Since the start of the “Special Military Operation” in late February 2022, Europe and Russia have tightened restrictions on intra-regional travel. Long before that, it was the coronavirus pandemic that restricted travel and tourism for two years. Currently, the situation in the travel and tourism business remains difficult due to changes in visa regulations in the United States and Europe, which is why Russian tourists are mainly heading to popular destinations in Asia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s long speech at the opening ceremony of the Russia-China Expo and the 4th Russia-China Regional Cooperation Forum increasingly expressed confidence in the further strengthening of the Russia-China strategic alliance. President Putin’s official business trip on May 16-17 strengthened ties and further increased the likelihood that Chinese nationals will travel to Russia.
Along the same lines, President Xi Jinping has encouraged more Chinese business owners and potential tourists to visit more frequently to strengthen business contacts and people-to-people exchanges.
Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov said that the Russian Ministry of Economic Development expects mutual traffic between Russia and China to increase to 2 million people in 2024.
“Last year, there were more than 1.2 million mutual trips between Russia and China. China leads the way among countries outside the CIS in terms of the number of inbound tourists to Russia. This year’s goal is 2 million mutual trips. “In order to achieve this, we are offering comfortable conditions, including for payment of services and goods in Russia,” the ministry’s press office said, referring to the president, who is visiting China as part of a delegation led by President Vladimir Putin. Reshetnikov’s remarks were reported.
The Association of Russian Travel Agents (ATOR) also noted in its quarterly report that the number of foreign tourists visiting Russia in the first quarter of 2024 tripled compared to the same period last year, with half of those tourists mainly coming from China. He pointed out that he was a tourist. In the first quarter of 2024, nearly 100,000 Chinese people entered Russia as tourists, accounting for about half of all inbound tourism to Russia during this period.
It is noteworthy that Russia is resolutely seeking ways to recover from the downturn in tourism and hospitality. The industry (both inbound and outbound) has been in the doldrums in recent years and is still plagued by various underperformances. “Most of the Chinese nationals who visited Russia in the first half of last year were business tourists. The number of Chinese tourists visiting Russia for leisure trips increased from the end of last year to the first quarter of 2024,” ATOR said. Stated.
According to statistical data from the European Commission (EC), Russian nationals applied for Schengen visas in 2023 for a total of 520,000 applications, a decrease of 24% from 2022 (687,000 applications), with 448,800 applicants. A visa was issued to a person. More than 54,000 applications were rejected.
Europe and America were more or less shut down. Nevertheless, the Russian government continues to work on developing the domestic tourism industry so that people can travel comfortably and happily in their homeland. And from a practical point of view, governments have to play the biggest role here, primarily by adopting new flexible policies where international destinations are desired.
In general, Russians made 5.3 million trips abroad in the first quarter of 2024, an increase of almost 9% from 2023. However, Russian tourism experts say potential Russian travelers are now more interested in inbound tourism. Although travel to Europe has decreased significantly, demand for the Asian region, particularly China, is increasing.
In short, Russian tourism, both inbound and outbound, has been severely affected by the war crisis and rapid global changes. The number of European and Western tourists has significantly decreased in the Russian Federation. The most popular international destinations are Abkhazia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan within the former Soviet Union countries. However, interesting overseas destinations are China, Turkey, Thailand, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Cuba, Maldives, India, Qatar, Serbia, Oman, Seychelles and Mauritius.
