravation on demand can be made no earlier than the end of the first working day, since sales of tours on weekends are traditionally much lower than on weekdays.

“The main advantage of the situation and the existing restrictions was their short duration, otherwise we would have faced a pronounced recession,” says Alexan Mkrtchyan.

Sergey Romashkin notes that, in general, summer sales of tours to the seaside resorts of the Krasnodar Territory and Abkhazia have been 5–10% lower than last year since the end of May. He draws attention to the fact that the number of trips of Russians to Turkey, which is considered the main foreign competitor of Russian summer vacation destinations, has also been declining. According to the expert, Crimea stands apart among domestic destinations. The flow to the peninsula, he explains, in June was 25–30% behind last year, but has recently begun to grow slightly. Mr. Romashkin does not rule out that in July-August, an increase in sales of tours to the Crimea is possible due to relatively low prices.

Alexandra Mertsalova, Aigul Abdullina