As of March 16, Association of tour operators of Russia announced that they evacuated from the UAE to Russia all the tourists the who had purchased package tours.

According to experts from the Russian Union of Travel Industry (RUTI), there have been no mass cancellations of tours to the Middle East for distant dates yet, although tourists are wondering whether they are obliged to do so following the Russian Ministry of Economic Development's travel advisory.

The situation in the Middle East remains tense, but the repatriation of tourists to Russia is in full swing. On March 2 and 3, nearly 3,000 Russians left the Persian Gulf countries.

Due to the escalating conflict in the Middle East, several Gulf countries have completely closed their airspace or imposed temporary overflight restrictions.

According to aggregated data from leading tour operators, the UAE, Thailand, Egypt, Vietnam and Sri Lanka are among the TOP-5 most booked foreign destinations for the New Year holidays.

After visiting Moscow and St. Petersburg, tourists from the Persian Gulf countries are increasingly visiting the mountain resorts of Sochi.

Most of the visitors came from China, India, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Cuba. This increase in international tourism has a significant impact on the economy of the city.

The Russian Ministry of Transport expects that by the end of 2025, the volume of passenger air traffic between Russia and the United Arab Emirates will be a record.

From June 16 to 22, sales of tours to the UAE fell by more than 30%, to Egypt - by 9%. The outflow of Russian travelers due to the aggravation of the situation in the Middle East was felt by other countries in the region and long-haul destinations, for trips to which the UAE served as a hub. The situation may worsen even more with the restriction of flights to Qatar and Kuwait, travelers are already starting to look for alternative routes for themselves.

According to preliminary forecasts by ATOR analysts, this summer the volume of outbound tourist flow to popular foreign tourist destinations will grow by 24.8% year-on-year.

From April 28 to May 1, the Arabian Travel Market international tourism exhibition was held in Dubai, which once again confirmed its status as the main event in the tourism industry

According to the Border Service of the Russian Federation, in the first quarter of 2025, 228851 foreigners visited Russia for tourism purposes.

On April 11, 2025, an oil spill occurred in the Emirate of Fujairah (UAE) in the port area, located just a few kilometers from the hotel zone.

Almost 2 million Russian tourists visited the United Arab Emirates in 2024, in turn, more than 67 thousand tourists from the UAE visited Russia.

Vladimir Putin and President of the United Arab Emirates Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan took part in the opening of the International Cooperation Center with the UAE in the Field of education at the Primakov Gymnasium in the Moscow region.

Visitors tasted Arabic treats, enjoyed fashion shows and got acquainted with various crafts during 5 days of UAE culture days.

According to the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) the shelling of Israel by Iran on April 13-14 had only a slight impact on tour demand to popular Middle Eastern and North African destinations.

The first ever Russian-Arab camel expedition has ended in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It was attended by traveler Fyodor Konyukhov and team. This is stated on Konyukhov's official website.

Russian travelers made 14 million trips in 2023 ( with the exception of post-Soviet countries).

Compared to December, February shows a sharp increase in the share of tour sales to the UAE. The share of Egypt is growing, the share of sales of Russia and Thailand is stable.

The tourist flow to St. Petersburg by the end of 2023 could amount to 9,4 million people, of which 574 thousand are foreigners. Thus, the increase in the share of foreign tourists will be 68% compared to 2022. Among non-CIS countries in terms of the number of trips to St. Petersburg, the TOP-5 includes China, Iran, Turkey, India and the UAE.

Turkey will account for a third of all Fun&Sun sales in 2024. In the second and third places in the list of the company’s key destinations are Egypt and the UAE.