Tour operators record an increase in demand for tours to Istanbul this winter season. Experts pay attention to an increase in the depth of sales of the destination for the New Year holidays up to three months.

One of the top four tourism exhibitions worldwide, EMITT will host world tourism professionals and holiday consumers for the 24th time in Istanbul at the Tüyap Fair, Convention and Congress Center between January 30 and February 2, 2020. The exhibition will remain committed to its mission of serving as a platform where the new agenda items of the tourism industry are discussed.

Every third tourist on the beaches of Antalya this year turned out to be a Russian. According to the Office of Culture and Tourism of Antalya, in January-October, 5 414 602 tourists from Russia came in local hotels. In annual terms, the Russian tourist flow to Antalya grew by almost 13%.  In total, the number of tourists from Russia over 10 months exceeded the number of tourists from Germany (2,5 million people) and Ukraine (795 thousand people). These countries are on the second and third positions, respectively. 

The list of popular destinations for winter holidays from Tez Tour includes China, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Thailand, Egypt, Spain, Austria, Italy and Andorra.

For the 9 months of 2019, almost 6 million of Russians visited Turkey, which is a new record for the Russian market. By the number of arrivals, tourist flow from the Russian Federation for three quarters have already exceeded the figures for the whole of 2018.

Turkey was the leader of the summer season 2019. And Alexander Ermolaev - Mag.travel commercial director has suggested the colleagues of the closed travel public in social media to vote for the best air company during this summer season. Turkish airlines company was excluded from the start. This poll has caused the heated discussion. Travel experts expressed their attitude to the air carriers - participants of Turkey destination by voting.

The tour operator Tui Russia has analyzed the demand for the New Year holidays and compiled a rating of tourist destinations where Russians plan to travel with their children.

Russian tourists are changing their mind about summer holidays. We used to consider July and August the highest points of summer, but now the high request is stable from May to October. That was the topic of experts’ conversations during the business program of traditional Coral Travel autumn award event-Starway 2019.

Russian tourists most often buy winter tours on early booking program in Thailand, the UAE and Vietnam. Also the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Cuba are among the leading destinations for Russians in the winter season.

According to the predictions, the cost of tours to Turkey for Russian tourists in 2020 will remain at the level of 2019. There are no prerequisites for price increases.

Every fourth tour sold in October for the New Year is a tour abroad. Thailand, the UAE and Turkey are the leaders of the New Year 2020.

In mid-October tour operators named the most popular destinations for the November holidays. At the peak of popularity are Turkey, the UAE, Cyprus, Italy, Israel, Jordan, Sri Lanka and Cuba.

For the first 9 months of 2019 the Russian tourist flow to Antalya increased by 15%, every third holidaymaker on the Antalya beaches was from Russia.

Tour operators have to respond to high demand for Antalya with additional flights. Pegas Touristik increased the existing flight program in Antalya.

In the autumn the demand for European destinations such as Greece, Italy and Bulgaria has grown. The demand for autumn holidays in 2019 increased by 26% compared to last year.

Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam and India are the leaders of the coming winter. For these areas winter sales grew by 1,5 times within early booking program. The early booking of tours for the winter season this year began very early and the interest of tourists in this action is very high

Pobeda air company is planning to start international flight program from the airport of Krasnodar. And the first destination will be Istanbul. Since 30.10.2019 Boeing 737-800 of Pobeda air company will fly to Istanbul twice a week on Wednesday and Saturday.

Russian tourists set another record of arrivals in Antalya. Over 8 months of 2019, the number of Russian tourists on the Antalya beaches exceeded the number of Germans, British, Ukrainians and Polish tourists.

According to available information, two more cities will be added to the list of the current 6 cities of departure to Istanbul, one of them is Adler (Sochi) airport. The second is Kurumoch airport, serving the cities of Samara and Togliatti.

In the beginning of November, charter flights of Intourist start from Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Kazan and Ufa to Istanbul. The program will last till March 2020. The operator cooperates with Red Wings air company. The craft for the program will be Airbus A321-200 for 220 passengers in one class layout. The frequency of flights from Moscow will be 3 times a week, from Ufa — once a week and from other four cities —  twice a week. Tour operator says that this frequency may be increased if necessary.

Anex Tour (the Turkish tour operator) officially announced that the company is starting a cruise business buying the first cruise ship in its history. The cruise product of Anex Tour will be offered on the Russian market.

Nord wind has started booking for the new destination Nizhnekamsk-Istanbul.

In the winter season 2019/20 the number of charters to Turkey will increase significantly: the winter tours to Antalya from 10 cities of Russia have become available in the booking system of Intourist tour operator. Considerable increase of transportation on the destination may reduce the prices of vacation packages. 

In January-June 2019, citizens of the Russian Federation made 21 212 095 trips abroad. This is 6.67% more than in the same period of the last year. Turkey became the leader of outbound tourism, Italy is growing rapidly and tourist flow to Thailand has slightly decreased.