At the moment, 47 countries are ready to receive Russian tourists. This is half of the complete list of countries that are more or less attractive for tourism. The list does not include a number of states in Africa, the Caribbean and Oceania, which are ready to receive tourists - due to the very low popularity of these tourist destinations in the Russian market and inconvenient logistics to these resorts.
Of these 47 destinations, only 16 are actually opened for Russian tourists under certain conditions.
What are these countries? As of May 26, these are: Abkhazia, Armenia, Belarus, Venezuela, Greece, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Cuba, Maldives, United Arab Emirates, Seychelles, Serbia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ethiopia and Mexico.
With three more countries (ready to receive Russians) air traffic was opened in 2020 and early 2021, but then closed or limited by the decision of the Russian authorities. The ban on flights with Great Britain and Tanzania is still valid until June 1, inclusive.
Air traffic with Turkey is not officially closed completely, but is limited until June 1 by regular flights to Istanbul: two flights a week from each of the national carriers (Aeroflot and Turkish Airlines). Only by these flights tourists can fly to Turkey - but at high prices.
Air traffic with Turkey, according to the latest data, may presumably open or expand from mid-June. But it is not exactly.
From the list of 16 currently opened countries, only Abkhazia, the United Arab Emirates (with restrictions, no charters), Greece (2 regular flights to Athens), Egypt (no direct flights to the Red Sea resorts) and Cuba are popular tourist destinations among Russians.
The Maldives are also approaching to the level of popular destinations in terms of tourist flow. The country showed an increase of 139% in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the pre-pandemic 2019.
