Russia tours expected to resume from September

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tung, Director of Danh Nam Travel, a member of a Russian tourism alliance with 6 units in Hanoi, said that there will be 3 groups departing to Russia during the golden autumn season (mid-September to early October). The group of tourists was rescheduled from 10 groups originally planned to go during the white nights (May to mid-July).

At the end of March, the terrorist attack on a theater in Moscow prevented groups from traveling to Russia for the White Nights. To prepare for the year-end tourist groups, the alliance organized a survey team for about 15 travel agencies at the end of April. After the trip, all of them gave good reviews of the quality of Russian tours and the tourist destinations are currently safe.

Nguyen Tien Duc, Director of Hanvina Travel, a member of the survey team, said that the journey to explore Russia was "impressive and emotional" with many iconic locations such as the Winter Palace, St. Isaac's Cathedral or the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. According to him, tourists are certainly still apprehensive because of the complicated political situation. However, when experiencing it directly, he felt secure because security forces were present everywhere. Tourist attractions that are not as crowded as before are also an opportunity for tourists to experience Russia more fully.

Ms. Luu Thi Thu, Deputy Director of Hoang Viet Travel, also said that she will continue to sell tours to Russia in September and October after receiving support from airlines to reschedule. The tours will maintain their original schedules and prices, around 57 million VND. However, she said that the market is still gloomy and it is not possible to make an accurate prediction about demand.

According to Danh Nam Travel representative, customer purchasing power for Russian tours is much weaker than before the pandemic. In 2019, the alliance of this unit had 10 members, now there are 6, some units have switched to selling other routes. Before the pandemic, from May to September, there were an average of 8 groups departing each month, each group had about 30 guests.

In 2023, when the Russian market reopens, the alliance will have difficulty gathering customers. Mr. Tung said that last year, the entire market had only about 1-2 individual groups. Some groups that maintained the service but could not gather enough customers were converted to survey groups for travel companies at cheaper prices thanks to the support of tourism partners in Russia.

Currently, tours to Russia are at a disadvantage because there are no more airlines flying directly from Vietnam. In the market, alliances mainly sell tours flying Turkish Airlines or Qatar Airways, all of which require a transit during the day. Some parties have started testing tours flying Sichuan Airlines, staying one night in Chengdu and then flying to Saint Petersburg; returning from Moscow to Chengdu and then returning to Hanoi during the day. Due to the transit, the price of Russian tours is currently about 10% higher than before the pandemic.

However, Russian tourists have an advantage in administrative procedures when Russia issues electronic visas to Vietnamese citizens from August 2023, thereby shortening the visa application time to about a week - compared to nearly a month when applying for a sticker visa before. The fee is also reduced from about 100 USD to 40 USD.

Compared to traditional foreign tours, Mr. Tung considers Russian tours to be a quality product because most of them are 4-star international standard hotels, the meals are suitable for Vietnamese tastes and the scenery is beautiful. In addition, the demand for traveling to Russia among Vietnamese people is high, especially among older guests.

According to Mr. Tung, it may take 5-7 years for Russian tours to fully return to pre-pandemic levels, depending on the political situation. Although the tour will resume at the end of the year, the alliance also gave a cautious forecast for the market next year.

"Whether or not to expand the Russia tour next year depends on the occupancy rate of the group at the end of this year," said Mr. Tung.