Independent tourism in Russia is gaining momentum. According to representatives of the Russian hotel booking system GEOID, the annual growth of the independent tourism market is from 10 to 20%, and will only increase in the coming years.
However, Russians see not only positive aspects of independent tourism, but also negative ones, and each time they choose a way of travel based on many criteria. According to GEOID, the main pros and cons of independent travel, according to Russians, are as follows:
pros
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Possibility of individual choice of the hotel.
Indeed, tour operators tend to offer a limited selection of hotels, which is significantly inferior to the price and quality variety presented on the main online booking systems.
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Possibility to pay for the reservation on the day of check-in or a certain number of days before check-in.
As a rule, tour operators require 100% prepayment of travel. Reservation of hotels through reservation systems often makes it possible to pay for them only on the day of check-in. With plane tickets, everything is more complicated, but many airlines, even requiring payment in advance, still provide, if necessary, the possibility of refunding or exchanging tickets.
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The ability to create individual travel routes.
Independent tourists are usually not limited to one city, making difficult travel itineraries and visiting different cities and places. For example, flying to Lisbon or Barcelona, you can stay for 2 days in one hotel, for example, on the sea or ocean, then two more days in the very center of the city, and three more somewhere in the vicinity.
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The ability to fly not by charter, but by regular flights.
Of course, charter flights scare many tourists. They often use outdated aircraft and, as a rule, the service does not reach the level of regular flights. At the same time, it can be very difficult to find out the plane or some details of the service in advance. People who are afraid of flying prefer the services of well-known airlines and find them much safer.
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Possibility of choosing travel destinations not represented on the tourism market.
Of course, on your own you can fly to any part of the world and visit even the most remote town. If you are tired of the standard routes of tour operators, then independent travel here is the logical next step.
Minuses
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Lack of "last minute" vouchers.
With independent tourism, most often everything turns out quite differently than when traveling with tour operators. The earlier you buy plane tickets or book a hotel, the cheaper they will cost you. As a rule, there is nothing "hot" here, although discounts and dumping have not been canceled either.
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Problems of planning individual excursion programs.
There will be no organized excursions from the tour operator when traveling on your own. You will either have to explore the sights on your own or use the services of private local firms.
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Lack of guides.
If each organized group of travelers is usually assigned a Russian accompanying person who helps to deal with all the intricacies of rest abroad, then with an individual travel you will have to deal with everything yourself.
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Difficulty buying tickets for charter flights.
Of course, in many cases, charter flights are cheaper. When traveling, you can also buy tickets for them on your own, but this will be more difficult. Most likely, for this you will also have to contact a tour operator, who will sell tickets much more expensive than it would have cost him as part of the tour.
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Lack of organized transfers from the airport to the hotel and back
For an experienced traveler, this will not be a big problem, he can quickly hire a taxi and get to the place of rest. However, a taxi is quite expensive, especially if the hotel is located far from the airport, and if you have come to rest abroad and are not very good at foreign languages, you may encounter certain difficulties and inconveniences.
“It seems to me that, first of all, here we need to proceed from the direction,” comments the head of the GEOID project Yuri Strizhak. - If we are talking about such massive destinations as Turkey and Egypt, then independent travel here will be less profitable. But if we are talking about trips to some exotic places, or, for example, to large cities, or about traveling around Russia, then independent tourism leaves much more opportunities for an interesting vacation."
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