According
to the Russian Statistics, the first quarter of 2012 indicated the inbound
tourist flow by 23%. Russians traveled abroad 2776.6 times. The results for
January-March 2011 were meager: the departures grew only by 7.5%. The first
quarter of 2010 was slightly better – 12% growth. The beginning of this year
could have been called promising, unless we knew the revenues of the tour
operators were not increasing.
After
righting a wrong, Egypt
tops the list with the increase of 100.8% after two years break: 404.8 thousand
trips. But, as you can see, it didn’t reach the level of the first quarter of
2010 (577.5 thousand) yet. It will be recalled that in January-March 2011 Egypt took the
fourth place among the most popular destinations.
Thailand
ranks the second with the increase of 13% and counts to 337.3 trips. For the
first time last year the country ranked the first place according to the
quarter results, but it took only fourth place in 2010 if compared to the same
period.
Having
lost 4.4% (268.4 thousand), China
takes the third place. In the first quarter of the last year the country gained
15.8%. Such rate reduction could have been caused by strategic error. The
statistics could have been spoiled by the events of 2011 when unexpectedly
quotas on visa document submission for the accredited tour operators were
reduced from 100 to 30 passports a day. Besides, the travel agencies were
placed in one same queue with other applicants. Altogether it was inconvenient to work with the destination.
What
concerns winter destinations, Vietnam has the most significant growth in the
first quarter – 101.6%; its dynamics is twice as more if compared to the same
period in 2011 (49%). Unquestionably, the direct flights from such regions as Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Kemerovo and Irkutsk
favored such results. But the country is still on the 19th place –
49 thousand trips.
Another
victim of Arabian Spring, Tunisia, shows good dynamics – it
gained 100% and amounted to two thousand trips. By the way it’s even more than
in the first quarter of Pre-Revolutionary 2010 with 1.6 thousand trips.
Maldives (58.5%) and Dominican Republic
(57.2%) showed growth as well. Dominican Republic
increased its rates by 50% in the beginning of 2011, and Maldives
increased only by 14% for the same period. In spite of the February Revolution,
the beginning of the present year turned to be more profitable for the islands.
Unfortunately, it didn’t go without damping.
The
rates of United Arab Emirates
reached 47% which is more than for the first quarter of 2011 (37%), first of
all, due to increasing the number of flights from regions to Dubai. But we should not forget that UAE is
not only Dubai.
Little by little Russians start traveling to Sharjah, Fujairah, Abu Dhabi and yet
unpopular Ras al-Khaimah.
Let’s
note a ten per cent growth to Japan
– 4.4 thousand trips. It counted up to 5.5 thousands in the successful first
quarter of 2010.
Greece
turned out to be the most active among European countries: 50% more. It’s
interesting that Greece
almost didn’t show any growth in winter 2011 if compared to the same period of
2010. It seems Greece also
got a piece of Egypt’s
Cake. Actively promoted winter buy-a-fur-coat tours, along with damping, has
played its part for the destination.
In
general, European destinations grew and mostly due to multi-entry Schengen
visas issued by Consulates in Russia.
Only Finland
decreased 14.5% and the reasons are well-known. In principle, the destination
should be growing as the citizens of St.
Petersburg, its region and the North-West have
multi-entry visas. But it’s not a surprise that the Finnish statistics shows
strictly antipodal data for the first quarter.
Several
words about outsiders: Turkey
lost 10%, but it’s the rate of Righting A Wrong – tourists come back to Egypt and Turkey gets back its average winter
demand. Thought, in the first quarter of 2011 the country has increased not by
10%, but by almost 68%.
Indonesia
has lost 8.7%. In the end of the last year and in the beginning of this year its
dominant destination – Bali – went west and the
tour operators reduced prices even for the New Year’s tours. Due to the bankrupt
of CTS Company hundreds of tourists couldn’t travel to the South-East
Asia for the New Year. But miracles in our statistics are not
excepted. For example, according to the Russian statistics, 13.6 thousand trips
were made within the first quarter. And according to the Indonesian statistics
more than 13 thousand Russians came to the country in January.
Russians going abroad with travel
purpose in the I quarter 2012
(thousand trips)
