Chinese tourism to Russia – Russia has received seven times as many Chinese visitors as it did last year, with total tourism traffic tripling since the beginning of the year, the RBK news agency reported on Friday, citing data from the Federal Security Service (FSB). storie news
According to the FSB, the number of trips made by foreign citizens to Russia in January-September 2024 amounted to about 13 million, an increase of 11% compared to the same period last year. This is an increase of 1.3 million trips compared to the same period last year.
Chinese tourism to Russia
During that period, the number of tourist trips to Russia tripled to 1.2 million, compared to 429,100 trips in the same period in 2023, according to FSB statistics.
The data also reflects increased demand from Chinese tourists, who made 731,800 trips from January to September — almost seven times the number in the same period last year, when 105,800 trips were made.
Analysts noted that although Chinese demand for trips to Russia has grown, it is still far from recovering to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, when 1.2 million Chinese tourists visited Russia in three quarters.
Chinese tourism to Russia
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of foreign tourists to Russia came from China, including more than 80% as part of tourist groups under the visa-free agreement.
The increase in tourist flow from China was due to the easing of visa rules between the two countries and the launch of online visa services, RBK quoted Daria Domostroyeva, PR manager of Intourist travel agency, as saying. Currently, travelers from the Asian country make up 65% of all tourist traffic from abroad.
There are no longer a large number of flights between Russia and the EU countries due to Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine. As a result, the country’s tourism industry has shifted its focus to Asia and the Middle East.
The researchers also highlighted the growing interest in visiting Russia from other destinations such as Iran, Turkey, the UAE and India. Russia also saw a nearly twelve-fold increase in the number of tourists coming from Saudi Arabia, with 39,100 arriving in Russia in the first nine months of the year compared to just 3,300 in the same period last year.