According to Rosstat, the Russian outbound travel market increased by 43% in the first 6 months of 2010, which means an increase of 1,625,000 Russians travelling abroad from Jan-June 2010 compared to 2009. This is the largest annual increase since 2004 and shows that the market has made a miraculous recovery since the 22% decrease of 2009. In total, 5.4 million Russians went abroad in the first 6 months of 2010 for leisure purposes, with the overall no. of Russians travelling abroad, including business travel and visiting friends and family reaching 15.8 million - compared to 14 million in the first 6 months of last year, an increase of 13.4%.The destinations which traditionally make the list of the top summer destinations, showed the following growth of arrivals from January to June 2010:
While Thailand became the leader in terms of growth (+118%), Egypt topped the charts with the record no. of arrivals - 1,140,000. Turkey had an increase of +44% and registered 923,000 arrivals from Russia, but now holds 2nd place after Egypt. The Top 10 destinations remained the same as in 2009 but Thailand moved up one position to 5th place while the UAE overtook the Czech Republic, and moved into 9th place.
Top 10 Destinations for the first 6 months of 2010 (thousands of arrivals)
Destination |
Jan - June 2009 |
Jan - June 2010 |
% of growth |
|
689,8 |
1,140,6 |
+ 65,4 |
|
642,8 |
923,6 |
+ 43,7 |
|
390,3 |
563,5 |
+ 44,4 |
|
285,4 |
310,1 |
+ 8,6 |
|
103,1 |
225,3 |
+ 118,5 |
|
160,8 |
213,2 |
+33 |
|
144,0 |
194,5 |
+35 |
|
113,4 |
154,9 |
+37 |
|
100,7 |
140,6 |
+40 |
|
103,0 |
121,5 |
+18 |
Source: Rosstat, 2010, the figures show arrival with Leisure purpose only
However, the figures used by the Russian statistics bodies are usually lower than those quoted by the more accurate figures of national Tourism Boards, as they do not include traffic from connecting flights. So for eg from Thailand. TAT reported 305,000 arrivals from Russia to Thailand during Jan-June 2010, as they account for passengers not flying to Thailand directly. The Chinese Tourism Office state that 900,000 Russians visited China in the first 6 months of this year, a 33% increase compared to the same period of 2009, (based on their statistics)
All of the 37 destinations covered by Rosstat for analysis, show positive growth rates, for the first time in the last 7 years.
The Top 5 Fastest growing destinations in the Russian market are:
Since 2007, when a new law on financial guarantees was introduced, the number of tour operators has reduced from 4,500 to less than 1,000 companies, on the other hand, the number of travel agents has increased, According to the Federal List of Travel Agencies, Moscow has the most developed travel retail sector with 1,780 travel agents in the capital
The following Top 10 cities have the following number of travel agents: