ATOR: the return of Turkey on the market has led to a decrease in demand for Russian resorts

“The return of Turkey did not reduce the flow to the other foreign resorts, but led to a decrease in demand for the Black Sea resorts”, - said the Chief Executive of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) Maya Lomidze. "Analysts believed that Turkey’s entering on the Russian market would lead to a redistribution of flows primarily on out coming routes to Mediterranean - Cyprus, Greece and Spain. It was expected that demand for them would drop, but this does not happen", - specified M. Lomidze. According to the early booking data, she noted a significant increase of demand for Turkey, which is exceeding even some successful 2014 and 2013 years. However, at the same time, ATOR notes a positive activity on the other Mediterranean directions. So, among leading tour operators - Greece shows a 2.5 times increase against March 2016, the similar figures are for Cyprus. "We connect this with the change in the economic situation and with the people's fatigue from restraining themselves in rest. People are tired of saving money, they are ready to travel", added Lomidze. She also said that the revival of demand for out coming destinations has led to an outflow of visitors from Russian resorts. "Totally, the positive dynamics remains on the domestic market, the demand will be slightly higher than in 2015, and comparable to 2016, but we have no excitement". Such reasons are clearly economic - at our resorts prices have risen but service has remained at the same level. In a greater degree - we see this in Crimea", - the expert said.