Sardinia In Demand

[IMG=20569-6313]On July 27th a BANKO correspondent monitored the sales of tours to Sardinia in the Russian travel market. It was found out that at the moment tour operators have to fight for rooms in popular hotels of the island. Thus, Svetlana Poddubnaya, the Head of the Booking and Sales Department of Tourparade, commented as follows: ‘it is impossible to find a hotel to form a last - minute tour. In August it is necessary to confirm allotments 14 and even 21 days in advance. We manage to reduce this period to 7 days and load charter flights because of good relations with local hoteliers’. Furthermore, tour operators point out unexpected demand for Cagliari as one of the tendencies of the season (STC Rossia operates flights to the resort by TU-154). According to experts, last year was marked with the higher demand for another Sardinian resort – Olbia (a charter program is realized by Transaero Boeing – 737). Evgeny Sudbin, General Director Deputy of Ascent Travel, emphasized that the change of preferences was provoked by the advertising campaign of tour operators. According to him, in 2006 less effort was made to promote Olbia. On the other hand, Svetlana Tsodirkovskaya, General Director of Jet Travel, stated as follows: ‘Cagliari is in demand as our clients know that the resort has fewer hotels and, consequently, it is more difficult to confirm hotel rooms. Therefore, tours for August are booked in April and May’. Moreover, priorities of hoteliers who have many bookings from Italian tourists affect the situation. ‘Popular Forte Village Resort allocates very limited quota for the Russian travel market. They do not want to accommodate many Russian tourists’.