Valentine’s Day fails to become a travel occasion for Russian lovebirds
Search requests made on Sletat.ru travel portal for flightsdeparting between the 9th and 13th of February and, thus,
including St. Valentine's Day, show that Russian tourists are mostly interested
in Thailand (31% of all requests), Egypt (20.3%) and UAE (6.7%). And as for
European destinations – Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, they failed to reach a
mere 2-percent mark; leave alone the "romantic" Paris stopped well short
of 1%.
Outbound tour operators claim that the overwhelming
majority of these bookings have absolutely nothing to do with Valentine's Day;
it's just that this day happens to fall on student winter vacations, and the
mentioned leading exotic destinations are primarily in-demand in winter, when
there's a peak season there. As RATA-news was told by the Director General of
Roza Vetrov Company Ms. Irina Kryukova, the Russians don't take much interest
in the Catholic holiday. "Off course, we always come out with special
offers to
For three years now, Avanti Company has been fixing up
special offers for Valentine's Day. But to tell the truth, they are being asked
for quite rarely, informs the operator's Development Director Ms. Natalia
Evstratova, adding that in February, the most in-demand country is not
The head of Vand International Tour Mrs. Tatyana Vand
makes no secret that this is not even a holiday for her. "They'd better
promote June 8 – the Day of Orthodox Saints Peter and Fevronia, the Russian day
of those in love". Nonetheless, the company's product range does include
programs featuring Valentine's Day in, say,
On the other hand, DSBW Tours qualify mid February as
a period of high demand for all destinations. But the company's Deputy Director
Mr. Oleg Balakirev doesn't confirm a direct correlation between Valentine's Day
and the growing demand. "The demand for this period is higher if compared
to the background, as the expert puts it, after all, between mid January and
March
Albeit Russian lovebirds have been showing little
interest in spending the holiday outside the country, they have concerned
themselves with domestic destinations. Hotel booking portal Oktogo.ru released
a rating of Russian cities mostly booked for Valentine's Day. It includes: