Reduce of tourist flow from Russia in 2015 was the biggest in 18 years

Foreign travel for tourism purposes in 2015 decreased by 31.3%, to 12.1 million tourist trips. This is the most serious fall since 1998, the press secretary of the Russian Union of Travel Industry Irina Turina said with reference to the data of Russian Statistics Service. Until the last year, the biggest decline in tourism from Russia was in crisis of 1998, minus 24.4%. Negative dynamics was also observed in 2014 - by 4%, in 2009 - by 15.5%, in 2001 - by 6.5%, and in 1999 - by 15.6%. In other words, the fall in 2015 was the most significant in the past 18 years", she said. According to the Russian Union of Travel, the past year was the most difficult in the history of tourism business in Russia. "Since the early 90-ies, the segment of the foreign travel only grew, and in 2015 dramatically fall down. Tour operators had significantly to reduce the volume of business, from the flight programs to the office area and the number of employees,» Irina Tyurina added. According to her, Turkey and Egypt, closed for the Russians since November of the last year, still kept the top two positions in the ranking of the most popular destinations, and lost less of Russian tourists than many other countries. Turkey has lost 19% (in 2014 it was + 6%), Egypt - 28% (+ 34% in 2014). Among the countries most affected by the fall of the Russian tourist traffic are Indonesia (-96.6%), Tunisia (-83%), Dominican Republic (-82.5%), Mexico (-66.5%), Morocco (-64, 4%), Hong Kong (-46%), Thailand (-46%), China (-45.5%), India (-43.7%), the Maldives (-43.7%), and Cuba (-43% ). Among the European countries the greatest decrease the following destinations had: Greece (-48%) moved up from the third to the fifth place in the top ten. Negative dynamics was also demonstrated by Bulgaria, Spain and Croatia, minus 41% on each destination. Also in the top ten of European countries, who have lost most of tourists from Russia, are Malta (-41.6%), Portugal (-40.4%), Czech Republic (-36%), Italy (-35.6%), Sweden (-38%), and Austria (-37.6%). "Among the countries where the decline was less marked, are Vietnam, which has lost only 5%; in Europe the most stable position has Montenegro, which lost only 7% of the Russian tourist flow probably because it only has visa-free regime on the Mediterranean coast," Tyurina added.