Life’s a beach

What do Russians do when life at home gets too much to bear?

When you read the statistics, you could be forgiven for thinking that Russians spend all their time telling pollsters about their problems …

The majority of Russians (70%) consider inflation and rising prices to be their most acute problems, says the ROMIR research group, which released a poll yesterday. Some 66% of respondents said they’re worried about poverty and low wages, and 41% named unemployment as a big problem (although the Jobless Rate fell to 5.4% in June, which is no worse than the US and Western Europe). But not so many Russians are bothered about corruption (36%), which must give comfort to the Kremlin. The ROMIR poll was conducted among 1,500 people in all Russian federal districts, which suggests that these are nationwide anxieties.

You can understand why. In the first quarter of 2016, the poverty rate in Russia reached 15.7%, according to official statistics. A recent poll by Moscow’s Higher School of Economics revealed that more than 40% of Russian households struggle to buy food or clothes.

With figures like these, you wonder why Russians ever get out of bed in the morning.

This was really bad news week. Russia’s embargo on Western food imports has caused prices to soar by 31% in the last two years, the Ministry for Economic Development also announced yesterday.

“Food prices rose by 31.6% in two years, one and a half times above the level of inflation,” said a ministry spokesman, but suggested that things were nevertheless looking up. “The Russian market has managed to adapt to the new conditions. New suppliers were found in the first six months [of the embargo] and orders were made at lower prices.” No mention of the fact that this was self-inflicted pain.

And if you were thinking of calling in sick, the reasons came thick and fast.

The average price of a one-way air ticket to international destinations has increased by 30% to 18,000 roubles ($273) over the past year, said the RIA Novosti news agency. But that wasn’t enough to prevent Russia’s airlines making “dismal” operating losses of 24 billion roubles ($376 million) for the first quarter of 2016, up from 16 billion roubles ($250 million) for the same period in 2015.

Vladimir Tasun, president of the association of air transport carriers, has a plan. “What is needed is a more strategic response from the industry and continued state support of the sector. It’s obvious that we won’t be able to bring back demand just by raising prices and reopening charter flights to Turkey.”

Except that this is exactly what has been happening. The price of airplane tickets from Moscow to the Turkish resort of Antalya have risen by 75.6% as companies cash in on a surge of Russian holidaymakers visiting the country since President Putin officially lifted restrictions on tourism in Turkey on June 30.

Some 23 thousand people searched for Antalya ticket prices in a single day on July 5 …

Russian tour operators say bookings are up +10% to +15% for outbound destinations, especially Cyprus, Greece and Spain, which are the top Tax Free Shopping (TFS) destinations for Russian travellers. Greece, where bookings are up +20% to +30%, saw the highest demand, according to Maya Lomidze, executive director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia.

“Looking at current travel trends, I believe Greece will be the most visited destination for Russian tourists in 2016,” says Oleg Safonov, head of Russia’s Federal Agency for Tourism.

So what do these fascinating facts and figures tell us about Russians? They’re just like you and I.