Based on the results of three quarters of 2023, Russia received 10 times fewer tourists than in the same period of pre-pandemic 2019, according to data from the Border Service of the Russian Federation. China has become the main supplier of tourists.
In the second place in terms of tourist flow over the period from January to September was Germany (42,1 thousand visits). At the end of the first half of the year, the country occupied the third place. Before the pandemic, Germany was one of the main suppliers of tourists to Russia. For comparison, over 9 months of 2019, German citizens made 464,6 thousand visits to Russia for the purpose of tourism.
This year, almost all visits from Germany, as well as from other European countries, are of a business nature. There are no classic tourists from Germany due to geopolitical tensions, lack of flights, and the complexity of financial settlements.
The TOP 10 countries by the number of tourist visits to Russia based on the results of three quarters of 2023 also includes Turkey (33,7 thousand), Iran (25,6 thousand), Turkmenistan (23,6 thousand), UAE (20,5 thousand), Kazakhstan (12,6 thousand), India (10 thousand), Latvia (9,7 thousand) and Uzbekistan (9 thousand).
The classic tourists from these countries, according to tour operators, came only from Turkey, Iran, the UAE and India.
The flow of tourists from Turkey, according to statistics, has almost reached pre-pandemic levels - in the period from January to September 2019, Turkish citizens made 39,5 thousand visits to Russia for the purpose of tourism. The flow of tourists from Iran has also almost reached pre-pandemic levels (25,8 thousand visits over 9 months of 2019).
