Russian tourists barely reacted to the Israeli conflict
In the yesterday’s publication on the demand’s response to the events in Israel RATA-news described two possible ways how the things might unfold – or the tension at the Israeli-Egyptian border will ease or the tourists, inspired by the news reports, will start abandoning their trips and asking for refunds. It turned out the good option, expressed by the Director General of “Socium Tour” Company Mr. Oleg Dragounsky last Friday, was also the right one.
Seems like the situation in the Middle East was unfolding so quickly that the Russians just didn’t have enough time to react. Tour operators report that after the near-border conflict became known on Friday, the situation with the sales didn’t change – few cancelations, bookings go as usual.
Some market players hardly noticed the disturbances at the border. For example, Oleg Dragounsky claims that they haven’t received a single call or inquiry from worried tourists; no booked trips have been canceled. The Head of Israel department of “Vedi Tour Group” company Mrs. Tatiana Zueva agrees: “Nothing has changed since Friday, everything is quiet, no cancelations. There is no tourists’ safety issues as well”. However Mrs. Zueva pointed out that the number of bookings had fallen down by 150-200%. The “Roza Vetrov - Mir” company reports pretty much the same situation. The Head of the company’s Israel department Mrs. Ekaterina Kouklina acknowledges that that there have been no cancelation, but the demand went down by around 50% compared to the middle of the previous week. “In the morning a few people called inquiring about the situation in the country. But that’s it”.
The Chief of Middle East department of “Astravel” company Mrs. Polina Geller says that since the conflict was strictly local it didn’t affect the actual sales: “There were no cancelations on any day of the conflict, they still book for October and November. We had several requests today, and specifically for Eilat.” Mrs. Geller points out that those tourists, who booked their vacation just before the terrorist attack, keep silence and have no questions so far.
“Travel System” company didn’t notice any changes from the end of last week. The company’s Tourism Director Mrs. Irina Lourie only mentioned one client, who booked a vacation, but on the way home changed her mind and canceled the reservation. “It was on Friday. Now we process as many bookings as we did before, both last-minute and for September. The bookings come from outside Moscow, too. No worries, no questions asked”.
Director General of “Solvex-Travel” company Mrs. Irina Petrova told RATA-news about both cancelations and new bookings for Israel in almost equal portions: “The clients take stock of the destination, exercise caution, even though they don’t lose their interest in the country”.