April 18, 2014. Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and Sochi proved the most popular destinations for Yekaterinburg travelers in May, while Kyiv and Istanbul are no longer among the top ten most coveted places to visit, Aviasales.ru PR Manager Yanis Dzenis told UrBC.

He explained Yekaterinburg residents are now flying in very different directions from the ones chosen last year. Those who decided to go away for the May recess preferred the countries in the dollar zone. According to a research conducted by Aviasales.ru analysts, the destinations popular with Yekaterinburg travelers this spring are: Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Sochi, Rome, Prague, Krasnodar, Barcelona, Myneralnye Vody, Minsk, and Dubai.

‘It is interesting to note that Kyiv, which was the third most popular place to visit in 2013, and Istanbul, which was the 9th most popular place to visit last year, are no longer on the list of top spring break destinations for locals,’ Dzenis said.

The capital of the UAE, Dubai, made it to the top list for the first time this year: this place is particularly popular with Yekaterinburg residents this year.

Both airlines and tour operators are trying to keep their prices at last year’s level. Dzenis claims tickets are even cheaper this year than a year earlier.

‘The median price of an airline ticket from Yekaterinburg to some other place comes to 7,392 RUR between May 1 and May 11, 2014. This is nearly the same as last year, or even lower by 2.3%,’ he pointed out.