Russia’s Popularity with China Tourists on the Rise

During the first three quarters of 2013 almost 24 million foreign citizens entered Russia, including 2.3 million of tourists. The number of tourists in relation to the same period of 2012 increased by 6%. During the recent five years the share of tourists in the total number of incoming foreign citizens amounted to 9-10%.

While among the total number of foreign citizens coming to Russia the dominant share is citizens from the nearest countries: Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan (10.7 million during January-September of 2013, which amounted to 45% of the total number), the share of representatives of European countries, South-East Asia and North America among tourists is the largest.

Schedule 1. Structure of foreign tourists’ entry to Russia in Quarters 1-3 of 2013, %

Source: Federal Agency for Tourism

The share of European countries in January-September of 2013 amounted to 51% of the total number of tourists. Another 19% was from Asian countries, 14% of which were from China, the shares of Japan and Korea made up 2% each. Tourists from North and South America countries made up 12% of the total number.

In total, during the first three quarters of 2013 Russia was visited by about 1.2 million tourists from Europe. Taking into account the fact that the total number of European tourists as early as 2012 exceeded 250 million (with no special account for private visits), Russia is not one of the most popular directions for tourism. Moreover, in 2013 the flow of tourists from many European countries (first of all, Scandinavian ones) decreased, comparing to the same period of the previous year: from Norway by 26%, from Sweden by 24%, from Finland by 23%, from Croatia by 19%, from Latvia by 11%. The total reduction of the number of tourists from the far-abroad countries made up 40.7 thousand people, including 22.7 thousand tourists from Finland.

In 2013 the flow of tourists from Cuba significantly increased in relative terms (+119%, while in absolute terms the growth amounted to only 2.1 thousand people), as well as from Romania (+30%, or 1.6 thousand people), Egypt (+29%, or 862 people), Japan (+28%, or 10.3 thousand people).

In absolute terms the number of tourists from China increased significantly (50.2 thousand people), like that from Great Britain (19 thousand people), USA (17.1 thousand people), Turkey (+13.2 thousand people). One should note that in 2012 the number of tourists from China increased by as much as 47%.

For more information, please, see “Russian and World Market of Tourism” by Intesco Research Group.

The given figures were calculated by analysts of Intesco Research Group based on official statistics.