Tourists flew over the pandemic

The gradual recovery of the travel market after the COVID-19 pandemic, rising prices and the reorientation of independent travelers to the organized segment contributed to the growth in the turnover of travel agencies. During the summer season, the indicator increased by more than 40% compared to 2019. The results of the year will depend on the flight programs for the autumn-winter season, but the current dynamics of bookings for the November holidays is positive.

According to the results of June-August 2022, the turnover of travel agencies increased by 42.3%, taking into account inflation, relative to the pre-crisis 2019, according to a study by Tochka Bank. Year on year, the indicator increased by 30.8%. The dynamics is partly explained by an increase in the average payment by 25.7% compared to 2019, the number of transactions over this period increased by 30.8%.

Tochka associates the positive dynamics and growth in the turnover of travel agencies with the recovery of the market after the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in the cost of flights abroad. The executive director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) Maya Lomidze adds that the turnover of travel agencies is also influenced by the transition of tourists from an independent to an organized segment. According to her estimates, this summer the share of organized travelers in the domestic market reached 20% against the pre-crisis 10-15%, and in the outbound market it increased from 50% to 70%. Ms. Lomidze attributes the trend to support measures and a market restructuring that allows tour operators to offer better travel prices, as well as fears and difficulties in paying for bookings from tourists traveling abroad.

Representative of OnlineTur.ru Igor Blinov notes that the turnover of his company is still 30% behind the indicators of 2019 due to a decrease in the flow to mass foreign destinations. “In-kind sales sank a lot more, the rise in prices is indeed partly offsetting the decline,” he says. Mr. Blinov adds that the figures are noticeably better than the level of 2020-2021. The general director of the Dolphin tour operator, Sergey Romashkin, indicates that the turnover of his company due to specialization in domestic destinations increased by 50% by 2019. “Half came from inflation, the rest from organic growth,” he says.

In general, tourist activity has not yet reached the pre-crisis level. According to ATOR estimates, the number of trips across the country this summer increased by 5% compared to the value of 2019, but this dynamics is also called “very positive” by the association. At the same time, the number of trips to international destinations was about 60% lower than three years ago. According to UIS and CoMagic, the traffic of sites related to the provision of travel services (tour operators, agencies, hotel and ticket booking systems) in June-August this year was more than twice as low as in the summer of 2019 and approximately corresponded to last year’s level.

According to Maia Lomidze, it is still difficult to predict further dynamics, since the autumn-winter season largely depends on flight programs abroad, which tour operators and carriers can form. While the activity of tourists is really quite high. In the domestic market, according to Sergei Romashkin’s forecasts, the flow of tourists this year will be 5% higher than last year. “The situation is much better than it seemed in March,” he states.

Travelata.ru indicates that the current volume of bookings for the November holidays is 2.5 times higher than in the same period last year. The average booking price across all destinations is on the rise. Thus, tours in Russia (forming 68% of sales) have risen in price over the year by an average of 27.6%, to 42.2 thousand rubles, trips to Egypt (9%) – by 10%, to 152 thousand rubles, to Turkey (8%) – by 72%, up to 140.9 thousand rubles. Marketing Director of Travelata.ru Oleg Kozyrev connects a large share of domestic destinations in the sales structure with the tourist cashback program and the increase in the cost of tours to Turkey.

Alexandra Mertsalova