Sochi lures tourists with an all-inclusive system
Tour operators are trying to lure Russians to domestic resorts with all-inclusive packages. As Yuri Barzykin, Vice President of the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RUTI), told Izvestia , this concept has now appeared in hotels in Sochi, Gelendzhik, and Anapa. Currently, only about 10% of hotels offer all-inclusive packages—roughly 20–40 hotels in each of these cities. The number of such packages in Crimea is still unknown. Perhaps, thanks to this, Sochi will attract some tourists.
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According to Barzykin, by introducing this system, Russian resorts will be able to attract an audience that is used to traveling to Turkey and Egypt. According to the vice-president of the PCT, the cost of one day in a three-star hotel with a domestic all-inclusive is about 3,5 thousand rubles .
“In terms of quality, our service is no worse than foreign ones. In the same way, there are swimming pools and spa complexes,” Barzykin noted. He clarified that the number of domestic hotels offering three meals a day (“full board”) is growing. “There is a 50% discount for children almost everywhere, because half of Russians travel with children. Some even offer free accommodation for them,” Barzykin noted.
According to his estimates, about 41,5 million tourists are expected in the domestic market this summer. It is expected that the most popular destinations will be resorts in the Krasnodar Territory and Crimea. “Last year, about 12 million tourists visited the Krasnodar Territory; this year, I think, there will be 15 million. Last year, 4,1 million Russians came to vacation in Crimea; this year, I think, it will reach 5 million,” said the RST representative. At the same time, in his opinion, no more than 3 million Russians will go to Turkey this year, and no more than 2 million to Egypt.
Despite the appearance of “all-inclusive” in Russian hotels, they cannot yet be called a budget analogue of a holiday in Turkey or Egypt: on average, budget offers abroad remain the most profitable. Thus, one of the major operators offers a 7-night tour at the end of May for two adult Muscovites in a four-star hotel with all-inclusive meals in Anapa for an amount from 64 thousand to 80 thousand rubles. A trip to Sochi under the same conditions will cost more - from 75 thousand to 116 thousand rubles. At the same time, a week-long tour to Antalya (Turkey) from the same operator costs from 34 thousand to 150 thousand rubles, while foreign offers are still many times higher.
Sochi lures tourists with its all-inclusive system.