In the first half of may, employees of the Russian companies began to actively travel around the country: the number of trips has increased by half compared to April, although it remained at historically low levels. Noticeable growth is prevented by a mandatory two-week quarantine established in many regions for visitors. But even after the lifting of restrictions we can go about restoring only 50-60% of pre-crisis missions in Russia.Activity business trips around the country began to recover, according to data of Agency of business tourism “Aeroclub”. According to analysts, in the first half of may, the demand for trips increased by 54% compared to the same period of April, although it remained at a record low, decreasing by 96% compared to the same period last year. It’s better than in April, when the decline was estimated at 98% year-on-year. Similar calculations leads to the service Smartway: the number of business trips in the first half of may has increased two times compared to April, reaching 20% from pre-crisis levels. The company explains that if in April, Russia went only employees of enterprises that could not stop production process, starting mainly in trip for the Ural, in may increased frequency of travel to Moscow and from Moscow.In “the flying club” Moscow in April and may as the most popular destination among business travelers, in second place is New Urengoy, on the third — Ufa. Followed by Novosibirsk, St.-Petersburg, Rostov-on-don, Irkutsk, Nizhnevartovsk, Tyumen and Simferopol. Interest in the latter town, according to analysts, woke up in may. A list of popular destinations has changed compared to last year: significantly decreased activity of flights to St.-Petersburg, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Krasnodar, Sochi, Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod. Such specificity may be related to the fact that rarely have to drive in business, the employees of the enterprises of mining and manufacturing, energy, manufacturers of technological equipment. In may, according to analysts, most were travel retail staff and pharmaceutical companies.The Russians began to make a business trip abroad, but the business jets. According to Reuters, from 1 to 26 may, the frequency of such flights has almost doubled compared to April — from 61 in April to 107.In Russia, the gradual recovery of business activity has not yet affected the performance of hotels. According to the Director direction of the industry of hospitality CBRE Tatiana Belova in the first half of may the average occupancy rate of hotels remained at the level of April, making up less than 10%. Drop compared to the same period last year made up about 70 percentage points. Partner at Cushman & Wakefield Marina Smirnova indicates h��on the average occupancy of quality hotels in Russia in may is 7.2%. In the accommodation of the upper and middle price categories value reaches 10-17%. Even in the event of cancellation of most restrictions in June, Ms. Smirnova sees no prerequisites for this abrupt recovery of the market. The expert recalled that hotels and airlines have yet to adapt to the new requirements of the CPS, and even, under favorable circumstances, does not expect that the average utilization in June will be at the level of 10-15%.CEO of Smartway Maxim Yaremko predicts that in June, travel around the country will be twice more than in may, but the figure is still far from pre-crisis levels. According to the expert, the main limiting factor of the two-week quarantine, which is installed in many regions import from other regions of the Russian Federation. “As soon as the ban is lifted, the number of business trips will recover to 50-60% from pre-crisis levels”,— predicts Mr. Yaremko.In the “flying club” to make predictions for June have not yet taken due to the continuing fall against the reducing of the depth of the bookings. If in April, the tickets for 21 or more days prior to departure bought 32% of business travellers, in may, this figure dropped to 16%. Approximately 30% of the trips in may planned on the day of departure or for three to seven days. A year earlier, the trip was planned more evenly: 21% of the tickets were bought for 3 or more weeks prior to departure, 17% for 8-11 days, 24% for 4-7 days, 18% — for 3 days.Alexandra Mertsalova
