Tourism to Russia Now Lower Than Pre-Pandemic Levels

Foreign tourism to Russia dropped below 4% as international condemnation for its invasion of Ukraine.

According to the Association of Tour Operators of Russia, foreign tourism to Russia dropped below 4% in 2022 after the country was subjected international condemnation for its invasion of Ukraine.

According to ATOR's analysis of Federal Security Service (FSB), border service data, only 200,100 tourists visited Russia in the last year.

This represents a decrease of 96.1% from the 5.1million tourists who visited Russia in 2019, prior to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The reasons are clear: closed skies between Russia and the vast majority of European countries, as well as the inability to use foreign-issued Visa and Mastercard cards in Russia," ATOR said Wednesday.

The tourism numbers for last year also showed a decline from 288,300 visits in 2021 to 335,800 visits in 2020, which were the peak years of pandemic.

With 25,400, 22,600, and 14,600 visitors, Turkish, Iranian, and German tourists respectively, were the three most popular nationalities to visit Russia in 2022.

According to ATOR, only 842 Chinese tourists visited Russia 2022 because of strict Covid restrictions Beijing relaxed late last year.

The total number of Russian tourists to Russia in 2022 was 13.1 million. This is an increase over the previous two years, but down 20 million from 2019.

 

Source: breakingtravelnews.com