Besides Montenegro, the leaders in demand for tours are the traditional high-season destinations: Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Italy, Thailand, and Bulgaria.Demand grew thanks to an extremely flexible pricing policy adopted both by accommodation providers abroad and by tour operators. Nevertheless, in terms of profitability, the season turned out to be less profitable than last year, the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) reportsATOR.
“Profitability did not increase. The demand environment in the outbound tourism segment continues to follow a savings trend. Tourists are shortening the length of their vacations, taking the minimum of additional on-site services, and trying to save on accommodation, but without dropping to 2-3* properties. They are also trying to save on excursions,” said Maya Lomidze.
“Tourists have not started spending more. They are spending the absolute minimum needed for a more or less comfortable holiday. And this overall picture was seen in almost all summer outbound destinations in the tour operator segment. The 10-15% growth we are talking about was driven by the budget and lower-middle segments of the product. The luxury tourism segment showed enviable stability. Overall growth could have been higher if the middle class had not moved entirely into the budget segment, and if budget tourists had been able to afford vacations,” noted the executive director of ATOR.