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Maya Lomidze, Executive director of the Association of Tourist Operators
The summer season according to many market participants was among the most difficult in the last 7-8 years.
The problem was that consumer behaviour during the season changed dramatically from peaks to declines below the level of the previous year.
Last year was quite good for the tourist market. This year the demand came in waves.
That is why the tourist companies had to correct plans, reduce the flights, change the prices to attract clients at times when demand was low.
That is why the season was so difficult. I would say that the market was so unstable almost exclusively because of the consumers' behaviour.
In our evaluations, it was connected to the economic situation in the country and the fact that our citizens started being less sure about tomorrow, which is why they fly either at the very last moment or at a very low price.
The average price of a tour this year was 24-28 thousand rubles. The stream of tourists was distributed similarly to last year.
Turkey keeps its leading position. Although our analysts predicted growth in all directions, in some there was a decline, while in the others, like in Turkey, the growth was not very big, just about 3% in the season.
It happened because of cuts in the flight programs. Otherwise the demand could have been lower, but like this the offer and demand were optimized.
That is why we have plus 3%. The number of tourists to Greece also grew.
According to preliminary results of the Greek side about a million Russians spent their vacations in Greece this year, we believe that the actual number is smaller, about 850 thousand.
The growth of tourists to Greece is connected to the high competition in our market and therefore quite low prices.
Spain also showed growth, about +18-20% compared to last year.
Although the competition here is not that tough, but the diversity of offers and the development of flights from many Russian cities helped to increase the stream of tourists.
The Croatian direction experienced a decline because of the introduction of a visa regime and the fear of Russian tourists that they would have to wait a long time for visa.
We predicted that the decline would be by 25-30%, but it turned out to drop by half.
As you know, this had serious consequences for many market players, even bankruptcy.
A serious decline also took place in the direction of Cyprus. It was among the least profitable directions this year, together with Croatia.
Some decline was recorded in Egypt in the general results of the summer, because early in the summer there was an increase, but from the second half of July due to political events in the country the number of tourists decreased, and in August some flights had to be cut.
So according to the general summer results, Egypt also experienced a decline.