The number of early bookings for the summer of 2019 has increased by 48% compared to the similar period last year. Experts explain this primarily by increasing VAT and weakening the ruble.
The explosion of demand for the period of early sales takes place against the background of a substantial increase in prices for tours.
Thus, organized trips abroad increased in price by an average of 17%, to 103 thousand rubles. Such data leads “Kommersant” with reference to statistics Travelata.ru. Trips to Turkey are now selling an average of 102 thousand rubles, which is 17.2% more than in 2018. In this case, the share of the direction is 67% of the total volume of early bookings.
In second place, according to data, is Tunisia (9%), followed by Cyprus (8%), Greece (4%), Russia (3%) and Spain (3%). Under these conditions, tourists are increasingly targeting the purchase of tours with discounts on early booking programs that reach 30–40% of the summer price.
Domestic tours also showed a rise in prices: the average cost of travel in Russia now is 84 thousand rubles, which is 9% more than in 2018.
Market participants explain this by rising prices with a weaker ruble, an increase in VAT and the cost of jet fuel, as well as the specific situation in different countries. For example, in Turkey accommodation has become more expensive. In some cases, prices in hotels in the country increased by one and a half times, primarily due to a serious increase in tourist traffic.
If we talk about holidays in Russia, the rise in prices is due, in particular, to the fact that this year Crimean and Sochi hoteliers raised the cost of accommodation by an average of 8–9%. At the same time, the dynamics of booking domestic tours this year exceeds the last year’s figure by 20%, which is primarily due to the fears of Russians regarding the further growth in the value of currencies and the appearance of pent-up demand due to the 2018 World Cup.
Source: www.fingazeta.ru
