GEORGIA: Russia Flight Ban Causes Tourism Losses To Georgia.

Residents of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi working in the hospitality industry are upset by Russia’s decision to bar its airlines from flying to Georgia amid bilateral tensions, as tourism will decrease just as the high season begins.

"It has affected tourist flow. Russian citizens often visit. I cannot give you specific information on the number of Russian nationals who are currently living in our hotel. But there are a lot of them", a representative of one of Tbilisi hotels said.

Owners of restaurants and taxi drivers predicted a decrease in Russian tourism, as well.

"It is, of course, very bad. It is the beginning of the season. Tourism is economy, money and investment", they said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended air traffic starting on 8 July, ordering that all Russian citizens currently in Georgia be returned.

Putin also instructed travel companies to remove package tours to Georgia for the ban period.

The Russian Association of Tour Operators said that there are currently some 5,000-7,000 Russians in Georgia on tours organized by travel companies, while up to three times more Russians are traveling on their own.

Putin’s decree was announced after violent protests erupted on Thursday in Tbilisi over the participation of a Russian delegation in an international parliamentary forum in country's capital.

They subsequently grew into an opposition rally with demonstrators calling on the government to step down.

At least 240 people were reportedly injured in the unrest, while around 300 people were detained.

Moscow has slammed the response of Georgian leadership during the international event and said it was outraged by the actions of the protesters.

The majority of people arriving in Georgia in early 2019 are Russians.

In the first quarter of 2019, 222,700 people arrived in Georgia from Russia, which is 21.4 percent of the total number of tourist arrivals. In comparison with the figure for 2018, this indicator has increased by 24.3 percent.

Such an increase in the number of Russians is taking place while the total number of visitors to the country has hardly grown.

In total, in the first quarter of 2019, Georgia was visited by a million foreign visitors, which is 1.7 percent more than the same period last year.

Of these, there were 900,000 tourists, those who stayed in the country for at least a day, this is just five percent more than last year.

In the first quarter of 2019, guests in the country spend about 1.2 billion lari about $437 million, which is 15.2 percent less than the same indicator for last year.

The average expenditure per visit decreased compared to last year by 16.1 percent and amounted to 889.7 lari about $323.

According to data released by the national statistics service, visitors spend the most money on food and drinks.


Tourism Observer

RUSSIA: Aeroflot Stops Flights To Georgia

Aeroflot completely stopped flights to Georgia starting from July 8 in accordance with President Vladimir Putin's decision to suspend traffic of Russian airlines to the neighbouring country, the airline company said.

"Starting from 8 July, 2019, Aeroflot completely suspends flights to Georgia. This measure has been taken in accordance with the Russian president's decree. From now on, the main efforts of Aeroflot will be aimed at returning Russian citizens from Georgia," the statement said.

According to Aeroflot, those passengers, whose flights are scheduled for 8 July or a later date, can change the departure for an earlier date without any additional payments or penalties, or return the full cost of tickets, thereby terminating the agreement on carriage.

​Ural Airlines has also suspended sales of tickets to Tbilisi starting from 8 July, a spokesperson for the company announced.

On Friday, President Vladimir Putin suspended the air traffic with Georgia, starting on 8 July, and ordered to ensure that all those currently traveling across Georgia be flown back. Moreover, he instructed travel companies not to sell package tours to Georgia for the ban period.

Commenting on the decision, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that the measures are forced restrictions imposed by Russia to guarantee safety of Russian nationals in the light of extremist actions that are going on in Georgia.

The Russian Association of Tour Operators said that there are currently around 5,000 - 7,000 Russian tourists traveling to Georgia on tours organised by travel companies, while up to three times more Russians are traveling there on their own.

The decision followed protests in Georgia, which erupted on Thursday over the participation of a Russian delegation in an international parliamentary forum in Tbilisi.

They subsequently grew into an opposition rally with demonstrators calling on the government to step down. At least 240 people have been injured in the unrest, while around 300 people have been detained.

Moscow has slammed the actions of the Georgian leadership during the international event, with Peskov describing the unrest as a "Russophobic provocation."


Tourism Observer

TURKEY: Turkey Requests Aviation Deal With Russia

Turkey is proposing a liberalization of bilateral air services with Russia, the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced at the sixth meeting of the High-Level Cooperation Council.

“It’s necessary to increase the flight frequencies between our two countries and make the bilateral market unrestricted, completely unlimited,” states Erdogan.

The curently effective memorandum outlining the prospects of developing air services between the two countries was signed in December 2016, according to Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency (FATA).

It was then that Russia added Gazipasa Airport as its most recent, ninth regular destination for its airlines. The airport is located 40 km away from Alania, a popular leisure resort in Turkey’s province of Antalya.

Aeroflot’s low-cost subsidiary Pobeda Airlines intends to launch flights to Gazipasa. Turkey, in turn, identified two new destinations in Russia for its carriers: Zhukovsky outside Moscow and Grozny in Chechnya.

The memorandum made provisions for the two countries’ designated carriers to increase the number of frequencis to up to seven weekly services between Istanbul and Zhukovsky, Istanbul and Grozny, and also between Moscow and Gazipasa.

The Turkish operators additionally were given the right to operate unrestricted flights to Sochi under the fifth freedom of the air for three consecutive IATA seasons starting in the winter of 2016-17, for as long as they stayed away from the Trans-Siberian route.

FATA declined to comment on the possibility of an open skies agreement with Turkey, explaining that intergovernmental matters were within the scope of the Russian Transport Ministry.

The ministry, for its part, could not provide information on the number of designated carriers and their frequencies.

Before the suspension of charter flights between Russia and Turkey in November 2015 (the ban lasted until September 2016), Turkey had been the most popular international destination for Russin tourists.

The Moscow-Antalya route alone generated a traffic of 2.4 million passengers in 2015, surpassing all the other international routes from Russia.

Charter operators carried a total of 5.4 million passengers between the two countries that year; in addition, 917,000 travelers used regular flights.

According to the Russian Association of Tour Operators, over 40,000 Russian citizens visited Turkey in January 2017, a 81.5% increase on the same month last year. This positions Russia as the fifth largest contributor to Turkey’s tourism market.

In 2017, travel companies expect the double-digit growth rate to continue throughout the year, especially in the summer season as compared to last summer, when Turkey remained mostly closed to mass tourism from Russia.

Turkey is the leading lesure destination in terms of Russian travel companies’ early bookings, accounting for up to 50% of the major market players’ sales.