Well, what can I say: despite universal expectations, no agreement has yet been reached on the resumption of charter flights with Egyptian resorts at a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. According to the press secretary of the Russian leader Dmitry Peskov, the two presidents, citing, “agreed to continue work on resuming flights between the countries.” Some particularly impressive “experts on the Russian tourist Crimea”, fairly worried about how the resumption of flights to Egypt will affect the next tourist season in the newfound Russian region, even breathed a sigh of relief.
However, all the same, everyone perfectly understands that the issue of “opening the Egyptian sky” is just a matter of time, and not very far away: the situation seems to have really rested only in purely technical issues, and there is no need to look for any special subtexts or other things double bottom.
And especially in the sphere of, so to say, “some aspects of protectionism” in the tourism industry: there is no doubt that the domestic Russian tourism markets, like many others (for example, we can take, for example, the same Georgia, not very friendly to Russia), took advantage the situation in the Middle East, and it would be rather foolish for them not to. Markets generally always adapt to the actual situation, otherwise they are worthless. But to say at the same time that the actions of the Russian state authorities during this crisis of "closing the Egyptian sky" were caused solely by considerations of protectionism - this is primarily to insult Russian state power.
And at the same time, the memory of those who died during that terrible terrorist act.
Just recall that regular flights with all the cities of Egypt were actually interrupted in November 2015, not as a result of any political upheaval, as was the case last summer with the same Georgia. And after the largest terrorist act in the history of Russian aviation, which caused the crash of the Kogalymavia aircraft. On board the ship, heading from Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, there were then 217 passengers and seven crew members.
And if someone just comes to mind to consider this tragedy exclusively as a “pretext for protectionist activity,” then, in my opinion, it makes sense for this person to turn to the priest if not for doctors, for he would definitely not be able to see the rite of exorcism prevented.
Neither we, nor, incidentally, the other powers, then directly or indirectly blamed the Egyptian authorities for what happened: here we must very clearly understand that the terrorist attack was directed not least against them. But the level of security at Egyptian airports, which quietly allowed carrying on board a Russian airliner quite primitive in design and execution of the bomb, raised so many questions that the "sky over Cairo" had to be tightly closed for a while.
Actually, it is necessary to pay tribute to the Egyptian authorities - they did a very serious job, and already at the beginning of 2018, according to the decree of President Putin, the air service between the Russian Federation and Cairo was partially resumed. After some time, in general, charter programs began: though not direct, but through Jordan. Now, in the very near future, apparently, it is possible to resume flights from Russia and directly to the Egyptian Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada, so once popular in our country.
In this connection, many are asked by a rather cynical, but fair question: how can this affect our Sochi and Crimea? And here we will be forced to please someone, but perhaps to upset someone: but about nothing.
Everything is simple here. As for Sochi, the potential “discovery of Egypt” is not about the almost official year-round resort capital of the Russian Federation at all: Sochi is just a completely different audience, which has little overlap with the “Egyptian” audience. Rather, he should have worried when, some time ago, under similar circumstances, they “opened back” Turkey: there are resorts there that are more or less similar in audience. But even these unrest, even if someone experienced them, turned out to be generally empty troubles. And Sochi not only didn’t empty then, but again, it seems, it’s going to the next record in the tourist flow. And in some periods of time, say, on the upcoming New Year holidays and vacations, a vacation in the same prestigious Krasnaya Polyana will traditionally be completely scarce, just like in the old Soviet times.
Unfortunately, the Crimea is, of course, a slightly different story.
Yes, tourist flows there also regularly grew from year to year after returning to Russia, and it is there that a new record will be set for sure this year: at least the very young and pretty head of the Federal Agency for Tourism, Mrs. Doguzova has already officially announced this . And when an official of a high federal level announces a record, then just try not to set it!
But seriously, the growth of tourist flows was in Crimea due not to the qualitative growth of the local tourism industry, but mainly due to the systemic impact of positive external factors: a magnificent new airport, the Crimean bridge, the wave of patriotism and “patriotic fashion” in Crimea at last. Decrease in flows with more or less competent work in the next year or two is still not expected there: no matter how much you open Egypt, the opening of the railway part of the Crimean bridge will still affect the Crimean tourist flows much more: well, in general, it would be foolish , it’s been built for this, and it’s somehow a little silly not to understand.
Anyway, any more or less “real” expert who really understands the structure of tourism markets will quite easily explain that reformatting of the flows here will most likely go on the external side: that is, they’ll soon “leave” to Egypt, or rather, that Russian tourist who before that did not go to the Crimea, but to an inexpensive segment of the same Greece or other Balkan states: Croatia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, - further, excuse me, - everywhere.
Egypt and Georgia, which in the tourist sense won from the Egyptian “blockade” of the sky in Russia in tourist terms, are almost the most likely to squeeze a bit: just, yes, unfortunately, we have already brought up a whole social stratum, for which the word “rest” ”Is associated with a compulsory departure“ abroad ”, and there is not enough money even for Croatia. It’s just that this is one of the main reasons for the “Georgian tourist miracle”, and the wings of this miracle returning to Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada, especially taking into account the mandatory all-inclusive, will certainly be pretty cut. But in order to seriously threaten the “Crimean flows” - this is hardly a slightly different segment.
So, in principle, of course, theoretically speaking, the “discovery of the sky of Egypt” does not threaten our resorts in any way. But this is exactly what is theoretically. In practice, the very Crimea may have problems of a completely different order.
Such as, for example, the “return coefficient” among tourists: the level of quality of leisure and service associated with it, largely inherited from the former “independent” owners, there, unfortunately, are often such that if a spoiled Russian tourist doesn’t have their immediate rejection, the strong desire to "come here again and as soon as possible" - they certainly do not cause.
And with this, the regional authorities and the local tourist complex really need to solve something very quickly and radically: what they will sooner or later understand. In Sochi, too, the gods do not live, but somehow, after all, they learned over time. And in Crimea, they will also learn, the problem is different: there’s not much time for this, the process of “import substitution” in the industry is going on right now, and no one will wipe the snot out of the losers, there’s simply no time for that. And so, by and large, romantic Karelia, the gray-haired Caspian with its ancient Derbent, and Baikal and Altai have already been waiting for their turn. Yes, and the Golden Ring, admittedly, is slowly raising the level of tourism product to quite competitive values.
And in such a situation, “resting on the laurels of growth”, coupled with the opening of air connections with Egyptian resorts, can really play a trick on the most promising tourist region of Russia. However, the trend in the long run will not turn the tide anyway, and even in the short term, if this suddenly happens, then there will be absolutely nothing to blame for the current Crimean leaders, except themselves. However, the likelihood of this kind of development of events, I repeat, is vanishingly small: just do not relax and stop mice, I'm sorry, catch.
Well, and the very fact of the opening of air links with Egyptian resorts, if any in the near future, you only need to rejoice. For we, of course, have a gigantic and great country.
Very beautiful and interesting, including as a "collection of tourist sites."
That's just a little northern: no, we basically like it.
But at least for a couple of weeks a year, it would be nice to change the climate.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.