Geoservice 2GIS and travel service OneTwoTrip studied the dynamics of the number of travel agencies in Russian cities with populations over one million and found that over four years, from October 2014 to October 2018, the number of travel agency offices decreased by 161.
As reported to the TRN portal According to the OneTwoTrip press service, the most significant changes occurred in Krasnoyarsk, where the number of travel agency offices decreased by almost 301 TP3T over four years. Omsk ranked second (271 TP3T), and Rostov-on-Don third (221 TP3T). The only city with a population of over one million where this indicator remained positive was Voronezh, where the number of travel agencies increased by 41 TP3T over four years.
Looking at the year-over-year trend, the greatest number of travel agency offices closed between October 2014 and October 2015. In cities with over a million people, their number decreased by 81% (trillions). A year later, in 2015–2016, the number of offices decreased by 7.41% (trillions), and in 2016–2017, by 1.61% (trillions). Over the past year (October 2017–October 2018), the number of travel agencies in the 15 cities with over a million people remained virtually unchanged. Currently, there are 10,302 travel agencies operating in these cities, compared to 10,311 a year ago. The decrease was only 0.11% (trillions), although in 8 of the 15 cities with over a million people, the number of tour sales outlets increased. The overall negative trend in this indicator is due to a reduction in the number of offices in the remaining 7 cities.
"Three factors have consistently impacted travel agency growth. The first was the economic crisis of 2014-2015. Then, the situation was exacerbated by the closure of major tourism markets—Turkey and Egypt—to Russian travelers. The third factor was consumers' shift toward self-organization. Travelers' awareness and preparedness have increased significantly. Many of those whose overseas vacations initially began with package tours are now ready to organize their own vacations. This makes travel agency business much more challenging than it was at the dawn of the outbound tourism market. However, this hasn't stopped some cities from increasing the number of agencies over the past year," noted Alexey Teplov, Marketing Director of OneTwoTrip.
Source: trn-news.ru