A day in Sochi is like a week in Egypt: our tourist business is having a good time with covid bans

The tourist business stated that these are ordinary market mechanisms, and there is no speculation on its part.

Julia Suntsova

Tour operators were quick to refute the "information of some media" about the many times higher prices for tours in Russia, stating that the growth is "insignificant" and is allegedly connected with "traditionally growing demand closer to the season".

Travel agencies, in turn, were not so solidarity with their colleagues and said that the news about Turkey still influenced the cost of holidays in Russia. According to them, the reason for the rise in the cost of vouchers is the jump in hotel prices, on average the growth for hoteliers' services was 30%. The owners of the hotel business themselves explained the changes by the laws of the market: the higher the demand for a limited number of rooms, the higher the price.

The increased demand associated with seasonality, multiplied by the overlap of the main outbound directions, provoked a rise in prices in hotels in the Krasnodar Territory and Crimea, and not a cartel conspiracy or unfair actions of business entities, industry experts assure:

“Travel associations note that the average occupancy for the year has grown to record values, up to 70% on average. This suggests that we need long-term government programs, a system of economic measures that would increase the capacity to accommodate tourists both in the main points of demand - the Krasnodar Territory, Crimea, and throughout the country”.

Experts call the behavior of hoteliers in Crimea unprecedented after reports of the closure of flights with Turkey. The federal budget poured hundreds of billions of rubles into the development of the infrastructure of the peninsula, for which the local hotel business "thanked" the Russians in full. In pursuit of profit and taking advantage of the lack of alternatives, Crimean hoteliers have canceled about 74% of previously booked and paid tours - because now they can be sold at a higher price. According to the calculations of the service for booking accommodation in Russia Tvil, 17.67% of orders were canceled in Yalta, 15.52% in Evpatoria, and 14.01% in Sevastopol.

However, the Krasnodar Territory did not stand aside either - about 23% of booked tours were canceled there. Cancellation affected orders paid at the beginning of the year. The owners of the hotels simply sent a notification to the tourists who had taken care of their vacation in advance, where they explained the unilateral amendment of the contracts by "setting higher prices" for their services.

Tour operators started talking about the problems of interaction with hoteliers at the OTM Summer-2021 exhibition on April 12 this year. According to them, even those objects that have provided room quotas, refuse their obligations and raise prices by 30-50%.

After these incidents, FAS Russia announced jointly with Rosturizm the development of measures "aimed at suppressing unfair practices related to unilateral cancellation of a room reservation in order to resell it at higher prices in the event of an increase in demand".

The situation was aggravated by the so-called "Mishustin cashback". Due to the active sale of tours with a 20% return, almost all high-class accommodation was already sold out before the closure of Turkey, according to the combined network of TBG and Hot Tours.

The imposition of these circumstances has led to the fact that now tourists are often faced with problems when booking tours, paying for flights and hotels. We are talking about a tangible blow to the consumer's pocket.

The high cost of recreation in Crimea and Sochi after the closure of the popular "five-star" Turkey among Russians angered Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko. She instructed the Federation Council Committee on Social Policy and the Federal Antimonopoly Service to deal with the inflated prices for domestic tourism. According to her, citizens complain that after the closure of countries where the situation with covid is recognized as unfavorable, travel companies have sharply raised prices. “They are doing this instead of creating an attractive environment for citizens”; “We push our citizens away from our own tourist facilities, resorts, hotels, ” said Matvienko. The chairman of the upper house of parliament also added that one day in a hotel in Crimea began to cost the same as a week-long tour to Egypt on the all-inclusive system - and this is unacceptable.

The more frequent complaints about the rise in prices for travel in Russia are confirmed by the relevant committee of the State Duma.

Boris Paikin, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture, Sports, Tourism and Youth Affairs, also sent his appeals to the heads of Rostourism, the Ministry of Transport and the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) with a request to prevent unjustified overpricing of domestic tours.

"The committee receives complaints from citizens about an unjustified increase in prices for tourism products in the field of domestic tourism, including in connection with the closure of the borders of Turkey and Tanzania. As part of increasing the tourist potential of Russia based on increasing the availability of tourist services, I ask you to take appropriate measures to resolve the designated problem, preventing an unreasonable increase in prices for a tourist product and transportation in domestic directions in the context of restrictions on flights to Turkey and Tanzania, "the press service of the committee quotes the letter from Paikin.

