The Ministry of Economy recommended the tourist business to stop the sale of tours to Iran and Israel
The Russian authorities recommended the tourist business to refuse to send travelers to Iran and Israel because of the aggravation of the situation in the Middle East. But a more serious problem for the market can be a revision of flight programs in the UAE, where the cancellation of flights has already led to cancellations of reservations and problems with joints for trips to third countries. The risks are preserved in the case of Egypt, the interest of travelers to which may decrease.
Ministry of Economy Recommended Tour operators and agents suspend the sale of travel services to Iran and Israel, and travelers refrain from visiting them, the ministry said in a statement. They clarified that tourists can seek a complete return of funds for redeemed and unnecessary tours, partial – for the already starting ones.
The statement of the Ministry of Economy is a reaction to a new round of exacerbation of the situation in the Middle East. From night to June 13 Israel Started A series of missile attacks on objects of military and nuclear infrastructure of Iran. Tehran holds return attacks. To prevent the risks of Iran and Israel, they decided to close the airspace to further notice. The Federal Air Transport Agency also forbade Russian carriers to fulfill flights over the territory of Jordan and Iraq.
According to the estimates of the Russian Union of Trade Transport (RST), up to 500 organized tourists from Russia can be in Israel, up to 100 in Iran.
Another 2 thousand travelers, according to estimates by the Association of Tour operators of Russia on the morning of June 15, were not able to leave the UAE territory due to massive lifting flights on time. RIA Novosti With reference to the Russian Consulate General in Dubai, it reported that 10 thousand Russians were affected by interruptions in the Air Forces with the UAE.
Iran is an excursion direction and is in limited demand for tourists. According to the FSB border service, last year 38.1 thousand Russians visited the country, 19.5% less than a year earlier. Some of the Russians after the aggravation of the situation left Iran across the land border with Azerbaijan. These are also 90 people of the film crew of the series “It is difficult to be a god” and 51 member of the Big Symphony Orchestra named after Tchaikovsky.
The founder of the Law Agency « Person of Grat » (specializes in the tourism market) Georgy Mokhov explains that this path has not yet been used for tourists: it requires special interstate agreements.
Tour operators, for their part, pay for the placement of travelers awaiting export from Iran, Israel and the UAE. All these are direct business losses that can be significant due to the high cost of hotels, he says. Tour operators, according to Mr. Mokhov, cannot predict the timing of the return of travelers: if the land corridor with Iran exists, then in case of Israel we can only talk about evacuation through the territory of Egypt.
Israel is a popular beach directionBut the sale of organized tours to the country of tour operators did not actually conduct from the fall of 2023, after the aggravation of the situation in Palestine. The first charter flight to Eilat was sent after a break on June 12 this year. Now the Red Wings program is suspended.
More complex for the tourist market can be restrictions on flights in the UAE – one of the most popular beach destinations.
According to Travelata.ru, the country accounts for 5% of booked organized tours for the summer, this is the third place in popularity after Turkey and Egypt. The head of the international projects “Slov.ru” Lyubov Voronin explains that tourists have already begun to cancel the reserved tours in the UAE, but practice is not yet a mass nature. “More often we try to postpone dates,” she remarks.
Georgy Mokhov explains that returning funds for sold tours to the UAE business in the absence of official recommendations of the Ministry of Economy may minus the actually incurred expenses. The size of the latter depends on the relationship of businesses with counterparties: if carriers more often agree to return funds, then the hotel policy varies. The expert also calls the risk of a potential decrease in tourist demand.
Losses can be dictated, including logistics restrictions. Some airlines, such as Air Arabia, suspended flights to the UAE. Russian carriers began to adjust the programs. For example, Victory announced the abolition of flights from June 18 to 23. Flights from July 14 to July 17 are carried out bypassing Iran, with a refueling of aircraft in Samara. This is the problem of narrow-skin-fusee ships, explains the vice president of the PTS Dmitry Gorin. The need for additional stop, according to him,, as a rule, reduces interest in passenger flights and worsens their economy for carriers. The expert does not exclude that fan delays in the UAE will create problems for tourists and in other directions: up to 50% of the flow in the country is formed by transit passengers following Indonesia, Europe, Latin America, to Sri Lanka, etc. “Now people often lose their docks,” says Mr. Gorin.
Georgy Mokhov does not exclude that demand may decrease for tourist trips to Egypt. A similar picture in the market was observed in the fall of 2023 in the light of an exacerbation of the situation in Israel. Egypt takes the second after Turkey a place in terms of the number of visiting trips of Russian tourists. According to Travelata.ru, this summer the direction formed 14% of the reservations. This is five percentage points higher than last year.
