Why are there no tours? Last minute tours: corporate educational program. Last minute tours: myth or reality

Russian tour operators have suspended sales of tours to Thailand after the Federal Agency for Tourism (Rosturizm) considered this country dangerous for tourists. The official notice from Rostourism emphasizes the undesirability of tourist trips to Thailand due to a possible threat to the life and safety of Russian citizens, Newsru.com reports. According to the instructions of the Federal Tourism Agency, tour operators are recommended to “mandatorily warn all tourists who intend to travel to Thailand about the threat to the safety of their lives and health when they are in this country.” This recommendation is valid until the situation in Thailand normalizes and, accordingly, until a new notification from the industry authorities and the Russian Foreign Ministry, notes the Federal Tourism Agency. Now, according to the law "On the Protection of Consumer Rights", tour operators do not have the right to sell tours to Thailand, since this service is considered unsafe for the lives of tourists. Meanwhile, the legal service of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) is perplexed about some of the details of the decision. It is unclear from the text of the Rostourism appeal whether tour operators are obliged to refuse those tourists who want to fly to Thailand no matter what. It is also unclear whether customers who were due to travel to Thailand in the coming days can expect a 100 percent refund of their tour costs. “In these circumstances, the date of purchase of the tour and the start date of the trip are of great importance,” said the ATOR press service. “Travel agencies are now faced with circumstances of force majeure, or force majeure.” In the event that circumstances indicate a threat to life and the health of citizens arise after concluding an agreement with a tourist, but before the start of his trip, the tourist has the right to count on full reimbursement of the cost of the trip. That tourist who, upon returning from Thailand, provides documentary evidence of the service not provided during his holiday in this country, as well as that that his life was in danger, he can receive part of the cost in proportion to the price of the service not provided to him. “The issue of payment of insurance compensation will be decided on a case-by-case basis in accordance with current legislation,” the ATOR press service said, according to the association as of December 1. , there are no mass refusals of Russian tourists from traveling to Thailand, unlike India. There was also not a single case of harm caused to any of the organized Russian tourists. However, on November 20, the Russian Foreign Ministry recognized Thailand as an undesirable country for tourism and warned against travel until the situation in this country normalizes. “Taking into account the existing likelihood of further aggravation of the situation in Thailand, which could entail a threat to the safety of Russian citizens there, the Russian Foreign Ministry again warns against traveling to this country until the situation normalizes,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Meanwhile, demonstrators in the Thai capital decided to leave the government complex they had occupied since August 26 and concentrate at two airports, an opposition spokesman said. The redeployment has already begun and will be completed by the evening of December 1. The tents pitched on the territory of the complex will be dismantled, ITAR-TASS clarifies. As for the airports blocked by the opposition, the Airports of Thailand (AOT) company reported that the Thai authorities have agreed on the possibility of airliners taking off from Subvarnakhumi Airport. According to a company representative, "AOT has informed the representative offices of a number of international carriers about the possibility of aircraft taking off from the airport if the crew is ready." We are talking about several dozen aircraft. The agreement was reached a week after the opposition seized Asia's largest airport. 240 thousand tourists cannot leave the country, said the Kingdom's Minister of Tourism and Sports Virasak Kovasurat. “The authorities are doing everything possible to help foreign citizens fly out of the kingdom,” he said. From today, two check-in centers for passengers are operating in Bangkok itself. One of them is located in the Centara Grand Hotel, the other in the Bitec complex.

Due to the crisis and changes in the market structure, Russian tour operators have completely abandoned the sale of last-minute tours. This opinion was voiced by a number of media outlets, citing data from representatives of the tourism sector. However, experts interviewed by a correspondent of the TURPROM information group do not agree with this - last-minute tours, or in Western terminology - “last minute bookig” tours, have not gone away, although their share has indeed decreased somewhat. However, this spring, experts are sure, the market may be hit by a new wave of last-minute tours due to dumping wars, which some tour operators are likely to unleash on Turkish and Egyptian destinations.

Thus, according to Kommenrsant, due to the fact that tour operators are increasingly creating package tours not on the basis of their own charters, but on the basis of regular flights, thereby optimizing their flight programs, the need to sell tours at last-minute prices has actually disappeared - risks for unrealized tours are transferred to the shoulders of the airlines. Thus, Igor Blinov, a representative of the travel agency OnlineTour, notes that if before 2014 last-minute tours accounted for about 15% of sales, now they are practically non-existent. “The corresponding requests from clients remained, but it is almost impossible to find anything based on them: the cost of a tour purchased a few days before departure is now 30-40% higher than in the pre-sale, and not vice versa,” the newspaper quotes him .

