The Russian Union of Travel Industry reported that this summer sales of domestic tours by major operators fell by 7-20% year on year. According to the Sletat.ru service, the average length of a trip within Russia decreased from seven to six nights.
RST head Ilya Umansky called this a correction in demand after several years of rapid growth. Based on its business monitoring, the Central Bank noted that hotel bookings across Russia have been declining since the beginning of the year, and in the second quarter the volume of hotel services fell by 0.8% from the first quarter, adjusted for seasonality.
Since the beginning of September, demand for hotel accommodation in Russia has fallen by 9% year on year, while only hotels in Siberia and the Far East are showing growth. RST cited Travelline service statistics on bookings for the next three months.
According to these data, hotels in Crimea are seeing the sharpest decline this autumn: the number of booked nights there was 64% lower than a year earlier. In Kalmykia, the decline was 42%, in Krasnodar Krai — 24%, while the most noticeable growth was recorded in Zabaykalsky Krai and Kamchatka — 24% and 20%, respectively.
In Altai Krai, bookings increased by 18%, in Primorsky Krai — by 17%, and in the Amur and Novosibirsk regions — by 16% each. Amid weakening demand, the average hotel stay price in autumn fell by about 1% and amounted to 9.1 thousand rubles for a double room.
The Central Bank links the decline to the fuel crisis and disruptions at airports, and also notes more frugal behavior by tourists: they are choosing shorter routes, reducing trips to 2-4 nights, and more often booking cheaper accommodation, including apartments. In the first quarter, Russians made 10.5% more leisure trips abroad than a year earlier, with the increase driven by Vietnam, China, and Egypt. On September 14, the tour operator Fantasy Way announced it was ceasing operations after a sharp drop in demand this summer and problems with debt burden.
Sources
