In the summer of 2023, the organized outbound tourist flow from Russia increased by 15% compared to the same period in 2022.

The list of Southeast Asian destinations in demand among Russians for the upcoming high season is undergoing changes compared to last year. Thailand remains unshakably at the top of the top list, showing growth. But other leading countries' positions in the sales rankings are changing.

50% of Russians plan to travel in the regions of the Russian Federation during the New Year holidays, and 30% will go to Moscow and St. Petersburg. Another 15% choose warm countries for their New Year's holiday, such as Thailand, the UAE, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives.

The government has submitted to the State Duma a draft law on the suspension of a number of provisions of international treaties of the Russian Federation on simplifying the issuance of visas to citizens from a number of countries.

Host tour operators noted a surge of interest from Chinese tourists in traveling to Russia during the just completed “golden week”. Primorye is gradually returning to pre-pandemic indicators of incoming tourist flows. From January to June, the region received more than 1,1 million tourists, which is 13% more than in the same period last year.

Tour operators are recording an increase of demand for weekends in November. According to the estimates of tour operators, the demand for holiday weekend tours in November increased by 10-15% compared to last year.

A complete list of foreign airlines flying to Russia, as well as using Russian airspace, was presented by experts. Trends are as follows: there are only four European carriers, mostly Asia flies to and over Russia, primarily China and the Middle East.

Russians began to visit foreign countries for summer holidays more actively. From June 1 to August 30, the flow of Russian tourists traveling abroad increased by 17% compared to the same period in 2022.

Demand for sightseeing trips to Europe in the autumn increased by 10-15% compared to the same period last year, because tourists adapted to the new conditions and think over the trip in advance.

In September, Russian tourists rushed to unexpected foreign places, and among the rapidly growing destinations where demand has jumped at times are Southeast Asia and Europe, primarily Italy.

Most often in 2023, business travelers from Russia apply for visas to China. Moreover, the share of visas issued to the country amounted to 38% and turned out to be higher than the number of visas to all Schengen countries combined.

Despite the existing difficulties, including the abolition of visa facilitation, the demand for Russian tourists on European destinations in the first half of this year increased compared to 2022.

The demand for holidays has grown most strongly for Seoul (South Korea), where Russians book hotels 7,5 times more often than in August last year. Rimini (Italy) is in the next place in terms of demand growth - a 4-fold increase is noted there. Bangkok (Thailand) closes the top three with a 3,5-fold increase in popularity.

In the first half of the year, Turkey became the most visited country by Russians with 2,6 million tourists, which is 3,5% below the pre-pandemic level. In the second place is the United Arab Emirates - 800 thousand tourists from Russia went there, and 554 thousand of them flew to Dubai.

According to the results of the first six months of 2023, the inbound tourist flow to Russia from abroad increased by 100 thousand trips of foreigners compared to the same period last year. For 6 months of 2023, 187,8 thousand foreigners visited Russia for tourism purposes.

Outbound tourism in the first half of the year grew by 15%, according to the results of the year. About 10 million Russians have made holidays outside Russia.

The abolition of visas for foreign citizens, as well as the solution of the issue with the use of bank cards in Russia, will significantly increase the inbound tourist flow.

Without obtaining a visa, Russian tourists can now visit 115 countries, according to the new Passport Index for the third quarter of 2023. On this indicator, Russia is in the 49 place in the world.

The cancellation by the EU countries of the visa facilitation agreement with Russia in 2022, including an increase of the visa fee for Russian applicants from 35 to 80 Euros, in fact did not have a significant impact on discouraging Russians from relaxing in Spain.

A single electronic visa should work in Russia from July 15. ccording to experts, the program e-visa will greatly simplify travel to Russia. Importantly, e-visas will open access not only to group, but also to individual trips.

Among foreign destinations to travel in autumn, the most popular cities are Istanbul, Antalya, Yerevan, London, Minsk, Gagra, Tel Aviv, Almaty, Alanya and Dubai.

In 2023, on average, tourist make holidays about 7-11 nights. At the same time, all the “sanctions” problems affected the vacation in terms of expanding its duration, since the difficult and expensive logistics made the “weekend tours” meaningless.

According to a preliminary forecast for the three summer months, the total volume of trips to the popular tourist destinations could be about 5 million, which is 42% more than in the summer of 2022.

Large losses of tourists can be felt in Russia itself. According to ATOR, the number of foreign travelers in Russia in 2022 decreased by 96,1% compared to pre-Covid figures. The Russian government is actively supporting the development of incoming tourism and is making efforts to attract foreign tourists.

The Spanish authorities continue to be the leader in issuing Schengen visas in Russia, as recently published statistics show. In 2022, a quarter of all documents issued to Russian were Spanish: 154 450 visas out of 603 955.