Andrey Osintsev, Commercial Director of Svyaznoy Travel, told the TRN portal about growth points, main trends, and technologies.
In 2018, the tourism market will continue to recover from the onset of the crisis in the industry. Retail sales fell by 20% compared to 2016. This suggests that the middle- and low-income segment of customers, as well as migrants, continue to reduce their travel costs and prefer cheaper modes of travel: train or bus, to air tickets. The depth of holiday bookings has decreased, as well as the frequency and duration of trips.
Online ticket sales remained at the 2016 level, and the average ticket price fell by 2%. However, this was also influenced by the active growth of sales of low-cost airline Pobeda and the tariff policy of competing airlines in these directions, as well as the emergence of tariffs without baggage, which, of course, caused an increase in competition and a general decrease in prices for airline tickets in 2017.
What will help the tourism services market grow this year?
According to our expert, this is the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the reduction in prices at Russian resorts.
Also, according to the expert, there is a possibility that resort Egypt (in particular, Hurghada) will be opened for charter air carriers, and tour operators will begin to form packages already in the first quarter of this year.
"Based on Svyaznoy Travel sales in 2017, we see that the fall in exchange rates was one of the stimulating factors for the surge in interest in short trips. Many people took advantage of the fall in exchange rates and the favorable offers from airlines and actively traveled during the holidays. Considering that in 2018 the number of convenient trips of this kind increased, we also expect an increase in demand during pre-holiday dates," he says.
If we talk about domestic tourism, it still does not compensate for the decline in outbound tourism. This is due to several reasons. The main one is the small choice of places to go in Russia. In winter, it is Sochi, Dombay and Sheregesh, and in summer, the resorts of the Krasnodar Territory and Crimea, Mineralnye Vody. At the same time, the expert notes the rapid growth of health tourism indicators. The infrastructure and service of most Russian resorts are still inferior to even the most inexpensive foreign destinations (Turkey, Montenegro, Bulgaria). In winter, residents of the European part of Russia essentially have nowhere to go within Russia, except for Sochi. The resort is developing, but its resources are not enough to meet demand.
If we talk about summer destinations, it is difficult for an independent traveler to plan a trip to Crimea. Airfare prices are quite high, the railway service is organized, but still with transfers - trains go from Russian cities to Krasnodar or Anapa, then passengers are offered a bus transfer. Also, a significant part of independent travelers are scared off by the lack of high-quality online hotel booking services. If prices in Crimea remain at the same level, then in 2018 we can expect an even greater drop in tourist flow, which may become critical for the resort in terms of its further development.
The resorts of Krasnodar Krai will be popular this year, especially Sochi, but in 2017 Turkey opened up to travelers, and the start of Pobeda flights to Alanya is unlikely to add independent tourists to the Russian Black Sea coast.
"In the rail transportation segment, we are noting positive changes compared to previous years. Russian Railways has increased the depth of ticket booking and has become more flexible in terms of prices. The company is now doing a lot to popularize rail transportation (competent product promotion, interesting conditions for partners). Sales of train tickets are no longer as seasonal as they used to be. Now train tickets are available 60 days before the departure date, and not 45 days, as was previously the case.
Health tourism is growing, and we believe this area is promising. This type of tourism will be able to realize its full potential when high-quality partnership programs begin to work,” Osintsev emphasized.
About the main trends
"First of all, we see that independent travelers have begun to purchase insurance more often. This means not only health insurance for trips abroad, but also insurance products that compensate travelers for lost luggage or trip cancellations. Clients are willing to pay a relatively small amount for insurance to feel safer while traveling and save on medical expenses if necessary," said a TRN expert.
As he noted, Russian travelers still use different services to book flights and hotels. Although many companies strive to offer a full range of travel planning services on one site, the share of hotel bookings in the total sales volume of such OTAs does not exceed 5%.
Independent travelers continue to actively use mobile devices to purchase tickets. Mobile traffic increased in 2017, while desktop traffic is not growing.
The most effective sales channel is mobile applications. Conversion into purchases from application users is 2 times higher than even through the mobile version of the site. The application is used by a loyal audience, more than half of which makes 2 or more purchases annually.
About technologies
"We are planning to add a new function "price dynamics" to all Svyaznoy Travel resources with the ability to track price changes in the direction of interest. We are also planning to develop the functionality of Aviabot (a Facebook bot), which can now search for trips for a specific client budget, as well as process ticket refunds. We are also planning to add a new supplier for train tickets, which will make our offer even more profitable, as well as search for round-trip train tickets.
We are also actively working on expanding the list of airlines that are integrated directly (for example, via the NDC protocol), which allows us to improve our price offer and more effectively offer additional services that are often not always available when booking an air ticket using GDS systems. In December 2017, we added offers from foreign low-cost airlines to our website. The testing was successful, and we plan to develop this innovation further,” — the speaker said.
In the first quarter of this year, the company will also update its line of insurance products, making them more interesting and profitable for the client. This concerns products for baggage and flight delays, where payment will be made immediately upon the occurrence of a risk without providing receipts, certificates and similar documents that confirm financial losses.
"There is also a discussion in the tourism community about using blockchain technology for settlements between the airline and the agent. However, at this stage it is too early to say that this technology will be put to practical use in the near future, since the agent does not enter into a contract of carriage with third parties and actually bears the risks associated with the client's ability to cancel the transaction through the bank after the ticket is issued.
At the moment, there are no projects in the tourism market using blockchain technology that could change the industry and improve business processes,” the expert noted.
Source: trn-news.ru
