Return to Egypt and Turkey

Despite a number of terrorist attacks at the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017 and the murder of the Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov, Turkey is still one of the most attractive areas for Russian tourists. According to the Association of Tour operators of Russia, the number of reservations of tours and hotels for summer vacations after these tragic events did not decrease. Most likely, Türkiye will again become one of the most popular areas in the next summer season. Due to the crisis in Russian-Turkish relations, charters in Turkish resorts resumed almost four months ago due to the crisis in Russian-Turkish relations.

Perhaps, after the New Year, regular air traffic between Russia and Egypt will be resumed, interrupted by Moscow after the collapse of the Russian passenger Liner Kogalymavia over the Sinai Peninsula in November 2015. Later, the disaster was recognized as a terrorist attack. Flights are not yet carried out, and the Egyptian tourist industry suffers tremendous losses due to the lack of Russians in local resorts.

About where and how Russian tourists will rest in 2017 in the conditions of the economic crisis and why they are not scared by terrorist attacks in Turkey, Egypt and Europe, Radio Liberty was told by the Executive Director of the Association of Russian Tour operators Maya Lomidze:

Egypt will pull off part of the vacationers

- There is hope that in the near future Egypt will reappear on our tourist map. And of course, this will most seriously affect the alignment of forces in all away directions in the first place. I must say that in 2016, almost all directions of away tourism showed positive dynamics, despite the fact that the total number of tourists traveling abroad than it was in 2015. But each direction showed an increase. And this happened due to the fact that the stream was redistributed with the Turkish practically unsuccessful until August and from the closed Egypt to other directions. The appearance of Egypt, of course, can greatly change the overall picture, that is, such a dynamics in other directions is unlikely to be. Because Egypt, of course, will delay part of the vacationers due to the fact that he has always been a budgetary direction, and it is unlikely that in 2017 there will be a strong increase in prices.

- And what will happen to the prices in 2017?

The cost of rest in Egypt is unlikely to change

- There is a persistent sensation, so far indirectly with our Egyptian partners, that the cost of rest in Egypt is unlikely to change. That is, it can be either the same as it was in 2015, before closing, or it can even be a little cheaper to increase volumes faster and more actively and reach the position that Egypt has traditionally occupied in tourism. I remind you that for decades, Egypt has tightly occupied the second place in demand in outdoor tourism after Turkey.

- In 2015, Russia was seriously complicated by relations with Turkey, at the end of 2016 several serious terrorist attacks occurred there, Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov was killed. How will all these events affect the development of this tourist direction?

Tourists boldly book Turkey for the summer

- All industry analysts predicted that after this monstrous tragedy in Ankara, a slowdown in the reservations may occur. No one was waiting for failures, there were no, but the fact that people would begin to be more careful to book Turkey for the summer - almost all analysts made such a forecast. And he did not materialize. The operators do not fix the slowdown in Turkey’s reservations for the summer. Firstly, the tragedy occurred in Ankara, and Ankara is not a tourist direction for our country, our tourists do not go there. And even despite the neat, but transparent warning of the Foreign Ministry, to weigh the risks before making a decision to go to Turkey - it was in this formulation of the Foreign Ministry that gave his recommendation after the murder of the ambassador, nevertheless, tourists boldly book summer in Turkey.

Türkiye, July 2016

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-And the Turkish side is going to do something in order to try to protect tourists from terrorism? Does the protection of hotels, attractions and other places that tourists visit?

- The Turkish side immediately made the relevant statements. It is impossible to evaluate what measures are actually taken in winter, we must wait for the summer, the onset of the season. The Turkish side assured that this murder would not remain unpunished, and nothing would threaten our citizens in Turkey. I hope that they will keep all promises, because the success of the season depends on this, primarily for Turkey itself.

- Why are Russian tourists not afraid to go either to Egypt, or to Turkey, or to Europe, despite terrorist attacks?

Our citizens have some kind of fatalism

-According to the reviews of travel agencies where tourists book their vacations, our citizens have some kind of fatalism. Of course, they ask questions about ensuring security, and there are more orders of magnitude more such questions than it was in previous years, which is understandable, but there is such a mood: "What to be, not to pass." And the volume of reservations to Europe, for example, also did not decrease after what happened in Germany.

- What categories can be divided into Russian tourists and who can now afford to go in today's economic situation?

Turkey has every chance to take a leading position on demand in outbound tourism

- There was an interesting study of the Central Bank, they appreciated the weighted average ruble exchange rate in 2015 and 2016. In 2016, the weighted average course was lower than in 2015, but it was stable, there was no hesitation. And stabilization of the course led to the fact that people began to calmly book their vacation, more calmly plan their vacation forward. As a result, we observed an increase in almost all directions, in all segments: both in internal tourism and in away. When we are talking about the share of the leading directions of exit tourism, about Turkey and Egypt, 2016 is not very correct, because Egypt was not by the end of the year, and Türkiye appeared only in August. It is very difficult to predict now, but I think, while maintaining the status quota of 2016, the economic and foreign policy, if there is no additional negative information background for the events in Turkey, there will be no fluctuations in the exchange rate, there will be no sharp failures in the economy in Russia, then Turkey has every chance of the next year to again take the leading position in outgoing tourism.

-Still, most Russians rested in the summer of 2016 in Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory. And there were a lot of negative reviews: incredibly high prices for everything, undeveloped infrastructure. Already, some Crimean hotels have raised a reservation of 20-30 percent ...

- The infrastructure in Crimea changes extremely slowly. Slow than I would like and, in my opinion, as possible, based on those means that are allocated to maintain the tourist infrastructure of the peninsula. The discontent of so many vacationers is connected precisely with the rupture of the price - quality. In the Krasnodar Territory, they also plan to increase prices for the summer of 2017, which, on the one hand, is explainable, because there was a boom in the 2016 season, but in order to keep this boom in the current economic situation, when people do not increase, salaries are about the same, and some uncertainty in the economic future takes place, the increase in prices can lead to outflow of tourists. High prices could be tolerated if there were an appropriate state of infrastructure and service. The gap between price and quality in the Krasnodar Territory, mainly in Sochi, is less than in Crimea. Because Crimea at a price practically equal to Sochi, although it was always cheaper before, and the quality of services did not change. Such precedents were already in the previous, pre-crisis years, when the objects of the tourism industry on our Black Sea coast came an euphoria from high demand, and then it turned out that due to high prices it was not possible to unload, people did not go, and in the height of the season of the price to reduce, take emergency measures to align the load. To some extent, this helped, but I want this to happen not in the mode of the emergency and fire, but somehow planned in advance, taking into account that people no longer have money. There is still time before the season, and we hope that common sense will prevail, and our Black Sea resorts will understand that it is extremely inappropriate to bully prices this season.

- In what mood do representatives of the Russian tourism industry meet the beginning of 2017?

Whatever happens, people do not stop traveling

- The whole business is being prepared now to comply with the requirements of the new tourism law , which enters into force on January 1. And there are several absolute new products for our market, novelty even at the conceptual level. They are all connected mainly with financial activities. Tour operators will have to make additional deductions to new funds, compensation, backup. The requirements for entering the market are changing, the entry threshold will be much higher than it was still. Therefore, of course, now the main time is devoted to how to prepare for this law and begin to fulfill it. As for demand, it became clear that no matter what happened in the world, whatever the difficult economic situation, people do not stop traveling.