Fuelled by its growing middle class and rising spending power, Russia is not only the world’s fifth biggest travel market but is also experiencing an outbound travel boom, according to research by Hotels.com, which today publishes its Russian International Travel Monitor (RITM).
London is only ninth most popular destination, suggesting that the UK has more to do to attract this market, and perhaps also that our hotels need to consider how best to ‘welcome’ Russian visitors.
Almost half (49 per cent) of hoteliers surveyed worldwide have seen a rise in Russian guests in the last year, with 54 per cent of those hoteliers seeing bookings grow by more than 10 per cent or more.
Second fastest growing outbound travel market in terms of spend
Russia is now the world’s second fastest growing outbound travel market in terms of spend, up 32 per cent in 2012 and more than doubling since 2005. The RITM examines how hoteliers are reacting to this rapid growth, which last year saw Russians spend $43 billion on travel abroad, making Russia the fifth biggest outbound travel market globally.
In 2012, 35.7 million tourists from Russia took a foreign trip, up from just 7.7 million in 2006. The country has become a top performing growth market for many destinations and international outbound travel is forecast to grow by 7.5 per cent per year on average to 2017. However, with a population of over 140 million, there is still a huge untapped market for foreign travel.
Most popular destinations?
Europe was by far the most popular region, holding 14 of the Top 20 slots. Paris held on to the top spot, Rome moved up one to take second place and Madrid shot up the
chart as the highest flying new entrant at No 3. Three destinations rose four places: Barcelona to No 4, Berlin to No 10 and Istanbul to No 13.
London was up three places to No 9.
There were three US cities on the leaderboard but their popularity was on the wain: New York was down two to No 6, Miami lost four to No 18 and Los Angeles left the table. However, Las Vegas was a newcomer at No 20.
Welcome boost to hoteliers worldwide
Johan Svanstrom, president of the Hotels.com brand said: “The meteoric rise of Russia’s outbound travel market is providing a welcome boost to hoteliers worldwide, with Russians among the highest spenders on hotel rooms globally. The rising size and spending power of middle class travellers is a key driver behind this growth. Standing 104 million strong today, the group is set to account for 86 per cent of the country’s population by 2020, with a combined spending power of $1.3 trillion.”
With 92 per cent of the hoteliers questioned expecting the volume of Russian visitors to increase over the next three years, many are making changes to deliver a warmer welcome. Almost a third (32 per cent) of hoteliers have already started to offer Russian TV channels while more than a fifth (23 per cent) have hired Russian-speaking staff, with a further 12 per cent planning to do so.
To ensure that Russian guests have a more relaxing stay, 15 per cent of hoteliers plan to offer translated welcome materials, in addition to the 20 per cent that already do so, and a further 15 per cent plan to start providing translated tourism guides. Eleven per cent plan to start serving Russian food.
Hotels.com surveyed 2,500 hoteliers from 37 countries for the RITM. To download a copy of the report click here