The concept of "exotic" when applied to holidays abroad is an ambiguous thing. As Russky Fokus writes, the more of our tourists have visited, say, Thailand, the less reason there is to call such a trip exotic. On the other hand, within a seven-hour flight (as to Thailand) there are quite a few places that are interesting and popular, say, among Germans or Britons. But suggest our tourist go there, and he will be taken aback...
We spin the globe: Africa - Asia - islands in the ocean, in an attempt before winter holidays to mark not only beaten paths, but also places where the foot of our tourist has not yet trodden (figuratively speaking, of course). We deliberately refused to describe Europe, since this continent is better studied by our tourists.
Africa: either too well known, or too expensive
Despite ominous rumors that Egypt, the main hit of North Africa, will ban noisy aircraft from flying to it, most tourists are unlikely to abandon this country in winter: it is warm, affordable, and no visa is required for a tour trip (although for individual travel to friends or relatives, it will have to be obtained at the embassy). The second affordable African country is Tunisia, but so far it is a purely summer destination. True, tour operators are trying to make it year-round, but in winter no one risks organizing charter flights there, and with a regular flight the price becomes less attractive for the bulk of those wishing to warm up.
Morocco is slowly moving from the exclusive category to the popular one. Currently, the average price for a tour there fits into $1,000, approximately half of the amount goes to the hotel, and half to the flight. According to experts, this destination will remain in a transitional state for another couple of seasons, and only then will it be possible to confidently speak of its mass appeal.
But hardly any tourist who has returned from Egypt, Tunisia, or even Morocco will boast, "I was in Africa!" By real Africa, the magical continent painted by imagination thanks to Chukovsky's fairy tales - with the Limpopo and hippos with tummy aches - they mean rather the east or south of the continent, buying tours to South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. According to Lena Serkova, manager of the representative office of the British company Steppes Travel, African safari is now at the peak of popularity among tourists from Europe, particularly among Germans and Britons. In our country, there are not many seekers of such adventures, but their flow is stable. According to representatives of tour companies specializing in this destination, on average, about a dozen tourists go to this "real" Africa per month.
The first thing that limits opportunities when traveling to East or South Africa is the price of the trip. For example, a flight to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, will cost approximately $1,000. The same amount will have to be spent on a ticket to Johannesburg, the capital of South Africa. A flight with a transfer in Europe or the Arab Emirates will take 12-15 hours of flight time plus time for the transfer itself and possible waiting for a flight. That is, in total, the time spent approaches 18 hours. The main costs are the safari itself and hotels; for a week-long tour, it will cost at least $1,500-2,000.
"Mostly those who have already traveled a lot and seen a lot go to Africa. It is rare for a first trip abroad to be immediately to Africa," says Vladimir Popov, head of one of the travel companies. "They go mainly on safari to see nature; some go hunting, since licensed hunting is possible in some states, but there are very few such tourists. As a rule, we try to combine two countries in our tours, say, Kenya and Tanzania. Since a person has made it to Africa, they need to see as much as possible in one trip." Visas to some African countries can take a long time to process. However, as practice shows, tourists plan and book such trips at least a month in advance.
The largest continent
In Asia, just like in Africa, there are countries that are loved by our tourists and already familiar - the same Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. If desired, in the low season you can find a tour to either country for $500; however, you will have to stay in not the most luxurious hotel. The Indian state of Goa is turning from a niche product into a mass-market one. According to representatives of the Indian Club company, last winter 6,000 domestic tourists vacationed there, and this winter operators hope to send 20,000 people. The number of travel companies working in this direction has increased, and due to growing competition, prices have dropped, but only by 5-10%. The average week-long tour costs $800, and for celebrating the New Year - $1,200-1,500.
Goa's star rose on the domestic market very rapidly - a year ago almost no one had heard of this Indian resort. Nepal, neighboring India, unlike Goa, no longer enjoys the close attention of tourists. Kathmandu can only be reached with a transfer in Delhi or Dubai, and, as consultants clarify, one of the transfers will necessarily be with an overnight stay. Accordingly, a flight to Nepal or back will take more than 24 hours. Previously, Russian Aeroflot had a direct flight to Kathmandu, but it was discontinued after the royal family was killed in the country two years ago and a civil war began. Tourists decided to postpone visiting the country. However, according to the World Tourism Organization, Nepal's tourism industry is now growing despite political instability: over the past four months its volume has increased by 13%. And even in the current situation, tourists from Europe go there.
