Egypt and Thailand
are leaders of winter beach resort destinations among Russians. Analytics at
Oktogo.ru, an online-booking service, found out that most people going to Egypt prefer package tours, whereas Thailand
visitors prefer to tailor their trips by hand.
According to Rostourism statistics, Egypt is still
one of the most popular destinations among Russians. During the first half of
2012 the number of our tourists grew by 65% compared to same period of the
previous year. Oktogo.ru representatives note that tailoring a tour to Egypt is most
of the times much more expensive than buying a package one. On the other hand, Thailand gives
many opportunities for FITs. Especially if it’s not their first trip to this
country, and the tourist wants to plan his vacation himself. On an average, for
every one tailored tour to Egypt
there are five tailored tours to Thailand.
Yet Russian tourists spend less money in Egypt than during a trip to South-East
Asia. An average night in an Egyptian hotel booked through
Oktogo.ru was about $75 per night. The most expensive city was Cairo ($110 per night in a 5-star hotel). In Thailand an
average room costs about $180 per night. And the most expensive bookings were
on Samui – over $325 per night. But it’s worth mentioning that in Egypt tourists stay strictly in 4-5 star hotels,
whereas in Thailand
tourists have an equal quantity of 3, 4 and 5 star hotels. Still, many tourists
chose more expensive accommodation, even though it’s possible to find a very
good hotel room for $65?100 a night.
Popular tourist places in Thailand include Bangkok, Bang Lamung and Ko Chiang. These get
about 66% of bookings. Egypt
is popular with Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada and Cairo, which receive about 90% of all
bookings. Oktogo.ru experts say that both Egypt
and Thailand will still be
popular destinations in 2013, but tourists are starting to show interest in
other parts of the world, like the Caribbean.
The only thing keeping the rating of the region down is lack of convenient and affordable
flights.
Online airline ticket sellers say that Thailand is way more popular than Egypt among
people who want to tailor their tours. In 2012 there were ten times more
individual airline tickets bought by people going to Thailand,
compared to people going to Egypt.
Cairo is the main destination for individual
visitors of the country – 50% of tickets to Egypt are tickets to the capital.
Two thirds of Thai tickets have Bangkok
as the final destination. Other popular destinations include Phuket, Ko Samui
and Chiang Mai.