The border service of the FSB of Russia has published data on the departures of Russian citizens to foreign countries for January-June 2021. From the figures of the Border Service, it follows that in comparison with 2019 trips abroad with all the purposes of the visit decreased by 68%. The outbound tourist flow, according to ATOR's (Association of Tour Operators of Russia) data, fell at least by 85%.
During the first half of the year (January - June) 2021, 6 787 244 trips were made from Russia to foreign countries. This is 15,4% less than in the first half of 2020 and 68% less than in the same period of the pre-pandemic 2019.
If we talk about massive foreign tourist destinations, where Russians travel by air transport with tourism purposes, in the first half of 2021 the total outbound tourist flow to 15 most popular destinations amounted to 1 779 445 trips.
Almost half of them (45,3%) were in one country - Turkey. Compared to 2020, Turkey has improved its indicators (+ 135%), but it is still very far from pre-pandemic volumes.
Tourist flow to 15 massive destinations in the first half of 2021 (country / trips):
Turkey - 806 212,
UAE - 294 494,
Cyprus - 172 671,
Egypt - 115 521,
Maldives - 91 981,
Tanzania - 85 348,
Cuba - 71 651,
Serbia - 35 653,
Greece - 32 650,
Tunisia - 29 029,
Croatia - 16 310,
Seychelles - 9 766,
Ethiopia - 7 496,
Mexico - 6 679,
Morocco - 3 984.
The decrease in the tourist flow for the first half of 2021 compared to the same period of 2019, when there were even more open destinations and there were no obstacles for international tourism, will amount, according to the ATOR Analytical Service, at least -85% (and this is the minimum figure).
Many tourist markets remain closed to Russians. But even the massive destinations, available nowadays for tourism, due to the limited volume of air transportation, cannot reach the pre-pandemic levels.