Getting tickets to Nepal is not that easy. The main difficulty lies in the second part of the route - locals themselves actively use flights between Delhi and Kathmandu, there are many willing, so tickets must be bought in advance. With a very lucky scenario, a two-week trip to Nepal will cost $2,000, if less lucky, then that much will be just the ticket. A good hotel in Kathmandu can be found for $100 per day, and when traveling in the mountains with guides (trekking), one day costs $60-70.
Another neighbor of India - China - suffered this year not from political instability, but from the hype around SARS. According to WTO data, from April to July the country lost 17% of its total inbound tourists. Now interest in the country is recovering, but potential visitors are still cautious. There can be a great many travel options to China, since the country is very large. In the country you can easily find a hotel for $50-60, hotels costing $200 a night are also not in short supply, so the final cost of the tour depends on the client's wishes.
Other countries affected by SARS - Malaysia and Vietnam - are slowly but surely turning to face the mass tourist. Cambodia is also on the path from inaccessible exoticism to a familiar offer. Tours to Malaysia are comparable in cost to trips to the more familiar Indonesia, to the island of Bali. A ticket costs about $1,000. As for hotels, for example, on the Malaysian island of Borneo you can stay for seven days in a five-star hotel for $600. In Kuala Lumpur, in a hotel of the same level, a double room costs up to $200 per day (accordingly, each of the occupants pays only half of that amount). By the way, tour operators call the combination of price level and quality of service in hotels in Southeast Asian countries the most optimal.
The tour market is just starting to talk about Cambodia and Vietnam - in the mass consciousness both countries are associated rather with wars than with rest. One-, two-, or three-day excursions to Cambodia are made from Thailand. According to Timofey Seaton, a consultant at Steppes Travel, tourists are unlikely to stay here for more than three days, since this time is enough to see the main attractions, including the famous temple of Angkor Wat. A flight from Thailand to Cambodia costs just under $300; a two-day sightseeing tour offered by one of the tour operators will cost from $150-200, depending on the number of people in the group; a three-day trip from $220 to $300.
Unlike Cambodia, it makes sense to go to Vietnam not for a short excursion from neighboring Thailand, but with a full-fledged trip in mind. Start with Hanoi, then to Da Nang, Hue, Ho Chi Minh City. According to Timofey Seaton, it makes sense to form a trip through three countries: first go through Vietnam, then to Cambodia, and from there to Thailand. The first part of the trip will be sightseeing, the second - a beach holiday. If you stay in hotels that cost about $200 per day, then the holiday will cost $4,000. Although, as already noted, in the countries of this region you can settle in well for two to three times less. Problems with visas for our tourists rarely arise - in Thailand they are issued at the airport upon arrival, and Cambodian entry permits are issued either in Moscow or at the border. Prudent tourists prefer to arrange everything in advance, in order to avoid possible problems on foreign territory.
Spanish America
Residents of Latin America really do not like when their region is called Latin America; they themselves prefer to say Hispanoamerica - Spanish America. Our tourists do not appear very often in this part of the world. True, several years ago the popularity of, for example, Mexico could be compared with the popularity of Goa in the past season. In 1997, 7,000 tourists went there, but then an entry visa was issued in three days. "Now you have to wait a month and a half for entry documents, and the number of tourists has dropped to 3,000 per year," says Alexander Bessudnov, head of the Latin America department at the company RAS Group. But even in the current situation, Mexico ranks first in popularity among our tourists in Central and South America. If we do not take into account the islands of the Caribbean Sea (we will talk about them below), then after Mexico come Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. According to experts, approximately the same number of tourists go there.
In Mexico and Peru, mainly sightseeing historical and ethnographic programs prevail. True, Mexico also has good beach holiday opportunities, but the first place is visiting places associated with Indian culture. A seven-day trip to the main Mexican attractions fits into $1,010; this amount includes hotels, transfers, guides, museum tickets, etc. The cost of the flight starts from $920. The road to both Mexico and other Latin American countries takes at best 16-20 hours (with a less favorable scenario, you can spend up to 28 hours on the flight). If after Indian "cultivation" travelers prefer to stay for a week at some resort, for example in Acapulco, then for a week under the sun by the sea you will have to spend additionally from $380 in a three-star to $600-700 in a four-star hotel on an all-inclusive basis.
