Russian tourists most often traveled to Turkey, Thailand and China in the first half of the year

“The number of abroad trips of Russian citizens for the purpose of tourism grew by 56% in the first half of 2017 against the same period of the last year. The most popular destinations were Turkey, Thailand and China”, - reported the Press secretary of the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RCT) Irina Tyurina. "According to the results of the first half of the year, the border service of Russian Federation recorded 6.21 million trips abroad for the purpose of tourism. Almost all popular destinations showed growth, exception are Tunisia and Finland", - she added. According to the Border Guard Service, in the first half of the year the TOP 10 destinations for tourism includes Turkey - 1.2 million Russian tourists (an increase of 1750%), Thailand - 437 thousand (plus 18%), China - 406 thousand (plus 60%), Spain - 318 thousand (plus 19%), Italy - 314 thousand (plus 39%), Germany - 311 thousand (plus 36%), UAE - 289 thousand (plus 56%), Cyprus - 266 thousand (plus 8%), Greece - 245 thousand (plus 12%), Vietnam - 219 thousand (plus 43.5%). In the second TOP 10 are Czech Republic - 183 thousand (plus 57%), Bulgaria - 157 thousand (minus 3%), France - 154 thousand (plus 36%), Tunisia - 131 thousand (minus 25%), Israel - 118 thousand (plus 32%), Dominican Republic - 96 thousand (plus 76%), Montenegro - 89 thousand (plus 11%), India - 87 thousand (plus 28%), Austria - 84 thousand (plus 38% %), Switzerland - 81 thousand (plus 13%). According to the Federal State Statistics Service, the total number of abroad trips of Russians in the first half of the year amounted 17.1 million.