The number of requests of foreign tourists to travel to Russia for the New Year's holidays increased by 31% in 2019. Most foreign tourists looked for tickets for the New Year holidays in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

The Russian capital, which last year was the top-hashtagged city on Instagram, has been named the world’s fifth-best metropolis in a ranking of 100 major cities by Resonance Consultancy.

U.S.-based international hotel and resort chain Wyndham plans to open 15 new hotels in Russia and neighboring countries within the next two years.

Outbound tourism will generally show relatively light growth in 2020. The most noticeable increase will be in classical mass tourism segment.

Russia’s Sakhalin and Kuril Island are already a popular tourist destination, with modern ski resorts complementing their unique and pristine nature.

The regions of Russia’s Far East could propose establishing medical tourism programs to lure in visitors from Asian countries.

Organized inbound tourist flow to Russia grew by 20% at the end of 2019. The increase occurred, including due to the expansion of the season and the introduction of an electronic visa.

Trip.com Group and UnionPay International, have jointly published the “2019 Chinese Outbound Travel Consumption Report”. The report, combining big data derived from outbound travel product orders and overseas bank card transactions by Chinese nationals provides insights into the cross-border travel consumption trends of Chinese travellers. According to the statistics from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, Chinese nationals made more outbound travel expenditures than travellers from any other country, with total consumption reaching US$ 127.5 billion. January — November 2019 Travel Report, top 20 destinations for Chinese travellers are: Thailand, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, USA, Cambodia, Philippines, Russia, Australia, Italy, UAE, Turkey, France, UK,Myanmar, Maldives, Germany, and New Zealand.

The most imaginative and eye-catching stands at 40th WTM London have been announced, with Moscow, Brazil, Cape Town and Indonesia among the winners. The winner of the ‘Best Stand Design’ award was Moscow City Tourism Committee, which was praised for its “bright colorful use of glass panels and use of virtual reality”.

24.09.2019 Intourist Russian tour operator gathered its agents from St. Petersburg on the closed seminar. The TO representative apologized for the negative informational situation connected with Thomas Cook bankruptcy. The seminar was arranged to calm the agents and to confirm all the declared plans of Intourist for winter season.

The world’s main tourist event –World Tourism Organization General Assembly was held during 09-13 September in Russia this year and tourism ministers and officials all over the world took part in it. There were 2150 participants from the travel industry from 138 countries in Saint-Petersburg.

Thai players do not agree with statistics, according to which the number of tourists traveling to Thailand is declining. In particular, basing on the estimates of the Thai tourism office, in the first six months of this year, the number of tourists from Russia decreased by 3%, but the Kingdom hopes to host 1,5 million people, as last years.

Saint Petersburg the traditional annual party of Sletat.ru travel agencies took place. Sletat.ru held a huge costume ball in honor of upcoming 5 year anniversary of the franchises. More than 100 heads of offices, key partners and Management of Sletat.ru were brought together in «Palma» Mansion of the Society, an ancient building in the heart of Northern capital of Russia.

August,18 the first test passengers flight was fulfilled to the new airport is Saratov. That is the way to celebrate the Civil Aviation Day for Victor Vekselberg –the owner of “Regional airports” holding, who was onboard. His company was constructing the airport. Among other passengers there were: Vyacheslav Volodin –Russia State Duma chairman, born in Saratov region, Transport Ministry and Rosaviation officials, State Corporation for air traffic organization employees and many other public people having connections with the city. This flight was fulfilled by Pobeda air company. Andrey Kalmykov the air company director was the flight attendant onboard. He has the license for that job.  

Smarter pricing structures will allow travel brands to create more relevant prices for their customers, boosting revenue and loyalty, finds a new report. Pricing within the travel industry is evolving to match consumers and what they are willing to pay far more accurately as a result of a better understanding of impacting variables and more ability to deploy granular prices across distribution networks.

Moscow, Russia – Organizers of the OTDYKH Leisure Trade Fair are offering a range of unmissable B2B marketing events for exhibitors to partake in at the OTDYKH 2019 expo, which takes place this year, 10-12 September. This comes at a time where live events are proven to be especially important for B2B professionals when it comes to increasing brand awareness and customer engagement.

International airport Krasnodar named after Ekaterina II has started its history in 1932 when 7 air crafts arrived here for agricultural works. A year later the air base Pashkovskaya was founded. Now the airport is situated 12 km away from the city center. Today it is Krasnodar region airport the 3-d large region of Russian Federation.

Krasnodar international airport’s passenger traffic made up 1 264 494 persons in January-April 2019. It shows increase on 10% in comparison with 2018 when it was 1 145 207 passengers.  More than 1 million passengers used internal flights (+8%) and 217 000 passengers used international flights (+24%).  There were 5 313 aircraft departures in January-April 2019 (+3%). 

A quarter of Russian tourists are ready to spend for vacations from 50 to 100 thousand Rubles (688 – 1,376 Euros). At the same time, the number of those who will to save money during holidays has decreased. But tourists up to now have to save money for the long-awaited vacation. Such data was presented by the Momondo service. 

In the summer season, Ural Airlines launches new routes in Russia, the CIS countries and far abroad. At the same time, as noted in the press service of the carrier, the previous summer routes will also continue, and frequency of flights along popular routs will increase.  Among international flights, the airline launches 4 new flights to France: Bordeaux, Montpellier, Paris and Nice. In addition, the frequency of flights from Ekaterinburg to Prague will be increased up to 6 times a week, and from April the frequency of flights from Vladivostok to Sapporo will also increase. 

The company Thomas Cook Group plc buys 100% of the tour operator Biblio-Globus. Not at all "for a penny" and not even for $ 10 million, as some publications, including the federal media, wrote. The deal was concluded on Friday, March 22. 

At the round table at #Intourmarket we discuss with Dear Novichenkova, Director of marketing and communications Ipsos, the preferences of the older generation in tourism. We present to your attention an interesting study from Ipsos-a global research company.