Singapore Airlines was named the "Best Asian Airline" in Russia and the CIS countries by the Business Traveller for the third year in a row. Singapore Airlines already received this Award in 2016 and 2017. The ceremony took place in Moscow on November, 15, 2018.   Business Traveller Awards are given annually for outstanding achievements and innovations in the field of business tourism. In 2018,  37 nominations were presented in 5 categories: "Airlines", "Airports", "Destinations - Business Traveler's Choice", "Hotels", "Arsenal". The winners in each nomination have been determined by the readers of the Business Traveler magazine.  Throughout its existence, the annual Business Traveller Awards have gained the reputation of a reputable award, mostly due to its objectivity. The winners are determined by the readers’ votes. The first Business Traveller Awards ceremony took place in 1988. Nowaday the award is held in the UK, the USA, the Asia-Pacific region, Africa and the Middle East, Germany and Poland.

It is expected that in December, Russian carriers will perform at least three thousand charter flights. Experts note that the growth in charter traffic is already significantly higher than the growth rate of regular aviation traffic in general. From October 15 to November 14, 2018, 2609 charter flights were made.

The data concerning volume and dynamics of passenger traffic by scheduled and charter flights were announced during the conference Online Travel 3.0. The experts also gave a forecast of the Russian passenger traffic based on the results of 2018. At Online Travel 3.0 conference the analysis of civil aviation statistics for January – August 2018 compared to the same period in 2017 was presented by Tatyana Merkulova, TKP Commercial Director.

Contrary to gloomy forecasts, in August-September the number of charter flights remained almost at the summer level. The general director of Vipservice Holding, Dmitry Gorin, said that over the reporting period, from August 15 to September 15, Russian airlines performed 3,781 charter flights in the interest of tour operators.

19.9% ​​of Moscow travel agencies, that took part in the traditional marketing research of BANKO Service, noted that their sales of tours fell insignificantly over last summer season. Another 14.4% showed a significant negative dynamics. The questionnaire was conducted in late August - early September.

Since 22 till 23 of November 2018 the International Tourism Forum SIFT will be held in city-resort Sochi, which is considered to be one of the most important business platform in Russia of the domestic and inbound tourism as well. Location:  Sochi city, the Adler-Arena, the Imeretinskaya Valley. 

RossTour Company plans to complete the work of the tour operator but continue to play as tourist agency. This was announced by the company's general director Alexander Nedopolts. According to the head of RossTour, the company plans to announce the termination of the tour operator’s activity on Friday, October 5, or Monday, October 8.

“Kaliningrad’s Khrabrovo airport and Pobeda airline plan to organize flights from Moscow to Europe via Kaliningrad”, - said the CEO of the airport Alexander Korytny. "In October, jointly with Pobeda airline in the autumn-winter schedule we will begin the implementation of transfer hub project which connects Moscow airport Vnucovo with various cities in Western Europe. It is planned that among them will be Paris, Rome, Geneva and London", - added A. Korytny. According to him, Khrabrovo airport has the task to reduce the parking time at the airport - it should be not more than one hour. At the first stage of this project Pobeda will fly to Kaliningrad only from Moscow, after that the range of cities will be broaden.

Tour operator Natalie Tours notified travel agents about cancellation of paid tours, formed on the basis of charter flights in the directions: Barcelona, ​​Rimini, Catania, Naples, Antalya, Heraklion. The corresponding information was received by retail dealers on Friday evening, June 29. "Due to low financial performance of charter programs in the directions: Barcelona, ​​Rimini, Catania, Naples, Antalya, Heraklion a special decision was made to reduce the number of flights since June 30, 2018.

“Raduga Travel tour operator announced the termination of activities due to the inability to fulfill its obligations under contracts for the sale of tourist products”, - it follows from a notice published on the company's website.

In 2018 the accommodation facilities of the Crimea, Krasnodar Territory, as well as Abkhazia did not raise prices. On the contrary, some hotels reduced the cost of accommodation up to 20%. This affected the average cost of tours, but the forecasts for an organized tourist flow for this season are not very bright.

