Baikal's suburban tourist centers are almost 1,001 TP3T full for the New Year, while Irkutsk hotels, unfortunately, will remain idle during this period, Ekaterina Slivina, head of the Irkutsk Region Tourism Agency, announced at a press conference.
"An interesting trend is that on December 31st and January 1st and 2nd, occupancy is almost full, but from January 3rd to 7th, this figure drops to somewhere between 40 and 501 TP3T. Unfortunately, Irkutsk is idle during the New Year holidays. This is due to the nature of the tourist flow; the city is primarily visited by business people. Activity will begin to pick up once the workdays begin," she said, according to the Teleinform news agency.
Ekaterina Slivina also notes that tourist arrivals typically increase during the winter season. For example, in the first quarter of 2018, tourist arrivals increased by 81,000. According to her, the total number of arrivals from January to March was 315,000.
"We believe the 2018 trend will continue next year, meaning we expect the same growth rates in the Irkutsk region," she added.
Source: trn-news.ru