11/08/2019 16:40

German-Russian Partenerships Make Plans for Summer

[IMG=18843-4476] Earlier this week mass media in the Czech Republic reported that the German Corporation TUI plans to buy a 60% holding in the Czech tour operating company Exim Tours. This is not the first case of expansion of the travel giant. TMR (TUI Mostravel Russia), which appeared on the Russian travel market not long ago recently merged with the St. Petersburg travel company Riviera (News - 17.10.05 and 18.10.05). According to General Director of Mostravel, Rabson Mamedov, they are already planning summer programs, including charter programs in collaboration with Riviera - which is a strong player in many provincial Russian towns. However, some experts have reacted coolly to this proposed expansion of summer programs in the regions; they feel that opposition from local companies could make Mostravel’s regional promotion difficult, in spite of Rivera’s great experience. Nevertheless, Vice-President of IntAir, Alexey Sergeechev, expressed the following opinion: ‘TMR need to enter the regional market, with or without Riviera - their main competitors did it a long time ago’. In addition to the partnership of TMR and Riviera, there is one more new German-Russian alliance: ITS (the daughter company of LTU Touristik – in turn part of German holding company REWE) and the Russian travel company Tour Alliance. According to Sergey Bakhtin, General Director of ITS in Moscow, the new company plans to ‘increase the flow of tourists to all the company’s existing destinations by at least 300%’. However, experts estimate the development of this partnership even more sceptically. They agree that the realization of such plans would require considerable investment, and considering the previous experience of the German company in Russia, experts doubt the possibility of fast development. Nevertheless, Nadjib Mazduryan, the Head of Russian Tourizm Coordination of LTU Touristik replies: ‘we do not plan fast expansion of the market. The most important for us at the moment is to adapt to the culture of the Russian travel business’.