However, according to other experts, last-minute offers have not disappeared anywhere. “Now is the low season, so there are certainly very few such offers. But in the market as a whole, there are definitely no fewer of them. And when Turkey starts in early April, and charters fly there en masse, there will be no fewer last-minute tours than in previous years. After all, everyone understands perfectly well that the first thing that tour operators will do to win the largest market share is to lay out tariffs of 299 or 399 dollars, and everything will return to normal,” says Sergei Samokhvalov, director of development of the network of travel agencies at Global Travel.

At the same time, the expert noted that last year there were indeed slightly fewer such offers than usual, since there were no two mass trends on the market at once. This year, according to Sergei Samokhvalov, those who want to relax in Greece, Tunisia, and even on the Black Sea coast of Russia will definitely not be left without last-minute offers - prices for Turkey will drag down prices for all other popular destinations.

Sergei Tolchin, sales director of the tour operator “”, also disagrees with the fact that last-minute tours are becoming a thing of the past. According to him, the very appearance of last-minute tours in companies’ lineups is primarily related to the relationship between supply and demand at the current moment. For example, if there is no excess transportation, and the balance of supply and demand is optimal, then there can be no last-minute tours in principle. When there is an oversupply of transportation on the market, inexpensive or very cheap vacation options arise, which primarily attract tourists who previously did not plan to go on vacation due to lack of funds. “People see that a week-long all-inclusive trip abroad is being sold for the price of two nights in a recreation center near Moscow without meals. As a result, it turns out that this is not an organically formed demand, but a situation artificially created by the market. That is, it is impossible to say that last-minute tours are disappearing in principle. This is a seasonal phenomenon, which may be associated with the current economic and political situation, correct planning, weather phenomena, and so on,” the expert explained.

Deputy President “” also notes that last-minute offers appear after the fact, so it is incorrect to say that they will not be available in the upcoming season: “It is possible that there may be an oversupply of transportation in such directions as Greece or Turkey. That is, until the season has started, we cannot say that there will be no last-minute offers.” According to the expert, if companies are unable to fill their charters, fire will certainly not be avoided.

However, according to Sergei Golov, president of the Union of Travel Agencies (STA), against the backdrop of the crisis, tour operators have begun to take a more detailed approach to planning their flight programs, as a result of which the number of last-minute tours may actually be reduced. “Tour operators have reduced the flight program according to their financial capabilities and limitations. After all, what are last-minute tours is an overabundance of transportation on the market, which you need to pay for out of your own pocket. Often, the cost of such a tour includes only the cost of the flight, and the tour operator actually subsidizes accommodation, meals and transfers to the tourist from his own pocket. However, during the crisis, the profitability of work became a critical condition for survival, as a result, tour operators began to formulate their programs more competently, and the number of last-minute tours on the market decreased,” he said.

Rubles. These are real examples of cheap travel deals I've found over the past year. Find out where and how to find such last-minute tours.

This guide is already three years old. Being an avid traveler and cheap tour hunter, I have outlined my experience and knowledge of finding inexpensive tours. Learn how to relax without extra costs!

Rules for searching and purchasing the cheapest tours:

I vacationed in Turkey in June/July 2019 on a last-minute tour for 33,500 rubles for two. Great!

1. Buy tours online

Travel agencies on the street sell tours at a higher price than online tour search engines. The last time I bought a ticket at a travel agency office was back in 2012. Then convenient and reliable online tour search services appeared - now I only use them. I no longer go to the offices of greedy travel agencies - it’s more convenient and profitable to buy tours on the Internet.

Why are travel agencies more expensive? The reason is the human factor - cunning managers in travel agencies use every possible means to encourage the client to buy a more expensive tour package. They fundamentally do not want to sell tours for 5, 10, 20 thousand - the percentage from such transactions is not enough for them, they need more gold!

Where to look for cheap tours online? I use three search engines: , and . All three are reliable and very comfortable. Choose which one you like best.

Install the mobile application. Travelata has an excellent app: download it for or and use the current promotional code when purchasing a tour AF600MOBmake-trip- you will receive a discount of 600 rubles on any tours costing over 50,000 rubles.

How do tour search engines work? They compare prices among 130 popular tour operators and find the cheapest tours. Finding and booking a tour yourself is easy. You see complete information on the package: hotel, flight, meals, tourist reviews, and so on. You choose the tour that you like. Do you have any questions? Ask them to a consultant via chat or phone. Secure online payment by credit card. The tour can also be purchased in installments.

Offices and consultants. All three search engines have offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and other large cities. There is also a hotline support line. So it's easy to interact with them.

Pros of buying tours online:

1. Big choice. Compare prices from all tour operators to find the cheapest tour. Compare - save!
2. Convenient and fast. There is no need to go to travel agency offices, waste time on travel, waiting and communication. You can find and book a tour in 15-30 minutes at home or at work. When buying last-minute tours, speed is especially important: if you find a cheap tour, buy it in a couple of clicks before it disappears.
3. Safely. Search engines work only with reliable tour operators. Payment takes place using a secure protocol. There is a 24/7 support service.
4. Independence. I recommend searching and purchasing tours on your own. It’s more reliable this way - you know better than anyone what exactly you need and at what price. No interference from others - no opportunity to confuse you. In offices, managers are often cunning or simply incompetent.
5. Documents - immediately. When purchasing a tour online, all reservations and confirmations will be sent by email immediately after payment. In a regular agency, employees like to delay the issuance of documents - they did it, we know.
6. Reliable. I trust large online search engines, and with a large customer base and a well-known name. Travel agencies with motley names like “Cactus”, “Sea of ​​Dreams” or “Marina Travel” scattered along the streets of Russian cities - no.

Our holiday in Greece on the island of Rhodes in June 2019 on a last-minute tour for 27,000 rubles for two. It was possible to take a tour for 21,000, but we chose a cool and cozy hotel a little more expensive. We really enjoyed:)

2. Be flexible with deadlines and dates.

We often have many restrictions: strictly fixed vacation days, personal matters and obligations. However, try to achieve as much freedom as possible in choosing dates - this will save money.

See different departure days. Your vacation starts on Monday and you found a tour for that day for 50 thousand? Check flights on Tuesday or Wednesday - maybe there will be tours for 30 thousand. I encounter this regularly.

Change the length of rest. Often (not sometimes, but often!) 7-night tours are cheaper than 5-night tours, 10-night tours are cheaper than 8-night tours, and so on. Don't limit yourself - check out all the options!

Take a look at the site's price calendar. Often, 7-night packages are cheaper than 3-night packages:

Sailing on the Indian Ocean. Photos from my trip to the Maldives in the spring of 2019. We had a super cheap vacation on the paradise islands - for the price of a trip to Crimea!

3. Be flexible in your choice of resort

If you are a monogamous person who prefers to go on vacation to the same place every year, then choosing a destination is not a question for you. I recommend everyone else consider different resorts - your chances of buying a cheap tour will increase.

How does direction affect price?

1. There are traditionally expensive destinations (,). There are cheap destinations (,).
2. Seasonality plays an important role: it is cheaper to fly to some resorts in the summer, to others in the winter, and to others in the spring or autumn.
3. Random factors also work. For example, a tour operator sold few tours to one of the destinations and decided to reduce prices - last-minute tours appear.

Do you want to buy the cheapest tour? Look at as many destinations as possible. Compare not only countries, but also individual resorts within the same country.

Our holiday in the Maldives, Thoddoo Island. The beaches there are luxurious!

4. Buy tours from Moscow

It is for flights from Moscow that you can find the cheapest tours. Competition and a developed air transportation system are driving prices down. Sometimes the difference in price compared to other cities is colossal.

What should a non-capital tourist do?

First, check if you can find a cheap tour from your city. Found it? Great - let's take it! If not, then it is worth expanding the geography of departure cities.

See if there are cheap tours from neighboring cities or from Moscow. You can get to the departure point yourself: by bus, train or plane. Pobeda flies to Moscow from many Russian cities - tickets cost from 1000 rubles. I myself live in the provinces, and fly from Moscow on vacation.

Every situation is different - there is no one solution. Compare prices and decide what is better for you: pay more and fly from your city or save money but spend time traveling to another city.

Look at the examples below. I compared the cost of trips to Cyprus from Moscow and Yekaterinburg. A tour from the capital can be bought much cheaper. If you fly to Moscow on your own, you can save a lot of money.

We are flying on a charter trip to Turkey. We ourselves live in Perm, but in 90% of cases we buy tours and tickets from Moscow - it’s much cheaper, even taking into account the cost of traveling to the capital.

5. Use Smart Search

(Photo © Unique Properties (UP) / flickr.com / Licensed CC BY-NC 2.0.)

7. Book in advance

Buy a tour in advance or catch last minute? This question is asked by many tourists. Both early booking and last-minute tour purchases provide an opportunity to save money. Each option has its pros and cons.

Early booking. Minus: discounts are usually not as big as when buying last-minute tours. Plus: you can choose any hotel to your taste, relax beautifully and pleasantly. This is a winning option in terms of price and quality.

Last minute tours. Buying a tour at the last minute is often very profitable. Pros: big discounts, sometimes trips are even sold for pennies. There are two minuses. Firstly, there is no guarantee that a cheap last minute tour will appear for your destination on the dates you need. At the last moment, prices can either decrease or jump significantly. This game is quite gambling. The second drawback is that during the high season, all the best hotels will already be booked, so you will have to choose from second-rate options.

Conclusion. If you need a tour anywhere and as cheaply as possible, grab last-minute tours just before departure. If the quality of your vacation is a priority, then buy a tour in advance (optimally - 2-3 months in advance). You will receive both a discount for early booking and a wide selection of hotels.

Friends, I travel a lot and willingly share my experience and knowledge with anyone who needs it. Join

Russian tour operators have almost completely abandoned the last-minute tour format, writes Kommersant. If previously last-minute tours accounted for at least 15%, market participants say, now they are practically non-existent

Photo: Sergey Savostyanov / TASS

Tour operator offers have almost ceased to include the so-called last-minute tour format, writes Kommersant with reference to market participants. The reasons are the crisis in the tourism market that has been going on for two years.

According to Igor Blinov, a representative of the OnlineTour company, in 2014 last-minute tours accounted for about 15% of sales, but now they are practically non-existent. The price of a tour purchased a few days before departure is now 30-40% higher than in advance sales, and not vice versa, he says.

Maya Lomidze, executive director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia, speaks about similar indicators. According to her data, in 2014 last-minute tours accounted for 15-20% of sales, and now - a maximum of 3-5%. The volume of last-minute offers is indeed declining, notes Level.Travel CEO Dmitry Malyutin, but last summer agents managed to find such tours to Greece, Crete and domestic resorts.

Among the reasons for the disappearance of last-minute tours are the changing rules of the game in the market, says Igor Blinov. According to him, operators have begun to increasingly use regular transportation in package offers. They also prefer not to immediately buy out significant blocks of hotel rooms and refuse unreasonable dumping to increase their customer base.

Now the concept of “last minute tours” carries more of a marketing load, he notes.

Tatyana Belova, director of the BSI Group agent network development department, also associates the optimization of flight programs of tour operators and their guarantees when purchasing seats with the refusal of last-minute tours. Last minute tours, she notes, are isolated offers: for example, if a client cancels a trip at the last minute due to emergency circumstances.

Another reason Lomidze names is the lack of mass tourist destinations on the current market - for example, Egypt. Another reason, she says, is the decreased commission of travel agents: previously, on last-minute tours, its size could reach up to 30%, now it is no more than 12-13%.

This coming summer, the number of last-minute tours in the portfolios of tour operators may increase, taking into account the demand for mass seasonal destinations during this period, Lomidze admits. The growth of the segment may begin after the return to the Egyptian mass market, suggests Dmitry Malyutin.

It is no longer worth expecting mass dumping from tour operators, which in any case implies an increase in the supply of last-minute tours, says Anna Podgornaya, general director of Pegas Touristik. According to her, the market has changed a lot and companies are no longer willing to take such risks and work at a loss as they did before 2014.

Attitudes towards last-minute tours vary. Some fly just like that, while others bypass, making the sign of the Orthodox cross. We tried to tell why tour operators conduct such generosity attractions, and what the desire to save on vacation can result in.

Where do last minute tours come from?

What do sellers do when a “doctorate” comes to an end? That's right - they write “promotion” and reduce prices. It's the same with last-minute travel packages. The tour operator buys seats on planes and hotels in advance, and when there are still rooms available at the start of the tour, he sells them cheaper. The company disposes of unclaimed vouchers at cost and does not incur losses.

Last minute tours are a fair deal. The price decreases approximately 10 days before departure. If your suitcases are always ready and you agree to go on vacation at any time, this option is for you. A good way to save a few thousand rubles and visit the country of your dreams.

But there are nuances.

What's the catch with last minute tours?

Like many good proposals, there are some "buts" here. You may not know the truth why the tour costs so little. Cases that the tour operator is happy to report:

• tourists canceled at the last moment;
• selling out seats before the start of the season;
• the tour operator incorrectly calculated the demand and bought extra seats.

But when the offer is really good, there will always be buyers for it. Sometimes seats become dramatically cheaper for other reasons.

What to pay attention to

Season. The main reason for low prices for tours is the lack of demand. This happens when the resort has bad weather, rainy season, hurricanes and earthquakes. Before paying, try to find out more about the country you are flying to. Read the news, weather reports and, just in case, check if there are military operations nearby - this can also happen.

Departure city. Most last minute tours are tours from Moscow. Before you buy, calculate how much it will cost you to get to the capital and back. Add to this the risks that a long journey brings: you can miss your plane, you need to book a hotel in Moscow, there is little time to get ready. Even if you save money, you can spend a lot more nerves.

Amount of days. Sometimes last minute trips are unclaimed tours. These are short trips of 3 days/4 nights or 7 days, of which one will be spent on the flight, and two more on acclimatization. This cannot be called a complete rest. In addition, a short tour will not cost much less than a week or 10-day trip - and good deals during the season with such terms are difficult to find. It happens that a short vacation of 3-4 days is reduced due to unforeseen circumstances - when you buy last-minute trips, anything can happen.

Reputation of the travel agency and tour operator. Avoid fortune systems and lotteries with similar names. Especially during the season and without a specific hotel. Often a tour announces a good hotel with a high rating, but with the possibility of replacing it with another one of the same star rating. Make sure there is no such clause in your contract. Otherwise, upon arrival, you may be accommodated in a hotel with poor food, dirty linen and insects in the rooms. An irresponsible travel agent may fail to warn the traveler of these risks, and the holiday could be ruined.

Lack of choice. A last minute trip can be a real adventure. If you buy a tour “for luck”, then there is simply no time to get acquainted with the features of the hotel and its suitability for a family holiday. The decision to purchase must be made quickly, otherwise someone else will outbid the great offer.

Where is the best place to go on a last minute tour?

Despite some risk, last-minute tours remain the most popular way to travel cheap. In fairness, there are much fewer bad reviews of tours than enthusiastic recommendations from tourists.

When searching for tours, it is better to bet on visa-free countries or those where a visa is issued upon arrival - Turkey, Turkey, Thailand, Vietnam, UAE. A last-minute holiday in Europe is suitable for those who have a long-term visa in their passport. The rest may simply not have time to complete the documents and greatly risk their vacation.

Choose safe countries for your vacation where there is no risk of getting sick. For example, if you are planning to go to India for the first time, experienced travelers recommend up to 10 vaccinations: against typhoid fever, diphtheria, tetanus, hepatitis A and B, and meningitis. This applies to adults and children. In the case of a last-minute ticket, you may not have time to get vaccinated. Of course, the risk of infection is not too high, but “Shiva protects the careful.”

The farther and more exotic the country, the more difficult and longer the preparations for the flight. When traveling for African exotics, you need to study local eating habits, learn about the poisonous inhabitants of the seas, rivers, and oceans, and buy essential medicines in advance. Medical insurance does not protect in all cases, and treatment on the other side of the planet will be incredibly expensive for a foreigner.

Important tip: If you find a good offer that suits you, don't hesitate. In just a couple of hours, someone else will definitely buy a profitable ticket.

Alternative - early booking

Whatever one may say, last-minute trips are to some extent roulette for the lucky ones. Tours at reduced prices are available to those who are ready to go abroad at any time, are not tied to deadlines for submitting reports and do not wait for permission from their superiors to go on vacation. When you are used to planning everything, then such a vacation will probably disappoint. If not the hotel and flight, then the impossibility of planning everything.

If you are not one of those who are going on a week-long trip abroad in five minutes, it is better to book your trips in advance. This saves you up to 30% of the cost of the tour, which is comparable to discounts on last-minute tours. Don't wait until the last minute - no one guarantees that last-minute tours will appear. Tourists will redeem all their reservations, force majeure will not happen in the country, no one will refuse a trip at the last moment - and that’s all, there are no normal last-minute travel packages.

The first screen is prices for tours to India for the next week. The second screen is the same “early booking” tour 40 days before departure. All dates are high season, the price difference is about 24,000 for two.

Choose a tour 3-4 months before vacation, make an advance payment of 50%, and the rest a couple of weeks before departure. This way you are guaranteed to get a comfortable stay in the chosen hotel, at the right time and with a convenient flight.