Market News

Russian foreign expenditure has risen

The Association of Russian Tour Operators (ATOR) stated that average spend of Russian tourists travelling abroad has increased by 7 % in 2017 year compared with 2016. This is a 51% growth rate, if compared with 2015, when the Russian rouble reached its weakest exchange rate value against foreign currencies. The average spend in 2017, reached 830 Euro per person, up from 750 Euro in 2016.

However, according data analysed by Forwardkey based on tax free shopping, the average transaction fee was down by -6 % down compared with the previous year. However, this decrease was not equally spread between different countries, with Italy experiencing a 10% increase in tax free sales but the average transaction value down by -12%.  While Germany had a tax-free increase of 8% and an average transaction value decrease of only -1%. Spain on the other hand, had a decrease in tax free sales of -6% but the average transaction value increased by 4%.

In 2017 Russian tourists made 40 million trips abroad

RossStat statistics indicate a very positive increase in the total number of trips made by Russian travellers abroad in 2017 which increased by 25 % in comparison with 2016. The most popular destinations for Russians in 2017 were: Turkey received the largest increase, due to the closure of Turkey prior to 2017 for Russian travellers for more than a year. Other countries with substantial increases were:  Finland, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, China, Estonia, Poland, Germany, Thailand, Georgia, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Greece, and UAE.

Forward keys statistics matched those of Rosstat, but showed a total increase in departures of 20%, but identified other destinations with high growth rates, including: Turkey 81%, Azerbaijan 65%, Georgia 59%, UAE- 43% and Portugal with 40% growth, France also had a above average growth rates of 30% as did Thailand with 30%.

However, if the total number of trips made in 2017 are compared with 2017, most European countries have still recovered to those numbers, meaning the Russian market still has some way to recover.

Tour Operators say, that the demand for cruises has risen by 30%

Since the beginning of this year, in just three months, the demand for sea cruises has increased by more than 30%. According to tour operators, the most popular programs are traditionally Mediterranean cruises.

in 2017 the demand for beach tours abroad increased by 61.7%

In 2017, Russian tourists made more than 14.3 million trips to beach resorts, 61.7% more than the previous year. This information was provided by the Association of Tour Operators of Russia, based on the numbers provided by the leading tour operators. Turkey took almost 32% of total outbound tourist flow to beach destinations, followed by Thailand and Spain is on the third place. Last year 1.14 million of Russian tourists visited Spain. Italy and Greece are also in the top 5 resort destination popular among Russian tourists in 2017. 

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