In the four days since the launch of the new stage of the tourist cashback program, about 100,000 Russians have used the terms of the initiative.

This was announced on Monday, August 29, by the head of the Federal Tourism Agency Zarina Doguzova.

“Tourist cashback started very actively… People bought tours and booked hotels for more than 2.5 billion rubles.

Cashback (the amount that is directly returned to the cards to tourists) amounted to about 500 million rubles, ”Doguzova wrote in her Telegram channel.

According to her, sales from tour operators increased by almost 2.5 times compared to ordinary days.

The most popular destinations are Sochi, Krasnodar Territory, Caucasian Mineralnye Vody, Moscow region, Kazan, Altai, Dagestan, Kaliningrad, Crimea and Bashkiria, said the head of Rostourism.

Sales of tours with cashback as part of the next stage of the program started on August 25 and should last until September 10 inclusive.

It will be possible to go on a trip with a discount from October 1 to December 25, and on a cruise from September 1 until the end of navigation.

“Traveling in the autumn, in the off-season, has its advantages - there is more choice of hotels, popular tourist places are less busy, you can plan your vacation more flexibly and cheaper.

And with cashback - go on a trip with a double benefit, ”Zarina Doguzova noted earlier.

  • Zarina Doguzova

  • © tourism.gov.ru

Under the terms of the initiative, the state reimburses citizens for 20% of the cost of the ticket, but no more than 20 thousand rubles, and when traveling to the Far East, the amount of compensation now amounts to 40 thousand rubles.

The number of trips is unlimited, but the duration of each tour must be at least three nights.

To receive a cashback, you need to pay for a ticket with a MIR bank card, after registering it in the loyalty program on the payment system website.

The money will be credited to the card automatically within five days after the purchase.

“All regions of the country participate in the program.

Tourists who purchase a ticket will be able to return up to 20% of its cost.

We expect that about 600,000 people will take advantage of this opportunity.

They will enjoy their vacation and save money with the support of the state,” Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said earlier.

The authorities allocated 3 billion rubles from the budget for the autumn stage of the program.

If this amount is fully chosen by tourists before September 10, then sales of tours with cashback will be completed ahead of schedule.

Reaching for the stars

Against the background of the growing popularity of tourist cashback in Russia over the past year, the cost of bookings under the initiative has also increased markedly.

So, at the moment, when paying for hotel accommodation, Russians spend almost a quarter more than in 2021.

RT was told about this in the Ostrovok.ru online hotel booking service.

“Reserving hotels under the tourist cashback program from October 1 to December 25, Russian tourists pay an average of 28 thousand rubles for five nights.

For the same period a year earlier, tourists reserved accommodation worth 22.5 thousand rubles,” the company’s press service noted.

The service experts partly attribute the increase in the costs of tourists to the changed preferences of citizens.

So, Russians are increasingly choosing to stay in certified hotels with an assigned category.

According to Ostrovok.ru, over the past year, the share of bookings in three-star hotels has grown from 25% to 33% of the total number of accommodations, in four-star hotels - from 25 to 30%, and in five-star hotels - from 4 to 13%.

At the same time, the share of reservations in hotels without stars has more than halved, from 38% to 15%.

  • View of Nizhny Novgorod

  • globallookpress.com

  • © Serguei Fomine

Meanwhile, the cost of air travel in Russia has not changed much over the year, as RT was told in the Tutu.ru travel and travel service.

According to the company's estimate, today the average check for a one-way flight is about 6.9 thousand rubles for the period from October 1 to December 25, while in 2021 Russians bought tickets for about 6.8 thousand rubles.

On my own roads 

Recall that the tourist cashback program first started working back in 2020.

According to Rostourism, over 4 million people have already received discounts on tours during the initiative, more than 2 million of them in 2022.

In total, the Russians bought tickets for about 83.5 billion rubles, and the total amount of cashback was about 16 billion rubles.

“The program contributes to the development of tourism not so much in traditional resort regions, but in subjects with historical and cultural monuments, as well as with off-season natural objects.

For the regions, this is an additional inflow of funds to the budget and stimulation of various economic sectors, such as transport, services and catering, ”said Pavel Sigal, First Vice President of the all-Russian public organization of small and medium-sized businesses Support of Russia, to RT.

  • Peterhof

  • globallookpress.com

  • © Serguei Fomine

As previously calculated by the Federal Tourism Agency, since the beginning of 2022, more than 34 million Russians have already rested inside the country, and in total from January to December, the corresponding figure could be 61 million. However, the value will still be slightly lower than in the pre-pandemic 2019 - 65 million .

“Some people are still afraid of the risk of getting sick, while others are scared off by changes in the cost of bookings.

That is why the introduction of incentive programs must be continued, because the domestic tourism potential has not yet been fully utilized, ”said Nikolai Pereslavsky, an employee of the Department of Economic and Financial Research at the CMS Institute, in a conversation with RT.

According to the expert, in addition to state programs, external restrictions can also stimulate domestic tourism in Russia.

To date, the EU countries, for example, are discussing the possibility of introducing a complete ban on issuing visas to Russians.

Although the EU itself recognizes that the initiative is unlikely to receive unanimous support from all the countries of the association, the flow of tourists from Russia to Europe has already noticeably decreased.

“Complicating the process of obtaining a visa to European countries, increasing the time for air travel (instead of three or four hours, now you will have to fly about 24 hours with transfers), the inability to pay with Russian bank cards and the difficulty in withdrawing foreign currency from accounts in domestic credit institutions - all this has already led to the fact that the volume of Russian travelers arriving in Europe is a fraction of a percent, ”concluded Pereslavsky.