The Thomas Cook Group is about to buy a large Russian tour operator, according to its Chief Executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa, who says the deal may be signed within weeks. The Russian business newspaper Kommersant believes that Intourist, one of the leading Russian TO, is the most likely candidate for acquisition. Intourist's President confirmed that they are in talks with Thomas Cook.
Earlier in April, TUI together with the Russian investment company S-Group Capital Management which is controlled by the Russian tycoon Alexey Mordashov, agreed to form a joint venture and bought 75% of the Russian tour operator VKO Group. By the end of 2009, the two sides plan to invest $40 million by acquiring 75% of the Ukrainian TO "Voyage Kiev" and increasing TUI's share of another Russian TO, Mostravel to up to 75%.
The number of Russian billionaires fell from 110 to 32, according to the recently published list by Forbes magazine. The amount of wealth in the hands of 100 richest Russians has slumped from $552 billion to $142 billion, falling back to 2004 levels. The biggest fall came to Oleg Deripaska who topped the 2008 list with $28.6 billion, but rolled into 10th position this year with an estimated fortune of $3.5 billion. According to Forbes, the richest Russian now is Onexim Group owner Mikhail Prokrohorov with $9.5 billion, followed by Roman Abramovich with $8.5 billion.
According to the survey by WIN Crisis Index and the Russian Romir research center, in the past 3 months over 36% of Russians have to cut down their expenses by reducing their travel budget. This proportion is the same as in Spain and Brazil, but is lower than a general indicator for the rest of the world, where up to 45% of potential tourists have had to reduce spend on travel. The Russian regions where the population has been more affected by the economic turn down than in Moscow, have seen the largest reduction in travel expenses or some cases the postponement of a trip, the areas worst affected are Western Siberia (36%) and the North-West of Russia, where there is a lot of industry is based.
Have you reduced your spend on travel due to economic crisis? (Russia)
Source: Win Crisis Index, Romir, May 2009