The tourism industry described the benefits of early booking: Turkey will fall in price by 60%

The Russian folk proverb “prepare the sleigh in the summer” has acquired particular relevance in our time. A sharp narrowing of holiday destinations and economic uncertainty forced our compatriots to take “warm places” for their summer holidays already in December: they save money and still have a choice of places. Such early bookings, according to representatives of travel agencies, have never happened before. “MK” found out from the leaders of the tourism industry where Russians are already buying tickets and which directions for early booking are the most popular.

If you buy a tour now to Turkey or Egypt for the summer, you can save a lot. But: this requires confidence that the geopolitical situation, borders, air traffic will remain the same (here we add a possible travel ban for some categories of citizens of the Russian Federation), so that foreign resorts, which can already be counted on the fingers on one hand, remain affordable, and the money for the tour would not have to be returned with a fight.

“Some Turkish hotels are now giving a discount of up to 60% compared to the prices that will be in the high season,” Olga Ivanova, a representative of the leading Russian travel company, told MK. – But in general, the advantage of early booking is that you can reserve a room of the desired category for specific dates, even in popular hotels. Now we have in the top for early bookings – Turkey, Russia, UAE, Egypt, Abkhazia.

“Early booking has become much more in demand than before,” Natalya Osipova, director of the Alliance of Travel Agencies Association, told us. – Many people buy tickets to domestic sanatoriums almost a year in advance. This is the Krasnodar Territory, Sochi sanatoriums and our other regions. Someone has chosen a favorite object for himself and buys a ticket there in advance, since, as a rule, there are no places there for 3-4 months. In general, the popularity of sanatorium treatment in our country has especially increased, because, firstly, after the pandemic, more people began to need it, and secondly, treatment abroad became unavailable.

Natalya Osipova said that at the stage of early booking, you can save about 15-30% of the cost of the tour. This applies both to Russia and to popular foreign destinations: Turkey, the UAE, Egypt.

– Domestic sanatoriums, river cruises in Russia, excursion programs to popular Russian cities – these three holiday destinations are now in great demand, and therefore vouchers must be bought there at least six months in advance, – says Osipova. – For example, excursions to St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kazan for June need to be booked now, understanding that school and student holidays, holidays, in general, the summer vacation period is a high season.

And indeed, as the MK correspondent also made sure, there were only four empty seats (cabins) on the Volga river cruise we had chosen at the beginning of June.

– The first stage of early booking began in December. Now we are buying tours to Turkey and Thailand, – says the capital’s travel agent Svetlana Navalikhina. – Indeed, it is very profitable to buy tours early, especially abroad. For example, in Turkey this year, compared to last year, prices for many hotels have increased by 30-50%, and even if the price has already increased on early booking, then, accordingly, the closer to the season, the higher it will be.

However, some tourists, for example, consider it unwise to buy “early tours”, making the assumption that “in 2023 it will be the same as in 2022, namely: lower prices in May before the onset of summer.” “The Turks can voice their dreams of higher prices as much as they want, but in Russia the decline in living standards will continue, and demand will not be violent,” said Valery from the Amur region, who is used to vacationing in Turkey. – And besides, some categories may be banned from traveling abroad; there will be no demand for Europe either … Therefore, in May, hoteliers will begin to knock out preliminary sales results (unhappy) and stimulate sales at a price.”

But not everyone shares this opinion, judging by the forum. So, one family shared that in early December they took a ticket for October 2023 to a cool hotel in Antalya for three for 252,000 rubles. – “then it will be more expensive!”. Some are generally at a loss: “People, how can you book so far in advance, you are not afraid of anything?”