Federal Mass Media Review

Georgia lost about $113 M after banning flights from Russia, according to the data provided by the Federal Tourism Agency, as reports Moskva 24. Russian citizens still visit Georgia although hardly in large numbers. "At the moment, individual travellers prevail due to absence of direct flights. There are several option for travelling, for instance, transit flights from Yerevan. However, car trips remain the most popular method of travelling. Before direct flights to Georgia were banned, 70% of travellers opted for alternative means of transport," Dmitry Gorin said live in Otrazheniye. (More at)

Starting from 2021, tourists will be able to enter any region of Russia with an e-visa. Dmitry Gorin told to the TV channel Rossiya 24 about the cities that will win big from this decision: "We see a significant growth of travels to Kazan, Sochi, cities of Siberia and the Russian Far East. Everything we need to do now is introduce e-visas in other checkpoints as soon as possible, even in stages. For example, we see that in Saint Petersburg the potential growth can reach 40%. Everyone will win from this: infrastructure of the city, more taxes and, most importantly, new opportunities for incoming tourism." (More at)

Dmitry Gorin commented for OTR the situation when airlines asked for a state aid of RUB 30 billion. Otherwise, they claimed they would have to raise prices. "In recent years, both airlines and tourism companies try to keep prices down to make flights more affordable, for example through no-luggage tariffs. Unfortunately, the prices of kerosene keep growing, and the support that the government can provide to airlines evenly over the course of the next 3 years will allow them to keep the prices in check. Just 3 years before, prices were growing by only 3—4%. Without state aid, it is going to be very difficult to keep the tariffs from rising." (More at)

Dmitry Gorin commented on the problem with over-booking, a huge issue for popular destinations even today, to Business FM: "Turkish hotels sometimes allowed for 15% over-booking. More than 6 million tourists from Russia chose Turkey last summer, and sadly, during the high season we recorded occasional over-booking. In this situation, tourism agencies usually offer accommodation in an alternative hotel, sometimes even one of a high category, for example, five stars instead of four. Unfortunately, in some cases they offered hotels with less stars, and in such situations tourists have the right to annul their trip. In any case, this issue must be solved by the receiving tourism company." (More at)