Tutu.ru, an analytical center for the travel and travel service, found out where they buy the most bus tickets during the holiday season. The experts studied data on tickets issued for travel in May and summer.
The share of domestic destinations in the total volume of bookings is 92%, and foreign – 8%. Last year, 5% of tickets were issued abroad.
Most trips in May and summer are planned between Moscow and Rostov-on-Don, Moscow and Pereslavl-Zalessky, as well as Moscow and Voronezh.
In addition, the list of popular bus destinations for May and summer includes the routes Moscow – Kirzhach, Moscow – Ryazan, Moscow – St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg – Smolensk, Moscow – Novomoskovsk, Moscow – Tula and Moscow – Simferopol.
Sergey Nikolaev, Deputy General Director of travel and travel service Tutu.ru, comments: “We predict an increase in bus transportation, especially to the south of Russia from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod and other cities, due to the temporary suspension of airports. At the same time, it should be noted that the demand will not be fully satisfied, since carriers are limited in the rolling stock of the required level of comfort, with air conditioning, bathrooms, comfortable lounges, and multimedia. Carriers with such rolling stock are already feeling an increased demand for their services in the summer. It is expected that prices will go up, but not much. The bus industry does not yet have dynamic pricing that pushes prices up day by day by the time of travel.”
Among the top 3 foreign destinations are the routes St. Petersburg-Tallinn, St. Petersburg-Helsinki and Moscow-Minsk. Travelers from St. Petersburg also demand bus tickets to Minsk, Narva, Polotsk and Riga, while travelers from Moscow, in addition to Minsk, also use Vitebsk, Riga and Gomel. The recent opening of the land border with Georgia has not yet brought this direction to the top 10.
Sergey Nikolaev, Deputy General Director of the travel and travel service Tutu.ru, comments: “Now we can talk about an increase in interest in bus tickets in Georgia, it has been observed since the end of February, about three times higher than the previous period. After the announcement of the lifting of restrictions, there was another surge of interest, especially on the day the news about it was released. But it's too early to talk about sales, little time has passed. Now the main direction is Vladikavkaz-Tbilisi, which has daily flights. Also, a carrier through Georgia (Tbilisi-Batumi and cities along the way) has recently joined us through partners.”