All aboard: Demand for river cruises

The shipping company "Vodokhod" RBC Tatarstan reported that in 2021 the cruise tourist flow in Kazan has grown. The number of ship calls to Kazan increased by 23% compared to the navigation year of 2019, and by 105% compared to last year, when the navigation period had to be shortened. By the end of the season, the company plans to make 54 ship calls to the port of the capital. The company decided to increase the number of flights, including on premium and luxury ships.

Andrey Mikhailovsky, DIRECTOR of the Infoflot cruise center, said that, compared to the pre-crisis 2019, the demand for cruise vacations has grown by 25-30%. According to him, sales for 2022 are now in full swing, but it is too early to talk about the level of demand.

“The dynamics are expected to be very good. Recently, the cruise industry has received a large infusion of new tourists. Moreover, based on statistics, they have already become repeat tourists. The rampant demand began to be observed in August-September last year,” he said. 

Mikhailovsky believes that several reasons contributed to the growth in the number of new tourists: the development of domestic tourism, covid restrictions and government support in the form of a tourist cashback program.

“Under the current conditions, it is not difficult for people to get from one city to another. For example, residents of Moscow often go on cruises from Kazan. It happens that tourists from Kazan go on cruises from St. Petersburg, Moscow, and so on. This is the right change, people have stopped locking themselves in their city,” said the director of the cruise center.