Feature

The Latest Russian outbound figure for 2009 (January - March)

During the first Quarter of 2009, the no. of Russian tourists travelling abroad fell by 22%, according to the Rostourim statistics. However this is not an accurate reflection of the market, as there was a massive decrease in traffic from China, due to a change in custom rules which had limited cross boarder trading activities since the start of January 2009. If the figure for China are removed, then the true overall decrease shows a total drop in no. of Russian tourists for 1st quarter of 2009 is 14%, which is more in line with reductions experienced in other markets as provided by UNWTO (from Jan to April), whereby traffic to Europe decreased by an average of -10%, while the Middle East saw a 18% decrease.

On analysis, it can be clearly seen that mass tourism and long haul destinations have lost out much more heavily than more than niche or nearer European destinations. Thailand suffered the largest reduction of tourist in 2009, with - 43% but Thailand also grew by massive increases over the last 3 years, Dubai fell by (- 27%) and Bulgaria by (- 21%). While the Maldives and Egypt, traditional winter destinations in Russia, both experienced a -14% drop.

The key European winter destinations suffered less, with destinations such as Spain, Italy, Austria and France, and other ski destinations such as Finland experiencing much smaller reductions from between - 7 to -12%.

Nevertheless, a no. of European destinations also experienced an increase in visitors from Russia, the most impressive growth was to Israel (+ 47%), partly accounted for by the removal of visas for Russians in September 2008 and the large Russian community living in Israel. Other countries which experienced growth from the Russian market, were the USA (+ 47.4%), Norway (+31.6%), Switzerland (+23%), Turkey (+22%) and the UK (+19). Other countries with a positive growth were the Dominican Republic (+17,5%), Vietnam (+16,8%), Germany (+13%) and Sweden
(+ 8%).

Given the world economic slowdown, the UNWTO forecasts for international tourism are between -4% and -6% for 2009, as the first 3-4 months show decreases from -5 to -18%, it assumes some growth during the 2nd half of the year. Only Africa and South America bucked the world trend and provided positive growth rates during the first 4 months.

Outbound Russian Leisure Travel Figures for the First Quarter of 2009 Compared with 2008
(Per 1,000 Trips)

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