Tour operators again began offering last-minute tours to Russians

After the opening of full-scale air communication with Turkey, last-minute discounted tours with departures in the coming dates appeared on the Russian tourist market, Igor Blinov, a representative of the National Network of Travel Agencies, told Kommersant.

According to Stanislav Satsuk, CEO of Travelata.ru, such offers appeared last week, the discount for tours to Turkey reaches 40%. First of all, last-minute trips are offered to the city of Dalaman in the south-west of the country, according to the Level.Travel online tour search service.

Operators are forced to reduce prices, as the Russians began to postpone the purchase of tours, market participants interviewed by the publication say.

The representative of Intourist Daria Domostroyeva believes that the appearance of last-minute tours is caused by the changing geography of departures due to the opening of flights from new cities. Some tour operators adjust the flight program or change planes, but not all companies have such an opportunity and, as a result, unrealized proposals appear, the expert said.

According to Kommersant, last-minute tours accounted for 20% of sales in the 2000s. In 2014, the crisis led to the massive bankruptcy of tour operators, and by 2017 this format had virtually disappeared from the market.

Blinov believes that the return of last-minute tours will have a negative impact on the tourism industry. “For agents, this is superimposed on the fact that many tours are implemented on regular flights, for the sale of tickets for which we do not receive a commission, actually working at a loss,” explained a representative of the National Network of Travel Agencies.

Despite the resumption of passenger flights with resorts in Turkey, market participants do not note the rush demand for trips to this country. According to Satsuk, at first there was a surge in bookings in the Turkish direction, but now the figure has decreased by 15%. In Level.Travel, this is associated with the requirement to do a PCR test for CORONAVIRUS infection for those who have not been vaccinated.

Russia limited air traffic with Turkey from April 15 to June 1 due to an increase in the number of infections in the republic, later the resumption of flights was postponed by three weeks. An exception was made only for EXPORT flights and two more flights per week: Moscow - Istanbul and Istanbul - Moscow. On June 22, full-scale air traffic was restored. The Association of Tour Operators of Russia predicted that 3 million Russians would visit Turkish resorts by the end of September.

According to the Turkish authorities, the country will accept Russian tourists with vaccination documents for any covid-19 drug registered in Russia . Those who are not vaccinated must take a PCR test.