ER
BUSINESS newspaper RBK reported based on data from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) that the Red Bear Country is on the list of countries most visited by Chinese tourists in the last nine months of 2023.
According to statistical data, there were 429,100 foreign tourists who crossed Russia’s borders in January-September, of which 105,800 were tourists from the Bamboo Curtain Country.
The figure represents an increase compared to the same period late last year, when only 563 tourists from China came to Russia as the COVID-19 pandemic and imposed restrictions hampered it around the world.
Since the beginning of 2000 until the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, tourists from China have become the largest tourist arrivals for Russia. This increase in tourist visits is due to the impact of the implementation of visa exemptions implemented by both countries.
However, this visa freedom was hampered during the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only that, tourists from China are also at the top in terms of shopping compared to other foreign tourists visiting Russia.
The visa-free program for both countries has now been implemented again, plus e-visa services. This increase in tourist visits from China occurred in the first nine months of 2023. Head of the World Without Borders Association, Aleksandr Lvov, said that more than half of foreign tourists visiting Russia with e-visas were tourists from China.
Overall, the number of foreign tourists vacationing in Russia during the first nine months of 2023 recorded a three-fold increase as a result of the lifting of travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. [source/special photo]
