Preliminary results of beach outbound destinations for 2018

According to the results of the second and third quarters of 2018, the leading countries were determined. Following the results of the Border Service of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, during this period the outbound tourist flow grew by 10.9 % on a year-on- year basis for the TOP 15 destinations. The TOP-15 of most popular beach holiday countries among Russian citizens (based on the volume of tourist traffic) for the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2018 (April-September) were visited by 10 million 105.8 thousand trips. This is 10.1% more than in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2017. The difference in the summer season of 2018 from that in 2017 is the fact that the growth, as previously predicted by ATOR Analytical Service, was achieved thanks to several mass destinations with an affordable tour price and all-inclusive system. A number of popular (mostly European) destinations in the summer season of 2018 showed stagnation or negative growth dynamics of the Russian tourist flow. Turkey is predictably the leader as summer beach tourist traffic destination. In the summer season (for 2 and 3 quarters of 2018), according to the Border Service, the Russians made 4 million 809 thousand trips to Turkey. Turkey showed the highest growth rate among the TOP 10 summer beach destinations - the summer tourist flow to this country grew by 23%. This country has almost half (47.5%) of the total outbound tourist flow to summer beach destinations in the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2018. On the second position in terms of the volume of tourist traffic in the summer season is Greece, with 746.4 thousand trips of the Russians for 2 and 3 quarters. The destination continues to be highly demanded for a beach holiday, but the growth of Euro against Ruble and the policy of Turkish hoteliers affected on the dynamics. The number of tourist trips here from Russia decreased by 6% for 2 and 3 quarters. On the third position among summer beach destinations is Spain with 708.2 thousand tours of Russian citizens for the 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2018. This is not much more (+ 0.5%) than in the same period of 2017. Recall, that the main tourist flow from Russia to Spain in the summer is traditionally to Catalonia. On the fourth line is Italy with 678.8 thousand visits of Russian citizens. It is interesting, that against the background of the growing Euro, Italy has become one of the rare European destinations with a significant increase in Russian tourist traffic - compared with the same period of 2017 it has grown by 19%. On the fifth position in the TOP 5 destinations is Cyprus with 573.1 thousand trips of Russian citizens in April - September, which is 5.3% less than in the same period of 2017. Among the TOP 10 most popular summer beach holiday countries are Tunisia with 573.1 thousand trips in 2 and 3 quarters, Bulgaria (409.8 thousand), Thailand (318 thousand), the UAE (almost 300 thousand) and Montenegro (260.45 thousand).