May Sales

[IMG=19621-5347]

   All travel market experts interviewed by a BANKO correspondent pointed out that the forecasted drop in demand for tours on May holidays failed. The Southeast Asia was the priority destination chosen by Russian tourists for May holidays. According to Tatiana Vand, Director of Vand International Tours, the demand for Thailand stabilized and the interest for the destination at the moment is the same as before the tsunami.
   Furthermore, the demand for France has also stabilized. European countries in general are popular among Russian tourists, said Victoria Zhenchevskaya, Director of DSBW. ‘Thus, the demand for Italy has increased by 15%’, commented Zhenchevskaya. The experts emphasize that one of the most successful destinations for May holidays is Montenegro – the volume of sales has grown by 300%.
    Anatolyi Garkushin, General Director of Pantheon, said that Greece is in quite high demand, however, pointing out the excess of flights to Halkidiki and Crete.
   According to Mikhail Ioffe, the Head of Egypt Department of Tourenergoservice, Egypt is marked with the high sales depth – at the moment Egyptian hotels are 100% booked for the beginning of May in spite of 15-20% increase in price for tours comparing to previous years.
    The only destination, which is less popular than last year, is Turkey despite comparatively cheap cost of tours. Thus, Igor Andreev, Commercial Direcor of Russian Travel Company, commented on the situation as follows: ‘we can’t say that current prices are dumping but tour operators had to cut prices by 15-20% - mainly due to discounts offered by Turkish hotels’. Andreev, explained the drop in demand for Turkey by two factors. Firstly, black PR of the country affected the situation. Secondly, the weather forecasts in Turkey are not favorable for beach holidays.
   Meanwhile, experts believe that the situation with Turkey will stabilize at the end of May when the weather improves that will terminate the supremacy position of Egypt.