Feature
According to the survey, in 2009, 42% of Russians spent less on travel, 40% spent the same amount as previously, while 18% spent more than a year ago.
The findings of the survey also noted a shift in the traveling habits of Russian tourists from group to FIT travel, as well as large increase in on-line booking:
- Travel is now among the top 10 sectors of Russian internet purchases
- The audience of Tourism sector of Russian internet during 2009 increased by 34% up to 1.06 million users
- There was a 12% drop in interest of users searching for package tours but an increase in interest for online hotels and air tickets bookings.
- 36% of users who participated in the survey said they do not want to pay an additional fee for travel agency services to help them find a suitable holiday package and would prefer to take a last minute offer or find it themselves on-line. Also during the first 6 months of 2009, 20% of travelers noted that they had less trust in the opinion of a travel agency than previously.
- 80% of all online travel bookings sold on ru.net are air tickets
- There is a growing demand for sites and portals offering a customized search of a tour according to pre-determined parameters
According to the following chart, in 2009, Russians use the internet first of all to check out ratings and opinions on hotels and resorts, and to get the information of a price range in a particular destination:
Less Russians now go to travel agents than previously due to the great choice offered to independent travelers, who can book their airline tickets directly and thus, save the total cost of the trip.
However, concerning the type of trip, Russians still prefer to prefer resort based travel to sightseeing (cultural) trips:
In terms of the choice of holiday destinations, Rumetrica provides the following analysis in: in November, 34% of all requests were for Europe, 33% for Russia, 15% for Asia and 19% for the rest of the world. The no. of requests for holidays in Russia decreased by 12.3%, while holidays to Turkey increased by 24.7% and Egypt by 20.3%. The Top 10 winter destinations identified by ru.net user for winter holidays were: Turkey, Egypt, Italy, Russia, Israel, France, India, Finland and China. This is compared with the following selection in April 2009 when the Czech Republic, Spain, Greece and Cyprus were also highly requested destinations.
The Rumetrica survey shows, that over 60% of Russians use the internet as their main source of information about a destination, while 45% of them rely on their friends and relatives. Only 17% trusted travel agencies. Only 14% used guidebooks, while TV and magazines were among the least popular sources for obtaining information on a holiday destination:
