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Firstly, travel market players that specialize in the country point out the increase in sales depth – at the moment there are bookings for July. Olga Filippenko, Tourism Development Director of the Norwegian Tourism Board, commented as follows: ‘tourist flow from Russia has increased by around 20%. The dynamics of sales comparing to 2005 is higher’.
Secondly, travel market players emphasize that the tourist flow to Norway grew mainly by means of individual tourists. Thus, Sergey Salomatov, General Director of Samiko Travel Company, said: ‘at present Norway is in high demand with individual tourists even in spite of high cost of individual tours comparing to group ones’. According to experts, tour packages to Norway are available for around 800 Euro, including a charter flight, while an individual tour would cost minimum 1000 Euro. ‘I think this tendency can be explained by the increase in number of wealthy tourists. About 70% of our clients are individuals’, stated Valentina Evforitskaya, General Director of Jazz Tour.
Meanwhile, popularity of the destination among individual tourists made an impact on charter plans of travel market players that specialize in Norway. At the moment Jazz Tour plan to operate three-flight charter program to Tromso, however, the travel company admitted that the North of the country is not promoted in the Russian market. Furthermore, Russian tourists prefer to travel to Hardanger Fjord to where it is convenient to get from Alesund. Therefore, Neva Travel Company plan to launch flights from Moscow to Alesund. Simultaneously, the operator decided to postpone a charter program to Stavanger until the next season. Moreover, DSBW Tours Continent announced their plans regarding Moscow – Bergen – Alesund charter program (news/ 27.03), meanwhile the company does not rush into making a decision about the frequency of Moscow – Bergen – Oslo flights. Thus, Irina Polenova, Senior Manager of the Norwegian Department of DSBW – Tours - Continent commented as follows: ‘at the moment it is more important for us to launch flights to Oslo from the Russian regions where our clients want to travel to the main Norwegian cities'.
Meanwhile, behind the scenes of the travel market they say that Norwegian Air Shuttle Airline, operating flights from St. Petersburg (news/ 23.03), still hope to launch flights from Moscow to Oslo.
