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- On its own shore: demand for resorts in Russia has doubled amid the Middle East conflict
On its own shore: demand for resorts in Russia has doubled amid the Middle East conflict
The escalation of the conflict in the Middle East caused a twofold increase in demand for Russian resorts in early March, the Association of Travel Aggregators (ATAG) told Izvestia. The largest increase in bookings is observed in Sochi, Anapa and Gelendzhik. But some market participants explain this dynamic not by politics, but by early planning of summer holidays and the rise in prices of other foreign destinations, in particular, Turkey and Egypt. About where Russians will go in the upcoming summer season is in the Izvestia article.
How the tourist flow of Russians is changing in 2026
The war in Iran caused a doubling of demand for Russian resorts in early March, Alexander Bragin, director of ATAG, told Izvestia. According to him, there was no such active growth during this period in 2025.
In Yandex.This month, the share of bookings made by users of the service increased by 7 percentage points (pp), reaching 86%, the service reported. Azimut Hotels also records an increase in reservations for southern destinations within the country, its representative confirmed. According to him, room occupancy has increased in Anapa, Sochi and Gelendzhik compared to 2025.
At the same time, the increased demand for domestic destinations has not yet led to a significant increase in living prices. Thus, the average cost of a night in Adler hotels for the coming summer was 11.2 thousand rubles, which is only 5% higher than in the same period of 2025, according to OneTwoTrip data. In Anapa, the placement price increased by 31%, to 11 thousand. According to the representative of Ostrovok, this dynamic is explained by the fact that last year, due to the environmental situation, hoteliers restrained prices, and sometimes even lowered them. Now, as demand recovers, the cost of accommodation is returning to the usual level of the summer season, partially compensating for the high season of 2025.
The average cost of a night in a room in Sochi, according to OneTwoTrip, decreased by 4% compared to last year and amounted to 12.4 thousand rubles. The price dynamics were influenced by Russians' desire to save money: tourists began to choose budget accommodation options more often, which forced hoteliers to adjust tariffs, said Elena Shelekhova, head of the service's press service. At the same time, in the Krasnodar Territory as a whole, the cost of a night increased by 8% and reached 11.6 thousand.
At the same time, Ostrovka is talking about an increase in the average price of accommodation in Sochi — this figure increased by 5% year-on-year, to 6.8 thousand rubles, in Gelendzhik — by 8%, to 7.2 thousand per night. The increase in prices on the Black Sea coast corresponds to the seasonal trend, the service noted.
Will the demand for resorts in Russia grow even more
At the same time, some of the market participants surveyed by Izvestia do not associate the growth of bookings in the Russian Federation with the situation in the Middle East region. The increase in demand for domestic destinations is explained by the early planning of summer holidays and high price sensitivity to the increased prices of foreign resorts such as Turkey and Egypt, the representative of Azimut Hotels believes. At the same time, interest in holidays in the Middle East in the summer is decreasing even without military conflicts: in May-August, the share of the UAE is only 4% of all foreign destinations, Ostrov recalled. This is due to the excessively hot climate there in the summer season.
The dynamics of bookings indicates a partial redistribution of tourist flows, said the representative of the service. At the same time, according to him, the demand for foreign destinations remains high: in early March, the number of bookings increased by 13% year-on-year. At the same time, compared to February, trips to Greece increased the most — by 1.7 times, China — by 35%, Abkhazia — by 20%, Morocco and South Korea — by 18%.
According to Yandex. Since February 28, housing has been reserved in Turkey by 21% more often, in Thailand — by 23%, and in China — by 43%.
In March 2026, there was a particularly noticeable increase in demand for holidays in the Bang Tao resort on the Phuket coast - 2.6 times, as well as in Casablanca (+70%), Sarajevo (+67%), Muscat (+62%), Macau (1.5 times growth), Athens (+45%) and Valencia (+44%), said Elena Shelekhova, head of the OneTwoTrip press service.
The situation in the Middle East is already affecting the consumer trends of Russians, Alexander Bragin from ATAG is sure. According to him, if the situation drags on, the demand for domestic destinations may grow stronger. In the segment of beach holidays, these are Sochi, Gelendzhik, Crimea, the expert listed. At the same time, this situation does not mean that a tourist who was planning a vacation in the UAE is reorienting to domestic seaside resorts — these are still different offers, Alexander Bragin draws attention.
By the end of 2025, the tourist flow from Russia to the Middle East amounted to 2.5 million tourists, of which about 1.5 million people purchased package tours, said Dmitry Gorin, vice president of the Russian Union of Travel Industry. And the share of bookings in these countries among independent tourists was 10%, Alexander Bragin estimated. At the same time, the organized tourist flow to the Middle Eastern countries from the Russian Federation has almost stopped, Dmitry Gorin noted. The losses of the tourism industry against the background of the crisis amounted to about 7 billion rubles, Maxim Reshetnikov, the head of the Ministry of Economic Development, said earlier.
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