Outbound tourist flow from Russia remains 60% below the pre-pandemic level

In January-September 2021, the total number of trips abroad of Russian citizens amounted to 15 321 243, which is 58,9% less than in the same period in 2019. Almost the same reduction occurred on the popular massive foreign destinations.

In January-September 2021, Russians made 6 713 133 trips to “far abroad” countries that do not have common land borders with the Russian Federation. This is 62,5% less than in January-September 2019.

If we compare the aggregate tourist flow on the TOP-30 outbound massive tourist destinations for three quarters of the pre-pandemic year of 2019 and three quarters of 2021, then the drop will be -58,5%.

Among the countries, opened to tourists from the Russian Federation, Turkey became the undisputed leader of the outbound tourist flow from Russia, according to the results of three quarters of 2021. As for the Border Service of the Russian Federation, 3 600 759 trips were made this January-September. This is 38,6% less than in the same period in 2019.

In the second place is Cyprus with 448 736 trips of citizens of the Russian Federation. The fall in tourist traffic was -40% compared to the same period in 2019. In the third place is the UAE (374 018 trips, -39%), in the fourth - Egypt (272 323 trips, an increase of 1 182%, but direct flights were opened only in August), and in the fifth place is Greece (179 294 trips, -74,7%).

According to the Border Service of the Russian Federation, the TOP-10 most popular foreign countries among Russian tourists in January-September 2021 also includes the Maldives, Cuba, Tunisia, Tanzania, Serbia and Bulgaria. Serbia and Bulgaria share the 10-th place, as they showed approximately the same volume of tourist traffic - 78 and 75 thousand tourists.