Matreshka Tour operator is selling off assets for making payments to tourists, whose tours were canceled in the winter season. The tour operator Aurora BG has been sold, negotiations are underway to sell the retail network. On Friday it became known that the St. Petersburg company Aurora BG changed the owner.

“The Moscow Arbitration Court on Tuesday declared bankrupt "Kogalymavia Airlines" LLC”, - a correspondent of Interfax reported from the court. "Recognize Kogalymavia Airlines as a bankrupt and open bankruptcy proceedings against it for a period of 6 months", - the judge said. The hearing on the bankruptcy commission's report is scheduled for August 7, 2018.

"Demand for flights abroad grew by 19% mainly due to the employees of pharmaceutical companies, which began to fly abroad on business trips 31% more often. The representatives of this sector most significantly increased the number of flights to Prague and Amsterdam, where broad scale business events were held in 2017 year.

The tourist flow from Russia to Cuba in 2017 was a record for its entire history, having increased by almost 70%. For the first time Russia entered in the TOP 10 of key incoming markets of Cuba. As of December 18, according to the Cuban tourist office in Russia, 100.319 citizens of Russian Federation visited Cuba, which exceeded by 67% the figures for the same period of 2016. It is noted that for the entire 2016 Cuba was visited by about 65 thousand Russians. Thus, for the first time in the history of Russian out coming tourism, the tourist flow to Cuba from Russian Federation has exceeded the mark of 100 thousand people.

“The volume of New Year's charter programs of tour operators grew by 20% in comparison with the last year”, - said the Adviser of the Head of Rosturizm Dmitry Gorin. "For New Year's holidays, airlines made 586 applications for international tourist charter flights, of which 292 flights have already been approved by Rosaviatsiya.

“The opening of the Turkish direction did not affect on the popularity of other abroad destinations among Ural tourists in 2017”, - said Mikhail Maltsev, Executive Director of the Urals Tourism Association. "Despite the fears that the opening of the Turkish direction will have a negative impact on other abroad directions, first of all on the countries of Mediterranean basin and the Black Sea, these fears did not materialize (except Tunisia and Montenegro)”, - said M. Maltsev.

Tour operators predict an increase of prices in the summer season 2018. The rise in price is also connected with an increase of the cost of charter flights. The cost of charter transportation in the upcoming summer season can grow. Experts note two key reasons. "Over the past six months we have noted a significant increase of the cost of aviation fuel in Russia.

TUI Russia and CIS tour operator will open its representative offices in four other regions of the Russian Federation, increase the number of retail stores by one third and almost double the number of offering destinations. The tour operator TUI Russia and the CIS plans to strengthen its positions on the Russian tourism market in the next five years.

“Turkey, Greece and Cyprus became the leaders of demand among Russians in the summer period of 2017”, - said the Chairman of the expert council of the United Network of TBG and "Hot tours" Tatiana Dmitrova. According to her, Turkey in the summer of 2017 took 26.4% of all sales of travel agencies.

The share of foreign travel among all trips of Russians in the summer of 2017 increased by 32%, according to the analysis of tickets search resource Aviasales. "In the summer of 2016 the share of air travel in Russia amounted 80% of the total number of bookings, this year the ratio of domestic and international flights is 68% and 32% respectively".

On its website tour operator Ted Travel announced on August 24 about the termination of activities due to the inability to fulfill its obligations for tourists and customers. “The reason for the suspension of the activities was the sale of tours at prices below the market average”, - the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) reported on Friday.

“Russian airlines in June 2017 increased transportation by 20.2% for annual period (10.4 million people)”, - reported the source in Rosaviatsia. Domestic transportation increased by 7.4% up to 5.99 million passengers. International traffic grew by 43.4%, up to 4.42 million people.

Tour operators are cutting summer programs and selling significantly less tours around Russia due to low demand”, - reports Commersant news paper referring to representatives of the tourism industry. Reduction of interest of organized tourists to rest in Russia is forcing tour operators and hoteliers to adjust the declared prices and sales volumes.