81% of Russians Missed the 2020 Summer Holiday Season

Most Russians did not go on vacation last summer. Those who went on vacation, most often went on a trip by car. This is evidenced by the results of a study by the NAFI Analytical Center*.

81% of Russians did not go on vacation last summer. Most of those who missed their summer vacation are residents of Moscow and Saint Petersburg (86%), as well as people aged 60 and older (90%). "Muscovites and residents of St. Petersburg more often than other residents of Russia go on vacation abroad – to the sea – in the summer holiday season. In the Russian South, there are few similar offers in terms of "price-quality" ratio, so, under current restrictions, many residents of the "two capitals" stayed at home, comments Irina Ivankova, Director of the Tourism and Transport Research Direction at the NAFI Analytical Center. – In addition, these cities have a well-developed leisure sphere, there is an opportunity to relax and get new impressions without leaving their borders."

19% of Russians were able to go on a summer vacation, while only 9% planned to do so in the spring**. "The double excess of the "scheduled" number of tourists in the spring is due both to the general fatigue of the population from restrictions due to the pandemic, and to the active actions of all players in the tourist market," says Irina Ivankova. "Rosturizm, together with leading tour operators, created new tourist products, and paid a lot of attention to promoting recreation within the country."

However, compared to 2019, the tourist flow decreased by 10%***. Irina Ivankova: "In the current situation, when there are still restrictions on entry to many countries, this is a small drop. Before the pandemic, most of those who did not go on vacation abroad preferred to spend their holidays at home or in the country, about a quarter of the country's population traveled in Russia."

Tourists who found the opportunity to go on vacation, most often moved by car (63% of the total number of people who went on vacation in the summer of 2020). 16% traveled by plane or train, and 5% by bus. For comparison, according to an April survey by NAFI, the majority of Russian tourists planned to get to their vacation destination by plane (84%), half as much by car (41%)****.

Source: NAFI

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