Peru is called the most Indian country in the region, since the share of the Indian population there is about 70%. It is the only state where the Indian language Quechua is state-owned along with Spanish. The most popular place in Peru is the so-called lost city of the Incas, Machu Picchu. In terms of price, exploring the sights of Peru differs little from a Mexican excursion - if you stay in a three-star hotel. True, a Peruvian visa is issued much faster - in just one day.
When traveling to Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, excursions are usually combined with sports or ecological recreation. In Brazil, for example, this could be a visit to the jungle or canoeing. A two-week sightseeing and entertainment tour of Brazil can cost $1,900, and the journey will cost $1,650. A two-week trip to Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay will cost $1,244 with accommodation in a four-star hotel plus airfare and guide services (they cost $390).
In comparison with Southeast Asian countries, which were losing on the tourism front in the spring due to atypical pneumonia, Central and South America, on the contrary, were winning. First, tourists preferred them to Asia, and second, because of the weak dollar, trips there became more attractive in price for Europeans and Canadians.
Islands in the ocean
This year was also quite successful for the islands in the Caribbean Sea. The palm of primacy in attracting vacationers belongs to the Dominican Republic. According to WTO calculations, it was visited by 20% more tourists in the past months of 2003 than in 2002. According to Alexander Bessudnov from RAS Group, the Dominican tourist representation is now very actively working on the domestic tourism market. If we take the overall rating of the countries of South and Central America and the West Indies (that is what the Caribbean region is called), the Dominican Republic will take second place in popularity among our travelers after Mexico. It is expected that the cheapest New Year package will cost $2,200 for two weeks, and the cheapest tour in the low season will cost about $600 less.
After the Dominican Republic, Cuba follows in popularity. But Fidel's fiefdom, although it is increasing its tourism volumes on the world market (the number of arrivals in 2003 grew by 14%), is losing popularity among our tourists. Tour operators explain this, among other things, by the high cost of vacationing on the Island of Freedom. Although tour company offers include hotel rates of $390 per week, according to eyewitnesses, internal tourist spending in the country is now considerable. Although for a long time Cuba was not so demanding of tourists. The cheapest tickets to the island start from $860.
The convenience of the Dominican Republic and Cuba also lies in the visa-free regime for our tourists. True, it would be a mistake to think that absolutely all Caribbean islands are visa-free or that there is a scheme for issuing visas at the airport. For example, to get to Guadeloupe, you will need to obtain a visa at the French consulate, since the island belongs to the overseas departments of France. If you can get an urgent visa to France itself in one day, then for the overseas departments it is issued in 21 days. To visit Aruba, you will have to contact the Netherlands consulate, since Aruba is an independent state within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. You will have to wait for such a visa as long as in the case of Guadeloupe.
The national composition of vacationers on the islands also largely depends on whose former colony it is and who now officially governs the state. For example, the famous island of Barbados gained independence back in the 1960s. This does not prevent Barbados from being a member of the Commonwealth, and the official head of state is the British Queen. It is not surprising that mostly Britons vacation there. But the modern tourism market makes its own adjustments to the national composition of vacationers. So, according to Robin Zimmermann, a representative of the German operator TUI, Germans in the Caribbean prefer to bask on the beaches of the Dominican Republic.
According to some tourists, the states in the Caribbean Sea fought in vain so zealously for their own independence from the mother countries, since the same Guadeloupe now feels much better as an overseas department of France than many independent islands.
Of the islands of other oceans, the Maldives, Seychelles, and Mauritius are becoming closer and closer to us. To the former, you need to fly by direct flight for about 7-8 hours (with a transfer in Dubai - about 10 hours). The price of direct charter tickets starts from $800, tickets for regular flights cost no less than $1,000. Ten-day tours, depending on the hotel, with a charter flight will cost at least $1,250-1,300. The upper limit can reach $6,000. The African Seychelles and Mauritius are almost twice as expensive - the cheapest ten-day tour can be found for $2,300. In the case of the Seychelles, the package will include an Air France flight with a transfer in Paris; the ticket separately costs $1,150, and you will have to get there for 14-16 hours. To visit all the above-mentioned Indian Ocean islands, no preliminary visa is required.
Make it to the agency
As a rule, tours for the New Year or winter holidays are sold out several months before the trips begin. Even despite the abundance of offers, due to a surge in demand, the tourism product becomes scarce - there may not be enough for everyone. In November, you can barely manage to jump on the departing train and book a trip. Otherwise, you will have to go to the dacha or celebrate the New Year with relatives.