Online sales of tour packages in Russia increased by almost 50%

In 2014, online sales of tourist services in Russia increased by 49% to 430 billion rubles. In June 2015, the representatives of Russian tourism industry and e-commerce market,the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR), the Regional Public Center of Internet Technologies, and the Russian Association of Electronic Communications (RAEC) had to discuss self-regulatory guidelines for the development of safety rules for online tourists.

Thus, according to research of Data Insight, in 2014, online sales of tourist services in Russia amounted to 430 billion rubles, in comparisson to the previous year the increase was by 49%. In terms of money (215 billion rubles of 430 billion rubles), half of the online tourism market is taken by sales of flight tickets. The attendance of on-line services both bor for sales of tickets today and for online travel agencies (OTA) is 20% higher today than a year ago.

"Today, online tourism market is one of the most progressive in RuNet (Russian Internet), but rapid growth is accompanied by some difficulties: the need for large investments, technological backwardness, lack of a clear mechanism of regulation in the industry. Moreover, we cannot ignore social factors: the lack of credit users and elementary digital illiteracy ", the director of ROCIT Sergei Grebennikov said.