Market News

Main winter destinations According to Tourbusiness magazine, the most popular New Year destinations are long haul sun destinations. Natalie Tours reported a high demand for Mexico and the Dominican Republic. For Anex Tour, the leaders were Thailand and Egypt, followed by Turkey. Pegas Touristik noted that the most popular destinations for their clients are: Mexico, Cuba, and the Dominican rep., followed by China (Hainan), Vietnam and Thailand and as of this winter - Goa. Bali and the UAE were also in high demand, due to the introduction of budget airlines such as Air Arabia and Fly Dubai.

Italy issued 545,000 Italian visas in Russia during 2011, which is a 30% increase. Over 500,000 visas were for leisure tourists, and 30,000 for business travelers. During the summer, the traffic was up by 39%.

Tez Tour will start to sell Italy in 2012, the Italian dept will be headed by Marina Nikitenko, who previously worked for Pac Group.

Thailand expects one million Russian arrivals, making it the first European market to reach such numbers. According to TAT, 725,000 Russians visited Thailand during the first 10 months of 2011, 70% more than last year. The total no. of Russian arrivals in 2011 is expected to reach 840,000, making Russia the no. 1 source market for Thailand (18%), followed by the UK (17%) and Germany (12%).

The main reason for the increase in 2011 is due to the active growth of charter traffic  passengers from Ural, Siberia and the Far East, where 24 cities have direct flights to Thailand. The success has also benefitted from the unstable situation in the Middle East. According to TAT, 70% of Russians visit Thailand between October and March, and 60% of Russians are repeat visitors, with a high percentage coming from the Far East and Siberia, who often make multiple visits during one year.

Russian arrivals to Asia were generally up, with Sri Lanka receiving a 30% increase in 2011 - up to 20,000 arrivals, and Bali expected 35,000 (+ 16%), while Hong Kong reported a 49% increase of 117,000 Russian visitors during the 11 months of 2011.

Poland will start to issue 5 year multiple visas to Russians who have already had 2 Schengen visas, whilst the USA intends to simplify the visa regime for Russians. According to a mutual agreement, Russia and the USA will be issuing 3 year multi entry visa for each other's citizens. In 2011, around 230,000 Russians visited the USA for leisure purposes, a 31% increase on that of 2010.

Austria received 310,800 Russians from Jan-Sept 2011, more than in total no. received in 2010 (305,000). The final figures for 2011 are expected to be not less than 350,000 for 2011. However Russia is only 14th source market for Austria, which is led by Germany, Holland and Switzerland. Part of the reason for the growing demand is the straightforward visa procedure and the establishment of 12 visa centers across Russia with 7 more scheduled to open in 2012.