Russian tourists shifted from Spain to Turkey

Russian tourists have replaced Spain with Turkey, as a result of which the Кingdom lost almost €2 billion in 2022. As the Russian Ambassador to Madrid Yuri Klimenko explained, such losses occurred due to the fact that Russian tourists - and practically all the tourists - changed Spain to Turkey due to the sanctions.

“Our tourists have almost entirely left Spain for Turkey, Egypt, and Thailand. By introducing unprecedented anti-Russian sanctions, our European partners essentially shot themselves in the foot,” the diplomat said.

He recalled that in pre-pandemic 2019, 1,3 million Russian tourists arrived in the country - and before the crises, in the record year of 2013 there were 1,6 million. At the same time, last year only 268 thousand Russians visited Spain.

This year the number of tourists has increased slightly - 155 thousand Russians visited the country over the first six months.

“The closure of direct flights, the tightening of visa policy, and restrictions in the provision of banking services undoubtedly served as a deterrent for tourist flows from Russia,” the ambassador stressed.

He also noted that, according to Spanish statistics, tourists from Russia spent an average of €200 per day per person per trip. “Through simple arithmetic, we find that in 2022 the Spanish tourism industry missed over €1,8 billion of potential income from tourists from Russia,” Mr. Klimenko estimated.