Feature

Summer trends of Russian tourists

During the upcoming summer season, most Russians prefer extended vacations in seaside destinations. Although domestic travel in Russia has dropped by a third, domestic holidays still dominate, as a large part of the population still do not have foreign holidays.

The average length of stay for Russians travelling abroad is 15 days but this varies from one destination to another, the average length of stay in Spain is 14 days, in Italy 12 days, in Bulgaria it is 21 days, while for long haul destinations like Thailand, Indonesia and the USA, the length of stay is for 18 days.

The top outbound destinations for the summer of 2017 are: Spain, Bulgaria, Italy, Greece, Montenegro, Thailand, Cyprus, Georgia and France. Demand for Turkish resorts by independent travellers has grown by 70% comparing to the previous year, the top destinations are: Antalya, Istanbul and Dalaman.

Wealthy Russian tourists prefer to use travel agencies to organise their trips

 According to a recent study by Premier in 2017, two thirds of wealthy Russian tourists travelling abroad use the services of travel agencies. Based on a sample of 2800 urban dwellers, it was found that 69% of Russians with a higher personal income or who belong to the upper 10% of Russia's wealthiest segment, prefer to use the services of a travel agency. Only 31% organize their travel themselves.  Of those higher income Russians who booked via a travel agency, the top destinations were: Thailand, Turkey, Spain, Italy and Germany.  For those with an above average income who booked their own holidays, the top destinations were: Germany, Spain. Finland (mainly for St Petersburg residents), followed by Italy, and in 5^th  was "other European countries".

The average spend of a wealthy Moscow and St. Petersburg resident is 1757 EUR per trip, with the average spend of a Moscow based resident being 5-20 % higher than someone based in St Petersburg. This is partly due to the huge amount of travel by St Petersburg residents to Finland, which is nearby and cheap to get to.

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