Analysts from Bnovo, a cloud service for increasing hoteliers’ income, and OneTwoTrip, an online travel planning service, conducted a study in which they found out how Russians are going to travel in 2023, what their is most interested in the selected regions, as well as whether tourists are planning microtravels around the country on the job. 1300 respondents took part in the anonymous survey.
According to the respondents' answers, the peak of tourist activity falls on the period from May to September inclusive. Among the summer months, August is the leader (31%), and September (26%) turned out to be more popular than May (22%) and June (23%). The most unclaimed in terms of travel was the period from November to February.
Question 1. In what months do you plan your trip(s)? If your trip has already taken place, mark the past months. You can select multiple answers. (Multiple choice)
Analysts have identified a trend that a significant proportion of respondents are going to make microtravels without using their main vacation.
Half of the respondents (48%) are planning such trips for several days in neighboring (with place of residence) city or region, and every fifth respondent (21%) – to a distant city or region in Russia.
Question 2. Do you plan to make micro trips for several days in 2023, without using your main vacation? (Single Choice)
At the same time, the majority (62%) of respondents answered that they have a full-time main job, against only 6% those whose work involves part-time employment. And only 11% said they were running their own business.
Question 3. Are you currently working? (Single selection)
The top reasons for which Russians go on trips are as follows: in the first place is getting new impressions and inspiration (84%). On the second place – the desire to relax mentally and get out of the usual rhythm (75%), on the third – broadening one's horizons and gaining new knowledge, these reasons were named by every second respondent. On the fourth line is the desire to physically relax and gain strength – almost half of the respondents (46%) answered this way. Fifth place in the ranking is shared by the desire to spend time with loved ones and new gastronomic experiences – 28% each.
Question 4. What do you travel for first of all? You can select multiple answers. (Multiple choice)
The absolute leader among the reasons why tourists choose a region for travel are natural features (sea, mountains, etc.) – 67%. Approximately equally distributed such reasons as climatic conditions (31%), as well as attractions and museums (33%). Respondents are almost equally interested in architecture (23%), gastronomic (23%), cultural (21%) features and historical context (23%).
Question 5. What attracts you to the chosen region? You can select multiple answers. (Multiple choice)
“Analyzing the already completed hotel reservations for the summer, the vast majority of Russians plan to visit St. Petersburg, the city accounts for 19.3% of bookings. Moscow is on the second line with a share of 16.5%, Adler is on the third with 9.4%. The top is closed -5 popular destinations for summer trips Sochi (the share of bookings in the city was 4.1%) and Esto-Sadok (3.3%), – says Elena Shelekhova, head of the press service for travel planning service OneTwoTrip. – Also, tourists will spend their holidays in Kaliningrad (3.1%), Kazan (3.0%), Anapa (2.9%), Gelendzhik (2.2%) and Nizhny Novgorod (1.8%)”.
Alexandra Kremneva, Lead Marketing Specialist for Bnovo, a cloud service to increase hoteliers' income:
— We deeply study the needs of not only hoteliers, but also travelers in order to comprehensively approach the complex digitalization of accommodation facilities. According to the study, domestic tourism is actively developing: half of the respondents this year are planning microtravels to a neighboring city or region. In addition, based on 14,000,000 bookings per year, we see traveler confidence growing: for example, the average booking window from 2021 to 2022 has grown from 5 to 6 days in Moscow, from 10 to 13 days in St. dynamics are observed throughout the country. This is also evidenced by the decrease in the percentage of cancellations made through OTA from 50% in 2021 to 33% in 2022. These trends will continue in 2023, including through the improvement of digital tools that help hoteliers automate routine work and travelers make booking is fast, safe and convenient.