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Tour operators support the extension of May holidays instead of those in January

08:07, 20 февраля 2012

Tour operators think that the extension of May holidays will lead to an increased tourist flow, without affecting the New Year tourist flow. That is according to a survey made by a RIA.Tourism correspondent.

 

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is running for the president this year, offered to shorten the Christmas holidays in order to extend the holidays in May.

 

“Even if January holidays are reduced, New Year will still remain a winter hot season. Mind that demand for May tours has seriously dropped after the holidays had been shortened some years ago. It used to be a peak period during spring. It would be good for the market if some days are taken from winter holidays and added to May holidays instead”, - thinks Irina Tyurina, press-secretary of the Russian Union of Travel Industry. According to her, price of a vacation is also an important issue. “During winter, it’s mostly expensive tours that are available: it’s either skiing in the mountains or a far-away beach resorts. In early May tour operators get many other options – field-trips to Europe, the Mediterranean, it’s possible to visit Turkey, Greece and of course Egypt. So the tourists get more choice and a wider price range”, - she added.

 

Igor Kozlov, head of Ascent Travel, also supports the idea of prolonging the spring holidays. “That’ll be an additional high season. We had a boom of sales about 4-5 years ago, when people used their May holidays to go to Europe (France, Czech-Republic). Spring is the best time for sightseeing trips, but beach-lovers looking for some sun after a cold winter are booking tours as well. Winter holidays have always been popular, and tours for the first half of January are regularly sold out. Tours from December 30 to January 7, and from January 7 to January 15 sold well even when the holidays weren’t that long. I don’t think we will lose much of the winter traffic, but we will gain a new peak during the midseason”, - he noted.

 

Roman Rudenko, head of the travel company Tourtrans-voyage, supposed that the shifting of holidays will not change the tourist flow drastically, because many Russians have already developed traveling habits. “Beginning of January and May have been popular vacation periods ever since the Soviet times, and shifting holidays will not affect that. People take “sick days” and official vacations at work in order to travel. 15-day tours are very popular during May; tourists often extend the official holidays by adding some vacation time. The holidays themselves have stopped being the peak of demand during spring about 3-4 years ago. People started going on vacations from the end of April and to the middle of May, so the peak dates at the beginning of May have disappeared. Maybe the tourist flow will grow a little thanks to the holiday shifting”, - he said

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