The Russian tourist flow to the UK almost reached pre-crisis levels

In 2012 Britain, according to the Office of National Statistics of the Government of United Kingdom, was visited by 227 thousand Russians, in 2013 - 191 thousand, the peak was in 2014 - 227 thousand arrivals from Russia. Then the recession began in 2015 - 139 thousand arrivals of the citizens of Russian Federation were registered, in 2016 - 132 thousand. The indicators of the Russian market are in the open statistics of VisitBritain and only for the first 6 months of 2017. But these indicators do not give a complete picture for all the year. However the trend which is noted in the first half of the year (+ 53.11%, 133 thousand arrivals of Russian citizens), indicates that the Russian tourist traffic in 2017 demonstrated an excellent dynamics. In fact, during the first half of the last year almost as many tourists from the Russian Federation arrived in the UK as for the entire 2016 year. The market experts say, if the trend persists in the second half of 2017, by the end of 2017 Russia is likely will show indicators of 2013 or even better. According to the estimates of tour operators, Russians most often go to UK for sightseeing trips, and not only to London, but also to other regions. As for the bookings for 2018, the depth of sales reached May holidays.