According to the results of the first six months of 2023, the inbound tourist flow to Russia from abroad increased by 100 thousand trips of foreigners compared to the same period last year. For the first time since the start of the pandemic, China has taken the first place in terms of the number of tourist visits.
For 6 months of 2023, 187,8 thousand foreigners visited Russia for tourism purposes, according to the published data of the Border Guard Service of the Russian Federation.
This is 100 thousand more than in the same period last year (81,5 thousand tourists) - that is, the growth amounted to 130% for the year. A surge in tourist flow occurred in the second quarter of 2023: from April to June, 120,1 thousand foreign tourists out of 187,8 thousand arrived in Russia.
But, this is still significantly less than before the pandemic. For comparison, from January to June 2019, Russia received almost 2 million tourists. That is, 16,5 times more than for the six months of 2023.
In the second place is Turkey. For 6 months of 2023, the citizens of this country made 20,6 thousand tourist visits to Russia. In the first half of 2022, Turkish citizens visited Russia with the declared tourist purposes 9,6 thousand times, and for the first half of 2019 – 23,4 thousand times.
In the third place in terms of tourist flow in the first half of 2023 is Germany (12,5 thousand visits).
Before the pandemic, Germany was one of the main suppliers of classic tourists to Russia. For six months of 2019, 192,4 thousand tourists from Germany came to Russia.
