‘We were criticised saying ‘homophobe Tinkov and crazy Aviasales offend again’
Having arrived in Paris, you know what to do, while it is not easy to solve this problem in Russia. Now not all our functionaries understand how to create the image of their region and promote it in the tourist market, according to the guest of the next online conference of Realnoe Vremya Janis Dzenis, PR Director in Aviasales. He told how the company helps the cities attract tourists, why people buy tickets online more and more often and why humour is useful while building a brand.
People are not afraid of the Internet
According to the data of the Russian Tourist Industry Union, the tourist flow from the Russian Federation abroad fell by record 30% in the last 18 years. As Janis Dzenis noted, 'the Internet has miracles', so that Aviasales suffered a bit.
'In January 2016, Rosaviation (Federal Air Transport Agency) stated about a 13% decrease in the passenger flow, while we had a 67% growth because the number of people who buy tickets online is growing. It is evolution.' As our guest told, even these 67% for Aviasales are a 'small growth': in 2014, the growth in ticket sales was almost 200%.
'As for the change in buyers' behaviour, it is connected with the choice of destination. If earlier almost all purchases via the service was divided fifty-fifty (50% – domestic flights, 50% – international flights), now ticket sales for international destinations have reduced a bit. Naturally, an international flight is more expensive. Consequently, we reduce an average client yield because of the reduction of the number of international trips. But the situation changes when we have more clients,' Dzenis explained.
In January 2016, Rosaviation (Federal Air Transport Agency) stated about a 13% decrease in the passenger flow, while we had a 67% growth because the number of people who buy tickets online is growing. It is evolution.
Aviasales solves this problem entering into new markets. The company has been actively developing Asian destinations for four years. This direction is supposed to be its second home – one of the offices of Aviasales is in Thailand. But the company has not been connected with the Russian statistics yet. Clients from the Russian Federation account for about 70% of its profit and traffic.
'People stopped being afraid to use the Internet. They don't wonder: 'Why was I sent a PDF? I don't understand. Is it my ticket?' Figuratively speaking, even my cleaner uses Aviasales and buys tickets to Tajikistan every three months. People from more strata use the Internet as a source,' Dzenis said.
It is interesting that, according to numerous estimates, the number of Internet users grows due to small cities, but citizens of Moscow, St. Petersburg and 'other million-plus cities' are still meant to be the core customers of Aviasales.
It won't be possible to completely substitute Turkey
It goes without saying that a question of the substitution of a holiday in Turkey and Egypt was not omitted. Dzenis noted the Turkish product is peculiar, there are few analogues.
'Very Israel is trying to introduce all-inclusive, but it is not easy. You used to have only breakfasts at best and now you need to provide your client with the works: not only the first course, second course, third course, beverages but also entertainments and some staff connected with safety issues.
This winter I've seen poor tourists who had to come to Thailand instead of their favourite Egypt with a fenced hotel territory where the grass is controlled from 9 to 12 a.m., entertainers hang out nearby, beaches are clean, and there are sunshades. But they had to roam Phuket, which is absolutely different. And the Russian language is not used. If you want, you can eat cheap tom yum. And if you don't, don't eat it. There isn't another variant,' the guest told.
There is an alternative to the summer holiday. For instance, Greece is getting popular. Authorities that are responsible for tourism got the hang of the situation and are taking measures. It was heard about granting a three-year Schengen visa for tourists. Montenegro and Croatia are also developing. In addition, it is supported by cheaper flights to Croatia. But the other side of the coin is that Paris has been more expensive because of Euro 2016.
Janis Dzenis chose Croatia for his summer holiday: 'Because it is cheaper than Greece, though some things linked with service and excursions are comparable. Going to Croatia is cheaper, especially the rent (hotels or private apartments). Meals are a plus, naturally, because the local currency is less stable than the euro'.
It is unknown what to do on holiday in Russia
Speaking about domestic tourism, Janis Dzenis marked Aviasales were actively participating and trying to make domestic travels more popular.
'We did an experiment in 2015: whether we had enough power to make Kaliningrad a more popular destination. Together with ten newspapers and bloggers we went to Kaliningrad in February 2015. Each of them created an absolutely new story: someone told about the food in Kaliningrad, someone found out about SPA and health resorts.'
