"There is no decline in demand for trips abroad due to the devaluation of the ruble. Moreover, every year in the company we note an increase in sales by 10%. The only thing is that tourists try to pay for tours as quickly as possible, because they are afraid of further growth in exchange rates," he said. Pavel Lyshchenko, General Director of the Cruise Travel travel agency network, told the Interfax-Tourism portal.
The combined network of TBG and Goryachiye Tury also does not note a drop in demand for trips abroad. "We have no changes in the volume of bookings for tours abroad. When the dollar and euro rose, tourists rushed to pay for trips as quickly as possible. The depth of sales reaches November," said the company's PR director Olga Ivanova.
Director of the Pink Elephant travel agency chain Aleksan Mkrtchyan agrees with his colleagues and does not see a decline in sales of foreign tours. “The average bill for a week-long trip to Turkey for two is 60 thousand rubles. If the dollar and euro grow by 6-8%, then the tours will cost 65-68 thousand rubles. It seems significant, but in my experience, no one is ready to give up a vacation abroad because of such a difference,” he said.
There may be a decline, but later.
A. Mkrtchyan believes that there will still be a decline in sales, but later, when the mass holiday season ends.
"Right now, the first half of August is the peak of sales and the period of mass vacations, so those who were already planning to go on vacation will still go, and those who are just planning their vacation may postpone it. Due to this, sales may fall a little, but not more than 10%," explained A. Mkrtchyan.
Earlier, the Russian Union of Travel Industry told the Interfax-Tourism portal that tourists have already become accustomed to changes in the ruble exchange rate after the ruble fell sharply in April, and do not react sharply to another fall.
Where are they going?
According to Cruise Travel, the most popular foreign destinations in August are Turkey, Greece and Tunisia. In the Hot Tours network, the top 3 include Turkey, Thailand and the Indian state of Goa.
According to A. Mkrtchyan, among Russian destinations in the summer, the traditional leaders are the resorts of the Krasnodar Region and Crimea, and among foreign destinations, Turkey and Greece.
Air tickets are sold as usual.
Sales of airline tickets abroad have not yet decreased due to the weakening of the ruble. However, such weakening does not immediately affect the prices of airline tickets - according to booking services, their cost is recalculated from euros to rubles every week on the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, and the ruble began to fall against the dollar and euro on Wednesday, August 8.
"At the moment, we do not see a decrease in sales of airline tickets. Perhaps later the growth of the dollar will affect the distribution of tourist flow, as it was during the crisis of 2014-2015. If earlier half of the bookings were for domestic destinations, now Russia's share has grown to 75%," said PR director of the ticket search service Aviasales Janis Dzenis.
He called on those planning trips to buy tickets quickly in order to get them before the price increases. The increase in the exchange rate will have a particularly noticeable effect on tickets abroad, although it may also affect domestic routes.
Earlier it was reported that the average ticket price for a flight within Russia in August-September has already increased by 22% compared to the same period last year, and for international flights – by 35%. This is due to the increase in the cost of aviation fuel following the rise in oil prices.
On August 8, the US State Department announced that the US administration had concluded that Russia was involved in using a toxic chemical substance in the assassination attempt on Sergei and Yulia Skripal in March of this year. Therefore, the US will begin to impose sanctions against Russia. Amid reports of sanctions being prepared, the ruble exchange rate against the dollar and euro began to fall. The official euro exchange rate against the ruble set by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation for Tuesday reached 77.6 rubles, while the dollar exchange rate increased to 68.2234 rubles. In total, since August 8, the dollar has grown by 6-7%, and the euro by 6%.
Source: tourism.interfax.ru
