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Operators of inbound/internal tourism informed a BANKO correspondent that this season there is a new trend on the ‘Moscow suburbs’ segment of the market: demand for January holidays considerably exceed the interest to tours for the New Year period. ‘Sales for holidays were closed in the middle of November while there is still availability for a New year’, says Irina Savelieva, general director of ‘RBP-Alean’.
Experts name different reasons for such redistribution. Some believe the interest to spending winter holidays in near Moscow vacation hotels in historically connected with the abundance of snow, usual for the countryside area. ‘It is not inconceivable that the demand will grow if it snows’, says, for example, Irina Solyankina, head of the Russian department of ‘Vand International’. According to other players only now, during the second year holiday-makers realized the advantage of ‘long’ vacations and decided to go on longer holidays. Main clients of such tours, as Elena Voevodina, deputy general director of ‘Rose of winds’ explains, are parents with children.
An increased interest in holidays in the Moscow region caused almost 20% growth in prices for trips during the period, while the cost of New Year packages grew at maximum by 15%. This factor does not scare tourists. Meanwhile, according to many players of the destination, the demand grows mostly on modern, comfortable vacation hotels which Moscow region in particular lacks.