The main problem is that when you go to Irkutsk, for example, you don't know what to do because you don't have any firm plan
'We supported all this work using banners on the site. For example, when a person looked for tickets to Germany, we told: 'Look, it is more expensive, and this visa staff is a real tragedy. You can see a similar architecture in Kaliningrad'. And it was a period when sales of Aeroflot's tickets to Kaliningrad began. But we did not succeed,' Janis ended the story and sadly shook his head.
According to him, it won't be possible to make hidden for the consumer destinations popular just waving a magic wand. Sochi, Simferopol, Anapa and Gelendzhik are still top places.
'And Simferopol is the leader in both summer and winter. I have no idea of what they do there in winter. It is difficult to pimp such cities as Kaliningrad.
Nowadays almost every city has an international hotel you are not afraid to stay in. It is clear it is neither Paris nor Barcelona. The main problem is that when you go to Irkutsk, for example, you don't know what to do because you don't have any firm plan.
When you go to Paris, you know that you leave your hotel near the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and go towards the Louvre and so on. You do have a plan. Being in Russia, you don't.
I put another example. A farm unit from Krasnodar informed recently they would have a wine tourism. I think it is cool. It would be great to write about it on Aviasales. It is a good story: you come, there is wine – awesome! I start looking for a photo to illustrate the story. Do you know what I saw? Such a photo cannot be used to attract people.
You type 'Krasnodar vineyards', you see gullies and sticks. They possibly have beautiful hills with sheep, etc. Efforts are needed to find such an attractive picture.
If you type 'Provence vineyards', you will see beautiful hills, nice sheep, it is clean. But if you type 'Krasnodar vineyards', you see gullies and sticks. They possibly have beautiful hills with sheep, etc. Efforts are needed to find such an attractive picture.
There is no firm plan, nice picture and enough content. It must be changed,' Dzenis resumed.
In addition, local governments are not always interested in such a development of their region as a tourist destination. As Janis told, they managed to come to an agreement with Moscow state establishments that are responsible for tourism: 'We speak the same language with them'. And when Aviasales fulfilled its project in Kaliningrad, he was waiting for functionaries' answer for three weeks: 'It won't do'.
Unoccupied niches
Now, speaking about tourism, niches like sales of tourist rucksacks, body creams, excursions are closed, in general. There is room for new, maybe unexpected projects.
'A basic example: you return from your business trip or holiday at 1 a.m. You were away for two weeks, and no one was at home during this period of time. You obviously want to have a hurried meal, but your refrigerator is empty. Why is there no service when a driver waits for you at the airport with a packet meal? It is in demand. The opening of Globus Gurme supermarkets near luggage claim areas at the Moscow airports is the evidence. This packet can be ready-to-use!'
Choosing between to cry or laugh, we prefer to laugh
We could not help but mention a topic of memes of Aviasales about Anapa and Cossacks. It was published after when Cossacks attacked workers of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation at the Anapa airport. Then Aviasales was awash of criticisms from the liberal-minded public. The company was blamed for a derision, while the people had been beaten.
'We don't understand the aggravation of the situation with the Cossacks because we almost always do it. One picture of this kind gives 10,000 clicks, which is about 50 tickets sold – it is not a big number for Aviasales.
But it is loud, noticeable and easy to remember. Yes, clearly, an estimate can be given from brand perception. And a part of the audience will say: 'Oh, they are such hooligans! I can't use it'.
Now we are having a game called patriot.aviasales.ru. It is about trips in Europe because it is a place where one can have problems because of migrants or tolerance towards gays, GMO and so on – the game is about it. We created it together with our partners from Tinkoff bank.
It turned our very funny, but we got a big number of criticisms like 'homophobe Tinkov and crazy Aviasales offend again'. I think this part of the offended people already includes criticism.
When we were reproached saying 'Why did you laugh at violated people?', we had no intention to laugh at them (if we come back to the topic of Cossacks). Firstly, no one laughed. Secondly, when we have to choose to cry or laugh, we prefer to laugh because to cry is more destructive.