The most frequent visitors to the country were Chinese and Turks. Most of the trips were of a business nature.
The flow of tourists from abroad to Russia increased 2.3 times in the first half of this year compared to the same period of 2022. It amounted to 187.8 thousand people. This was reported by the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) with reference to the information of the border service of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.
In this half-year, 100 thousand more foreign tourists came to the country than in that year. Then 81.5 thousand people visited Russia. The growth for the year amounted to 130%. It is noted that this is much less than before the coronavirus pandemic. Russia in 2019 for the same period was visited by 2 million guests from abroad.
This year, Chinese tourists came to the country most often - 32.3 thousand visits. On the second position is Turkey. Its citizens made 20.6 thousand tourist visits to Russia. Most of them were of a business nature, as in the case of China.
Germany ranked third (12.5 thousand visits), followed by Turkmenistan (14.1 thousand visits) and Iran (9.3 thousand visits).
ATOR said that Iran has potential for inbound tourism to Russia. The tourist flow is expected to increase after the introduction of visa-free regime for tour groups.
Russia in the first half of the year was also visited by travelers from Kazakhstan (6.2 thousand visits), Poland (5.7 thousand), Kyrgyzstan (about 5.7 thousand), UAE (5 thousand).
It is reported that the UAE and India have potential for Russian tourism. Tour traffic from there is expected to grow. This is influenced by the political situation and the solution of the issue of cashless payment for services and goods in the Russian Federation.
Earlier it was reported that this summer Russians traveling by car, more often began to visit Chelyabinsk.