The total tourist flow from Southeast Asian countries to Moscow amounted to approximately 63,800 trips by the end of 2025. The largest increases came from Vietnam, with an additional 10,800 trips, and Indonesia, with an additional 2,500, according to Maria Pasuginova, Head of the Department for Asia,…
Foreign tourist arrivals in Russia plummeted to just 2.99 million in the first half of the year—a staggering 20% drop compared to the same period last year. This marks the weakest performance since 2021, effectively erasing hopes of a swift post-pandemic recovery for the sector. Industry experts…
Since August 1, 2023, Russia has been issuing unified electronic visas for foreign citizens. This is a simple and convenient tool that grants the right to stay anywhere in Russia for private or business visits, tourism, or participation in scientific, cultural, socio-political, economic, and sporting…
Seven climbers have died on Mount Elbrus in the past week. Five were from Bosnia and Herzegovina, two from Russia. Sergey Romashkin, Vice President of ATOR (Association of Tour Operators of Russia), points to one common factor. "In all three cases, teams went without guides at all," he said. "They…
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree extending the visa-free entry for Chinese tourists until December 31, 2027 — a move that could boost arrivals by 25–33% by the end of 2026, according to Maya Lomidze, executive director of the Association of Tour Operators.…
In 2025, Russia issued 821,262 unified electronic visas (here is the article how to obtain it), according to the Consular Department of the Foreign Ministry. These numbers are given in the
Russia plans to welcome 200,000 tourists from Saudi Arabia by the end of 2026. A new visa-free mechanism is expected to significantly boost mutual travel flows.
“By analogy with other visa-free regimes, we see that such a step can increase tourist flow by…
Starting September 15, 2025, China introduced a trial visa-free regime for Russian citizens.
In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree granting visa-free entry to Russia for Chinese citizens. They will now be able to enter the country visa-free for 30 days until September…
Russia currently has four gambling zones: «Sibirskaya Moneta» in the Altai Krai, «Primorye» in the Primorsky Krai, «Yantarnaya» 50 km from Kaliningrad and «Krasnaya Polyana» in Sochi. From January to November 2025, they welcomed over 1.7 million guests. During the same period in 2024, they welcomed…
In 2028, in the heart of the Russian Arctic, above the Arctic Circle, a landmark event for the entire tourism world will take place: the opening of the first polar ski resort Ray-Iz.
This ambitious project is being implemented by the Government of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug (YaNAO)…
After visiting Moscow and St. Petersburg, tourists from the Persian Gulf countries are increasingly visiting the mountain resorts of Sochi.
Tour operators note that tourists from the UAE and Bahrain are the most frequent visitors to Sochi, with an increasing number of tourists from Kuwait,…
Most of the visitors came from China, India, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Cuba. This increase in international tourism has a significant impact on the economy of the city.
During the first six months of this year, there were 500,000 more tourists from…
After a powerful earthquake off the coast of Kamchatka on July 30, 2025, the resulting tsunami quickly spread from the epicenter across the Pacific Ocean. Problems also affected air traffic between the continental United States and Hawaii. Several planes heading to Honolulu were forced to return.…
Currently, the Ministry of Economic Development together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, is working on innovations for visiting Russia by foreign citizens with an electronic visa.
According to the Border Service of the Russian Federation, in the first quarter of 2025, 228851 foreigners visited Russia for tourism purposes. This is 4.62% more than in the first quarter of 2024 (218,750 people), but almost 2 times less than before the pandemic (almost 470 thousand tourists in the…
Tour Operator Anex in Uzbekistan has started incoming business. The tour operator announced the opening of a reception office in Uzbekistan under the Anex brand. From this moment, Anex offers range of tours in the most popular cities of Uzbekistan, from Tashkent to Khiva.
The financial development institution DOM.RF is working on this project together with the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RUTI) with the support of the Ministry of Economic Development.
The criteria of the standard will focus on environmental, social and economic aspects, and it will become…
This was reported by Yulia Maksutova, Deputy Director General of the Center for Strategic Research (CSR).
For many African countries, tourism is a rapidly growing sector of the economy. At the same time, there is a demand among African tourists for travel around Russia, especially for educational…
The Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) in cooperation with the Polar Travel Club plan to promote the tourism potential of the Arctic regions of the Russian Federation in foreign markets as part of the Year of Arctic Tourism project. This was announced by ATOR Executive Director Maya Lomidze…
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