2010 is likely to be the year when the Russian travel industry completes its consolidation and we see the emergence of real market leaders. Although this means that the Moscow tour operators are starting to take over the charter operations of the Russian regions and thus the demise of the regional tour operators, regional tourists in general will benefit, due to the large increase of charter flights from leading regional Russian cities. The direct charters from the regions are being supported by the opening of numerous visa centres across Russia by travel destinations planning to attract Russian tourists. This will mean that tourists are no longer obliged to travel to Moscow to obtain visas (which sometimes required up to 9 hours of travel by plane). Market leaders, such as Intourist, have expanded its travel agency chain in the Urals through the purchase of the Rosstour, which has 25 agencies across the region, many of the other market leaders are setting up their own branded travel agency networks, creating an efficient distribution system. We can expect to see this tendency continue as the Russia travel rapidly recovers and rebounds in 2010.

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