Raiffeisenbank: Russians spend 16% of the average annual budget on travel

Russians spend 16% of the average annual budget on travel, according to transactional activity of Raiffeisenbank’s clients. This is the most popular category of expenses in 2018: more than for flights, hotels and package tours, the bank clients spent only on products. Last year, each of them allocated an average of 207 thousand rubles for travel.

Source: Raiffeisenbank’s client transaction analysis, January-December 2018

In addition, in 2018 each client began to spend more specifically on travel arrangements — flights, hotels, rental housing and car rental. This also applies to premium clients of Raiffeisenbank: in 2018, travelers more actively used free Priority Pass, the number of visits to business lounges increased by 12% compared to 2017. Premium clients of the bank receive favorable travel insurance conditions, special exchange rate, as well as unlimited access to business lounges at international airports and the opportunity to withdraw cash abroad for free.

Spending of Russian travelers in numbers

• Like a year before, Europe remains the most popular destination among Raiffeisenbank’s clients. The rating of the most visited countries is led by Great Britain, and the top three includeGermany and the Netherlands. Italy and Spain close the top 5.
• Great Britain’s restaurants became much more expensive for travelers from Russia: in 2018 travelers spent 52% more than in 2017. This is due, inter alia, to the growth of the local currency exchange rate: during 2018, the pound sterling cost almost 84 rubles on average — 11% higher than a year earlier.
• In 2018, in the Netherlands, Russian tourists spent the most on clothes, hotel rental, medical services and supermarkets. Over the year, travelers spending on supermarkets grew by 13%, on medicine — by 33%, while they spent 6% less on clothes from the Netherlands than in 2017.
• Italy is the most expensive country at last year end. The bank clients left there an average of 126 thousand rubles per trip. Russian tourists in Italy increased spending on accessories in Louis Vuitton having made a switch from Gucci, while popular Tiffany & Co jewelry in 2017 was replaced by De Grigosono and Cartier in the shopping list. In 2018, McDonalds broke into the top 5 restaurants visited by Russians in Italy, although the volume of spending on cafes did not increase significantly — only by 25%.
• In Spain, Raiffeisenbank’s Russian clients have drastically reduced car rental costs by 65% compared to 2017. Fans of Spanish resorts began to spend significantly more only on restaurants — compared to 2017, this category of spending increased by 30%.
• The most money-saving country in the overall tourist rating was Burkina Faso — the traveler spent only 1,338 rubles for hotel reservation.
• The most exotic destinations of 2018 were Comoros, Mayotte, Falkland Islands, Kiribati, Micronesia, South Sudan and Burkina Faso.

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