«Everything has become more expensive — tour packages, air travel, hotel accommodation»
Credit and vacation — today for Russians these two concepts exist separately, with virtually no overlap. As a rule, people turn to banks and microfinance organizations for borrowed funds for compelling reasons, from their point of view, which do not include staying in a sanatorium or at a seaside resort. According to a survey by one of the recruiting agencies, only four out of a hundred respondents are going to take out or have already taken out a consumer loan for a summer vacation. The explanation is simple — it makes no sense.
Russians under the age of 44 take out a vacation loan more often than those older: 5% and 3%, respectively. Men, as the study showed, – more often than women: the ratio here is also 5% versus 3%. Recipients of salaries above 100 thousand rubles – more often than those whose salaries do not reach this level: 6% versus 4%. People take out loans for holidays abroad more often than for holidays within the country: 7% versus 3%. The majority of respondents (86%) explain their reluctance to get involved with borrowed money this way: “I expect to meet my earnings,” “There are other loans.” It’s better to stay at home than to take on an additional debt load for this reason, people say.
By the way, this is quite reasonable, given a number of circumstances. First of all, these are interest rates on credit products that are higher (sometimes up to 30%) than the current level of the Central Bank key rate of 16%, which in December 2021 was 8.5%. Secondly, this is a general increase in the price of vacations – both foreign and domestic. According to the vice-president of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) Sergei Romashkin, in 2023 the cost of tours in the Russian Federation increased by 12-15% due to inflation and rising wages in the tourism industry. In 2024, a comparable price increase is expected. Thirdly, something unimaginable is happening with the prices of air tickets, especially for flights in southern directions: today, flying in economy class has turned into a service that is considered an unaffordable luxury.
“Should I take out a loan for a summer vacation at the current unaffordable interest rates? Thank you, we’ll get by somehow, Russians think: there are more important tasks – renovate an apartment or cottage, buy a new car, make a down payment on a mortgage,” says Candidate of Economic Sciences and financial analyst Mikhail Belyaev. – In addition, in terms of price, domestic tourism has caught up with foreign tourism, and under the conditions of sanctions restrictions, the demand for it has sharply increased. Everything has become more expensive — tour packages, air tickets, hotel accommodations. Of course, many are uncomfortable admitting that summer vacation has become unavailable to them, so people resort to the euphemism “other priorities.” In fact, these priorities did not appear out of nowhere, but under the influence of external circumstances.
— Let's start with the fact that in some cases we have to deliberately reduce the quality of rest. Choose a week-long tour instead of the previous two-week one, stay in a cheaper hotel, go to a place where the infrastructure is worse, but the prices are not high. Or you can generally stay at home or go to the dacha, which many people have. Preferring this option to a trip to budget Turkey and Egypt. In addition, it is possible to use a relatively new financial instrument by paying for your vacation with a credit card with a long (up to 120 days) interest-free repayment period. In this case, you will not have to borrow funds, and most importantly, you will not have to overpay. This is justified when you need to pay, for example, 100-150 thousand for a trip, and not 300-400 thousand. Because it allows you to repay the debt during an interest-free period using only your salary. Let me also remind you that in order to popularize domestic tourism in 2020-2022, there was a program under which the state compensated travelers for part of the money for their holidays in Russia. «Cashback» for tours around the country allowed you to save up to 20% of the cost of the trip on vacation.