MOSCOW, 11 October 2023. Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) presents the findings of a monitoring study on how the vacation strategies change in Russia.

What has changed?

Today every third respondent considers that the situation is improving (36%); over the three years the percentage has reduced (46% in 2020). One-fifth of the respondents thinks that conditions for leisure and rest in Russia has worsened (19%, + 9 pp. compared to 2020). Almost the same number of the respondents say that no considerable changes have happened (22%).

Twenty-three percent of the Russians are undecided; this share is higher than in the previous years (12–16%).

The older the respondents, the more often they could not assess the conditions for rest and leisure activities in Russia (32% of those aged 60+ vs 7% of those under 25).

Those who are more likely to mention changes for the better are women (39%), and young respondents under 25 (40%), Russians with good income (54%), rural area residents (42%), as well as those who prefer a mixed model of media consumption - both TV and Internet (41%).

Those who point out changes for the worse are often young Russians aged 18–34 (25–26%), Russians with low income (32%) and active Internet users (27%), residents of large cities except for both capitals (million-plus cities, cities with a population of  500–950 thousand inhabitants and cities with a population of 100–500 thousand inhabitants — 24%, 22% and 23% respectively vs 11% of rural area residents).

Advantages and disadvantages of vacationing in Russia

Those who traveled beyond their home region within Russia were asked about advantages and disadvantages of vacationing in Russia.

Factors that make vacation successful:

• Nature and climate (beautiful nature, clear air — 27%, +8 pp. over the year; good weather, hot summer — 20%, +3 pp. over the year; warm sea, clean river — 20%, + 11 pp. over the year).
• Quality of service, prices (service, food, treatment — 14%, +7 pp. over the year; availability, available prices — 4%).
• Positive emotions and impressions (new impressions, rest — 8%, –5 pp. over the year; kindness of the locals — 8%; place, beautiful city — 7%; change of scene, meeting relatives — 4%, each).
• Comfort and safety (urban beautification, infrastructure — 8%; sense of place, calmness — 5%; transport infrastructure — 2%, –3 pp. over the year).
• Sightseeing (architecture, monuments — 12%, +3 pp. over the year; activities, entertainment — 5%).

Factors that cause poor impressions:

• Vacation costs (high prices for accommodation tickets, food, lack of money — 22%, +5 pp. over the year).
• Underdeveloped infrastructure, poor urban amenities (bad road condition, traffic jams — 9%, +3 pp. over the year); underdeveloped cities — 3%; dirty cities, beaches — 2%).
• Poor service, psychological discomfort (bad quality services — 6%; crowdedness — 5%).
• Poor environment (bad weather, heat, insects — 4%, –6 pp. over the year).
• Social problems (SMO-caused tensions — 2%;).

Costs

An average amount of money per one family member spent on summer vacation is 63,158 rubles (38,605 rubles in 2022). Real costs slightly exceeded estimated costs. According to the May survey data, the Russians were going to spend 53,923 rubles on their summer vacation, which is 9,235 rub less than the real costs.

VCIOM-Sputnik all-Russian telephone survey was conducted 16 September, 2023. A total of 1,600 respondents aged 18 and older took part in the survey. Survey method: telephone interviews, stratified random sample based on a complete list of mobile phone numbers in use in Russia. The data were weighted for socio-demographic characteristics. The margin of error at a 95% confidence level does not exceed 2.5%. In addition to sampling error, minor changes to the wording of questions and different circumstances arising during the fieldwork can introduce bias into the survey.

Key effectiveness indicators, survey of 16 September, 2023:  cooperation rate (CR)* = 0.7861; minimum response rate (MRR)** = 0.0152; response rate (RR)*** = 0.0891.