Market News

• 1,548 outbound Tour Operators have been officially registered in Russia at the end of 2009, as a result of the new financial guarantee system introduced in 2007. The amount paid by each Tour operator is determined by their annual turnover. According to the official List, 37 operators (2.5%) of TO's submitted guarantees covering $ 3 million RUR, 47 TO's (4%) - submitted guarantees of $2 million and the rest 1,464 companies (94.5%) provided guarantees of $ 1 million. Due to the introduction of financial guarantees, the no. of Russian TO's has reduced by 10-15% with regional TO's being the most affected. Many TO's have now converted into Travel agents to avoid the expenses for being a TO.

• Looking back at 2009, the leading Russian travel companies estimate the decline of demand for outbound tourism in Russia to be 16-20%, and expect up a growth rate of up to 5% in 2010.

• As more Russians are now turning to online booking and independent travel, the travel industry does not expect to return to the pre-crisis volumes immediately, however as much more than half of the potential Russian market has never travelled abroad before, the Tour operators still have plenty of future potential. A total of 11 million Russians travelled abroad between Jan - Sept, 2009 both for leisure and business purposes.

• As of December, 2009, Visit Sweden opened its first Russian office in Moscow. Meanwhile, from January 2010, Visit Finland closed their Moscow office but retained their office in St Petersburg, due to the budget cuts.

• One of the leading players in the Russian market for Turkey, Coral Travel, is planning to expand to Spain in 2010. They aim to send 1,500 persons per week during their first season. Market Experts believe that Coral will try to compete with market leaders for Spain such as Natalie Tours and VKO Travel by offering lower prices.