Tourists were advised to abstain – Kommersant FM

The Government recommended that tour operators suspend the sale of tours to Israel and several other countries in the Middle East. We are talking about trips to Libya, Jordan and Palestine, the Ministry of Economic Development said in a statement. The department clarified that Russians should refrain from visiting these states until the situation in the region normalizes.

Those who have already booked tours may demand full compensation for trip cancellation, Dmitry Gorin, vice-president of the Russian Union of Travel Industry, told Kommersant FM:

“On October 7, we received recommendations from the Ministry of Economic Development to temporarily suspend the sale of tours to Israel, and on October 15, all organized Russian tourists returned on regular flights. New trips are temporarily not offered. The new warnings are more specific to Lebanon. There are no regular flights to this country, and we do not send organized tourists there. Of course, there are Russian citizens in this country who have made private trips, independent travelers. In this situation, you need to use transit flights, since there is no direct air service.

Jordan was popular, but due to difficult logistics conditions at the moment it is also a destination for individual, unorganized tourism. Those tourists who have booked, for example, tours to Jordan, in accordance with the order of the Ministry of Economic Development, can apply for cancellation and refund or reconsideration to another destination.

What compensation can Russian tourists expect? Since there is a threat to safety in pre-trial or judicial proceedings, you can receive 100 percent compensation. As a rule, companies cooperate. Of these three directions, small sales volumes were only in Israel. At the time of the recommendations, there were no more than 100 organized tourists in this country. The average bill without air travel per person was $1 thousand, and the flight cost 60 thousand rubles. or 100 thousand rubles. It’s significantly more expensive than other destinations.”

Tours to countries where the Ministry of Economic Development has recommended to refrain from traveling have recently accounted for less than 1% of outbound tourism, note travel industry representatives interviewed by Kommersant FM. The number of travelers on these routes did not exceed 100 thousand per year.

Due to the current situation, interest in tours to more popular neighboring countries in the region has decreased, says Maya Kotlyar, head of the individual tourism company Mayel Travel:

“We canceled tours at the beginning of the war in the Middle East for security reasons. We are also seeing a sharp decline in demand for travel to Egypt. That is, people in general are afraid to travel, despite the fact that Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh are 500 km from the hot zone. Also at the beginning of the war, people stopped being interested in excursion Turkey, because they were afraid that Turkey would get involved in this story.

How big is the tourist flow to Israel, Lebanon, Jordan? There are now very few organized tourists there, more independent ones. Therefore, we cannot adequately calculate their real number in Israel. As for Jordan and Lebanon, yes, these countries enjoyed interest, but not on such a large scale as Israel.”

In 2022, 160 thousand Russian tourists visited Israel. Most often, citizens came to the country from the USA, France and Great Britain. After the coronavirus pandemic, Israel was unable to restore tourism. Last year’s figures were half the level of 2019.

---

Everything is clear with us – Telegram channel “Kommersant FM”.

Elena Tyuleneva