The volume of tourists from tour operators on foreign destinations will grow up to 20% in 2023

The market of group outbound tourism in 2023 will grow up to 20% compared to 2022. Such a forecast was made by Vladimir Rubtsov, CEO of Fun&Sun tour operator at MITT 2023 exhibition.

According to ATOR, tour operators sent about 7 million tourists to the TOP-20 tourist destinations in 2022, which is 68,8% of all trips to this pool of countries (in 2019, the share was 58,8%).

As Mr. Rubtsov said, the planned growth is largely due to the low base effect (decrease of demand in the winter and spring of 2022), and the market is up now. The geography of the distribution of the tourist flow in 2023 will depend on the logistics of air transportation and the visa policy of countries.

Popular winter destinations, according to Fun&Sun forecasts, will become year-round. The share of the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia in the structure of summer season sales will increase. So, the tour operator will continue winter programs to Thailand, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates during summer season. The countries of the near abroad will continue to gain popularity, Mr. Rubtsov noted.

In 2023, tour operators have high hopes for a return to China's market (both beach and excursion programs). But there is no clear situation with the flight programs to Hainan.

Fun&Sun predicts that a consistently high demand for beach holidays will continue in 2023, but also the popularity of sightseeing tours will continue to grow.

Of the interesting trends for 2023, Fun&Sun CEO noted the following:

- tourists are ready to travel by connection flights, they are no longer afraid of such tours,
- there is an increase of duration of trips and an increase of the average price,
- there is a growing demand for individual offers (package tour with additional services),
-tourists want to minimize various risks,
- shopping has become an important and sometimes obligatory purpose of the abroad programs for Russians.