Russians In-Resort Spending Far Outweighs that of Tourists from Britain and Germany, say Lastminute.com

    /24-7PressRelease/ - September 19, 2008 - Research conducted by lastminute.com shows Russian holidaymakers' willingness to spend big means hoteliers are targeting the Russian holiday market by offering its tour operators far better deals than they do to British and German operators.

This has paved the way for the usual battle between the Brits and Germans for the sun lounges of Europe evolving into a three-way competition, with the Russians making their way to the front of the battle to take over the beaches and pools.

Beforhand, the British holidayers only had to contend with Germans waking up early and reserving the best subathing positions with their towels and accessories.

However, the Russians employ a far brasher strategy by spending more and paying hotel staff to reserve them the best beds - making them well known and popular with hotel staff.

This popularity has extended to hoteliers and local businesses, as Russians' in-resort spending far outweighs that of British and German tourists.

In fact marketing expenditure shows that many hoteliers have gone so far as to ditch the German market altogether having replaced them with the free-spending Russians.

The deals being offered to Russian tour operators are so good a number of tour operaters in the UK - including Thomson, Kuoni and Inghams - have already redirected considerable resources to servicing the Russian outbound tourism market.

Early indicators show that major UK travel brands Thomas Cook and Virgin are set to follow suit

Another reason hoteilers prefer our Russian counterparts is that they are willing to accept much less customer service than the British or German tourists

20 Years after the once strong Communism fell, a strong Russian economy has bought wealth and prosperity to many of its 145 million citizens.

Previously restricted from travelling, now Russians are marking the most of their freedom by heading to Europe's most sought out holiday hotspots.

So far their favourite holiday destinations are Turkey, Egypt, Spain, Italy, and Greece - all made popular by British holidaymakers and all in lastminute.com's top 10 summer holiday destinations.

Sales figures show that more Russians go to Turkey than any other nation with 1.5 million a year taking advantage of the cheap rates.

In a number of Turkish holiday resorts, the hotel cabaret is performed in Russian while nightclubs play almost exclusively Russian pop music to entertain their money spending tourists.

Russia is also set to become the biggest tourism source market for Egypt and its expanding Red Sea Riviera, which features the resorts of Sharm el Sheikh and Taba.

Around a million British and Russian tourists visit Egypt every year, despite this the Russian tourist market is set to eclipe this.

There have been widespread trouble with Russian tour operators booking over their quotas in Egypt. The Egyptian Tourism Ministry has accused Russian Travel operators of flexing their muscles and expecting the hotels to make room for their customers.

According to the ETM, the number of holidayers who went to Egypt last September grew by massive proportions of 45%.

lastminute.com UK Managing Director John Bevan said: "The battle for Europe's sun beds will be more intense than ever this summer as the Russians establish themselves as the most prominent outbound tourism market in Europe."

"The hoteliers focus for the Russians market, mainly at the expense of German tourists, has changed the in-resort holiday experience."

"Holidaying Brits will have to have their sun bed strategy finalised before departing if they want to come back with a tan."

Who is lastminute.com?

lastminute.com pioneered the online travel and leisure industry by offering people a 5* lifestyle for 3* prices, selling everything from hotels, flights, gifts, gig tickets, restaurants and theatre tickets all at the lastminute.

Since its birth in 1998, conceived by the vision of cutting edge entrepreneurs Brent Hoberman and Martha Lane Fox, lastminute.com has come a long way. We now operate in 13 European countries, USA and all. lastminute.com exists to help people make the most of their free time with new, creative and unexpected ideas for every single day.

In July 2005, lastminute.com and its group of companies including car hire gurus Holiday Autos and travel agents' best kept secret Medhotels.com all joined the Sabre Holdings Group.

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