Less Russians travel abroad amid economic slowdown, ruble devaluation

More Russians prefer saving up and staying at home during holidays to traveling abroad, in the face of an economic slowdown and depreciation of the country's currency ruble.
From January to September this year, about 560,000 tourists travelled abroad from the Russian Far East territory of Primorsky, informally known as Primorye, down 4 percent from the same period of 2013, said Vladimir Schur, deputy director of the region's International Cooperation and Tourism Development Department.
The ruble's rapid devaluation has greatly affected Russia's outbound tourism, he added.
Irma Gurzhapova, a senior manager from Kaleidoscope, a local tourism agency, said the southern Chinese island province of Hainan has long been a popular vacation spot for Russians, but recently fewer and fewer tourists can afford it.
"One of the popular travel packages was 'From Winter to Summer' when Russian tourists travelled to a tropical island for winter holidays ... Now, I think, fewer tourists can afford vacation on the island because of the ruble devaluation," she said.
"Another reason is that the only charter flight to Hainan has been canceled, and we have to look for other travel options," she added.
Nadezhda Krivova, director of Sputnik, one of the leading tourism companies in Primorye, also noted that tourist traffic from Russia to Hainan has recently declined.
"With the charter canceled, tourists have to fly with a layover in Beijing or Hong Kong which is almost twice dearer than to Thailand or Vietnam ... Of course, the ruble devaluation has become a reason for a lesser number of Russian travelers," she said.
A 41-year-old programmer, who only gave his name as Pavel, said he did not consider traveling abroad anymore on holidays because of the ruble fall.
The ruble has lost nearly 50 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar and the euro since March, despite several currency interventions of the Central Bank.
The Russian currency plummeted to historic lows last Tuesday, with the euro briefly hitting 100 rubles and the dollar 80 rubles respectively in Moscow trade.
At an annual end-of-year press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin said it would take at most two years for the Russian economy to rebound under the most unfavorable scenario.