As summer season kicks off, tour operators fall short of their expectations. In European beach resorts - Greece, Spain, Bulgaria, Cyprus - supply overrides demand forcing tour operators to cut prices, the Kommersant business daily wrote. No dumping measures have been reported in the most popular vacation destination - Turkey.
The statistics of Russians’ trips abroad collected by the daily demonstrates that trends registered in high winter season went further in February and March. During these months the tourist inflow at the major destination - Egypt - has been actively growing, but did not exceed the levels of 2010, which proved the most successful year for the tourism industry.
The offseason period confirmed a decline in demand for Cuba indicated earlier. In February the number of Russians, who spent their vacations in Cuba, reduced by 16 percent to 7,400, and in March - by 11 percent to 7,700 as against the same period of 2012. The number of those who wish to travel to Bali remains practically unchanged. The number of Russian tourists, who visited Vietnam in February snowballed by 38 percent to 28,300 and in March - by 80 percent to 30,700. The influx of Russian tourists into India’s Goa made up 55 percent (28,900 people) and 106 percent (27,600 people) respectively.
In the summer season the main intrigue is the question how the financial crisis that hit Cyprus last spring affected prospects for this destination, where in June-August no less than 75,000 Russians per month vacated. In the wake of the crisis last March the inflow of Russians to the island shrank by 31 percent to 7,700. In April, when many summer tours are launched, positive dynamics has been reported - a 15 percent growth to 28,500 tourists. Retail tour operators reported a declining demand in Cyprus.
Oversupply has been registered not only in Cyprus, but also in other European beach destinations - Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, tour operators Biblio Globus and Natali Tours said.
The most favourable situation is observed in the most beloved destination - Turkey, executive director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia, Maya Lomidze, said. At present, there is practically no dumping on this destination. This information is confirmed by tour operator Goryachie Tury (Last Minute Tours). Last summer a standard tour to Turkey cost around $1,000 on the average, while now the tour price reaches $1,100 per person.
Last season the tourist flow into Turkey showed negative dynamics. Thus, in April 2012 it reduced by 11 percent to 152,200, while in April 2013 the number of tourists increased by 32 percent to 200,700.