Tez Tour, one of Russia's largest tour agencies, is scaling back on its winter tourism packages twofold amid a rapid decline in demand and increasing market volatility, Vedomosti reported Monday, citing a company spokesperson.
"The process of optimizing our packages has been ongoing for about a month and a half," Tez Tour general director Vladimir Kaganer told Tourdom.ru. "We plan to complete [the process] by the end of October," he said, explaining that they plan to offer only half of the number of packages as offered last year.
The tourism industry has been hit especially hard by the crisis in Ukraine, in which the West accuses Russia of encouraging ongoing hostilities between pro-Russian rebels in the restive east and the government in Kiev.
Last week, British tourism agency TUI Travel announced it was cutting the number of holidays on offer to Russian customers by 30 percent after the devaluation of the ruble prevented it from raising prices.
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