The official also added that tourists should be given the opportunity to spend their holidays in Russia no more expensive than they could do in Turkey.

After the statements of high-ranking officials, the FAS, for its part, promised to assess the feasibility of increasing the cost of hotel services in the resorts of Russia in 2021 and develop mechanisms that will prevent price surges in the future. Deputy head of the department Timofey Nizhegorodtsev said this at a meeting of the Federation Council Committee on Social Policy. He added that most of the complaints were about the rise in prices for hotels in the 4 and 5 star categories.

According to Nizhegorodtsev, the department requested statistics from the Krasnodar Territory and the Republic of Crimea for 2018-2021, and also sent price requests. Based on these data, the Federal Antimonopoly Service will determine how much the cost of placement this spring differs from the usual fluctuations in prices.

The FAS added that the tourism market in Russia is competitive, there are no persons occupying a dominant position on it. At the same time, the distribution of market participants is such that coordination and keeping prices at a certain level is possible - therefore, an audit is being carried out now.

Until mid-April, the average cost of domestic tours in Russia averaged 46 thousand rubles. After the closure of Turkey, it rose to 78 thousand rubles, the Level.Travel tour booking service calculated.

Compared to the "pre-pandemic" May 2019, the cost of tours to the south of Russia has significantly increased, this is due to the smaller number of open directions and the dynamics of exchange rates. Prices for tours to Sochi in early May soared by 112%. From the nearest foreign destinations since 2019, the cost of rest in Abkhazia has grown the most - by 79%, follows from the study "Tinkov Travel". Experts call the costs of the hotel business accumulated due to the pandemic as another reason for the rise in prices.

A significant jump in prices for holidays within the country was also felt by non-package tourists - those who plan their trips on their own.

Accommodation in hotels in the Krasnodar Territory and Crimea on the May holidays rose by 80-120%, according to representatives of the tourism industry.

Hoteliers, apparently, are very much counting on the reorientation of tourists who are accustomed to vacationing abroad, to four and five stars in the Russian south.

To spend the next weekend with the seizure of Friday in a five-star hotel in Sochi for a family with one child under 7 years old, for example, will cost from 65.5 thousand to 879.5 thousand rubles , follows from a request on booking. Market players believe that for the same reason, in the summer, prices for high-end housing in southern Russia may rise by another 15-20%.

At the same time, real estate prices are rapidly increasing there.

If in 2019 a square meter in Sochi cost an average of 100 thousand rubles, now the price for transactions reaches 750 thousand rubles. In new buildings in the Imeretinskaya lowland, the cost per square meter jumped to a million rubles. In the village of Sirius, for example, an apartment of 75 square meters in two years has risen in price from 6.7 to 24.2 million rubles (this is plus 262%). This is a real soap bubble, realtors comment.

Rostourism, however, persistently advises Russians to choose travel in Russia instead of abroad. The agency's website even conducts training webinars:

“In connection with the numerous questions regarding the procedure and the possibility of using the funds of the FPO [the personal liability fund of the tour operator] for payments to tourists, the Federal Agency for Tourism will hold a webinar in which explanations will be given on the Rules of return to tourists and (or) other customers paid by them for a tourist product of monetary sums (Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 08.04.2020 No. 461), "the agency's website says. The next video consultation is scheduled for May 12.

We will remind, the Russian authorities have limited air traffic with Turkey from April 15 to June 1. An exception was made for two flights a week on the route Moscow - Istanbul, Istanbul - Moscow, as well as outbound flights. For this period, tour operators are advised to suspend the sale of tours from Russia to Turkey. The reason is the increase in the number of cases of coronavirus in the country. According to the head of Rospotrebnadzor Anna Popova, the situation with the pandemic in Russia is "stabilizing", although "the rate of decline in incidence has slowed down".

The decision of the Russian authorities to close Turkey affected the interests of more than 500 thousand people, who have already paid over 32 billion rubles for vouchers. The freezing of funds on purchased tours for the second year in a row causes massive indignation.