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.

Russian tourists are increasingly interested in European tours, despite the cancellation of direct flights, price increases and the need of connections. The number of bookings of tours to Europe by Russian citizens has increased significantly compared to last year.

Russian travelers are looking for new holiday destinations instead of Europe, despite the fact that after the start of the special operation in Ukraine, the EU imposed restrictions on the travel of our tourists to the countries of the Old World, and some states even imposed a direct ban on the entry.

A multiple change in the demand of tourists for the summer was recorded by Russian tour operators. While prices are rising in Turkey, previously more expensive destinations, such as Thailand, Sri Lanka and even the Maldives, are beginning to “equal” with this destination. And Turkey continues to lose its positions due to inflated prices and problems with air transportation.

Turkey, Egypt and the UAE top the list of the most popular summer travel destinations for St. Petersburg tourists. Russia is the fourth.

After the start of a special military operation in Ukraine February 2022 many foreign companies announced their withdrawal from the Russian market after.

This year in May, a quarter more Russian tourists traveled abroad than during this period in 2022. The tourist flow to Asia has grown noticeably, but the CIS countries have received fewer travelers from Russia.

In the first quarter of 2023, almost 3,3 million foreigners visited Russia with all purposes, of which about 68 thousand for the purpose of tourism. This is follows from the statistics of Border Service of Russia.

Despite the difficulties in obtaining Schengen visas, Russian tour operators began to offer tours to the EU countries. However, the volume of demand for European holidays is only 15-20% of the level that was in the pre-pandemic 2019.

The market of group outbound tourism in 2023 will grow up to 20% compared to 2022. The planned growth is largely due to the low base effect (decrease of demand in the winter and spring of 2022), and the market is up now.

Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Egypt, and Thailand are among the top five in terms of early bookings. Sales volume has grown significantly compared to last year.

Citizens of the Russian Federation made 23,2 million foreign trips with all purposes in 2022, of which almost 7 million were tourist trips. The total number of trips abroad in 2022 increased by 2 million compared to the previous year. Turkey became the leader among all destinations.