Prices of reservations at Russian tourist resorts have broken records recently, as prices in hotels of Crimea and Copan have doubled, due to measures to prevent travel abroad due to the spread of the Coruna virus.
In a report published by the Russian newspaper svpressnaya prasa (svpressa), journalist Anton Chaplin said that the prices of four- and five-star hotels were the highest, warning that the absence of competition with foreign resorts may lead to greater costs for Russian tourists with less quality services.
Absence of competition
The absence of competition with foreign destinations, such as Turkish resorts, had a great impact on the tourist season in Russia, as the authorities deliberately delayed the resumption of flights to Turkey in order to support local tourism and increase its revenues, according to the author.
According to opinion polls, a large percentage of Russian tourists refuse to spend the summer vacation inside the country for several reasons, including high prices, and is currently waiting for the border to open to travel abroad.
Elena Cilikhova, media officer of the One to Trip travel company, says it is still too early to talk about any competition between Russian tourist destinations and foreign destinations, explaining that domestic tourism is mostly popular low-cost tourism unlike tourism trips abroad.
Domestic tourism
Cilikhova explained that relaxing restrictions on travel internally led to an increase in travel reservations, and the Russians chose southern cities near the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, such as Simferopol, Sochi, Mineralnye Vody, Rostov-on-Don and Makhachkala.
It also reported that restrictions were recently lifted on travel to the Krasnodar Territory in the south, where hotels were opened to vacationers from all parts of the country, and compulsory quarantine was abolished, but with safety and temperature measures in place.
Chelikhova says polls show that about 18% of people who choose Krasnodar as a tourist destination think that the amount they spent there enables them to spend a vacation abroad, while 30% say they want to return to Krasnodar for the next holiday.
Favorite destinations for Russians
As for the travel of Russian tourists to external destinations, Chelykhova emphasized that the return to normalcy will not take place once the borders are opened, but will be linked to other factors such as the complete lifting of travel restrictions and the total number of safe travel offers and the measures that some countries may impose to receive tourists.
Turkey, Abkhazia, Italy and Spain are preferred foreign destinations for Russian tourists, and warm beaches are more likely to travel once travel restrictions are eased.
Chelikhova returns and says that, according to opinion polls, 38.1% of Russian tourists want to go to European countries such as Italy, Spain and Greece once the borders are opened, while 23.4% of them prefer to travel to neighboring countries such as the Baltic states, Armenia and Bulgaria.
On the other hand, 14.8% prefer to spend their vacations in Africa, 12.6% wish to travel to Asia, and the remainder prefer the United States or Australia.