The regional tourists are interested in direct flight to Bali

According to tour operators, a direct flight to Bali from Moscow expanded an audience of the destination, including the tourists from regions who have an option of convenient change in Moscow. On October 29, the regular direct flight of Rossia airline between Moscow and Denpasar was launched. The direct flights are operated 3 times a week. The flights from Moscow depart on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays on Boeing 777-300 ER (21 business class seats, 436 economy class seats). Travel time is 12 hours. In the winter season 2018–2019 the new flight will increase the passenger traffic between the two countries by more than 35,000 passengers. The occupancy of the first flight was more than 85%. According to the Ministry of Tourism of Indonesia, in 2017 the number of tourists from Russia to Indonesia increased by 37.28%, despite the absence of a non-stop flight. And from January to August 2018, the number of Russian tourists exceeded 83,000 (+ 6.9% compared with the same period of 2017). Tourist authorities of Indonesia hope that direct transportation will maintain a positive trend of the Russian market. According to one of the scenarios, in 2018 Indonesia may host up to 150 thousand tourists from Russia. “In general, interest in direct flights to Denpasar is noticeable. This flight also added opportunities for tourists from the region to book tours with a change in Moscow, while booking of tours with a change in Singapore or Doha did not decrease,” said Marina Makarkova, the head of public relations of Coral Travel tour operator. According to her, the demand for Bali is always stable except for periods when natural disasters occur in Indonesia, but this is already a feature of the region as a whole, and many tourists know about it. ANEX Tour operator noted the growth in demand for Indonesia and creates tours just on the basis of direct flights. Thus, the cost of a package tour from ANEX Tour to Bali Island with departure from Moscow for 11 nights, in a 3* hotel on BB basis starts from 183,000 Rubles ($ 2,747). The tour operator also offers tours to Bali from St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Khabarovsk.