Taras Fomchenkov
for EcoToutism Expert 
The Border Service of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation released their data on the arrivals of foreigners in Russia in the first quarter of 2023. Based on the data, 67,700 people visited Russia for tourism. It is worth noting that this shows a revival of interest in travelling to Russia - the number of tourists is 10,000 more than in the first quarter of 2022. However, there is also a possibility for more arrivals, since by 7 times more foreign tourists visited our country in January-March 2019.
Where were the travellers from who chose going to Russia in the first three months of 2023? For the first time since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, China joined the top countries whose citizens started travelling to Russia again. However, China ranks second so far with 6,200 Chinese tourists who arrived in Russia.
The fact is that the so-called ’group visa-free travelling’ - which is the arrival of tourist groups according to the lists submitted by tour operators - has not yet been resumed. It is worth noting that the tourism market expected this opportunity to reopen back in May, but so far, it is unlikely that it will start even in the summer of 2023, according to tourism industry experts.
In addition, the tourist flows from Turkey, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and some border countries have grown.
As for the number of tourist trips, the travellers from Turkey took first place with 10,100 people who visited Russia. Interestingly, Germany ranks third; although political contacts between Moscow and Berlin are at a very low level, the capital of Russia still remains a travel destination among the Germans, and from January to March, 5,100 German tourists visited Russia. However, it should be mentioned that this number of tourists is 1,500 less compared to 2022.
The TOP-5 main countries whose citizens made their journeys to Russia in the first quarter of 2023 include Turkmenistan (4,700 tourists) and Kyrgyzstan (4,500 tourists). Both countries increased their tourist flows by 4,000 travellers compared to the same period last year, although tour operators say that these visits are not purely tourism trips.
But the tourist flow from Poland in the first quarter of 2023 was almost equal to that in the same period in 2021. By the way, as for the number of tourists who visited Russia in the first three months of 2023, Poland ranks below Germany and is the last European country to be in the TOP-10.
Interestingly, the tourist flows from such border countries as Latvia (1,500 tourists), Estonia (700) and Lithuania (568) have grown. And the countries like Iran (2,000 tourists), Kazakhstan (1,900) and Vietnam (1,800) are the last in the TOP-10 main countries whose citizens travel to Russia. As for Iran, the tourist flow from this country has doubled compared to the first quarter of 2022.
But the tourist flows from a number of other countries have decreased even when compared to the first quarter of 2022. So, the number of arrivals of tourists from India and the United Arab Emirates became 1,000 people less (1,400 and 1,200, respectively). 1,250 people came from South Korea in the first three months of 2023 to visit the Russia’s attractions, which is only 100 tourists less than in the same period last year.
It is worth mentioning that the tour operators hope that tourists will arrive from Asian countries as well as from such countries like United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. However, one must understand that if these tourist flows can become great it will happen in a fairly distant future. And they are unlikely to compensate for the losses from the decreasing European markets that were key ones for Russia.
In total, 3.3 million citizens of other countries visited Russia in the first three months of 2023 for various purposes, not only for tourism. On the one hand, this figure is almost two times less than that for the same period in 2021, but it is by 500,000 more than the number of tourist arrivals recorded last year.
As for the number of foreigners who arrived in Russia in the first quarter of 2023, the first seven lines are held by the countries of the former USSR. Thus, 818,000 people arrived from Uzbekistan to Russia, 604,500 from Kazakhstan, and 516,400 from Tajikistan. 244,200 citizens arrived in Russia from Kyrgyzstan, 172,900 from Abkhazia, 125,900 from Armenia, and 95,000 from Azerbaijan. It should be noted that the number of visits by citizens of these states has doubled compared to a year ago.
And the TOP-10 is closed by the Republic of Belarus (67,100 visits) and Ukraine (55,500). Belarus improved last year’s result by 15,000 visits, and there were almost 14 times less tourist arrivals from Ukraine.
As for the general prospects for inbound tourist flow to Russia in 2023, Dmitry Vakhrukov, Deputy Minister of Economic Development, expressed his expert opinion on this issue on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. The official forecasted, “We expect that the total figures for inbound tourist flow will be exceeded. In 2022, about 8 million people arrived in Russia, about 3 million of which were accommodated in hotels. I think that we will exceed a 10-million level of arrivals. And according to optimistic estimates, we will see 3.5 to 4 million foreign visitors accommodated in hotels all over Russia on the whole.”
By the way, as for the outbound tourism, the gratitude of the Russians to Turkish tourists is worth mentioning. While Turkey is the leader in the number of tourists visiting Russia, this country ranks first among the countries where the Russians like to go on vacations. In the first three months of 2023, the Russians made 653,400 tourist trips to Turkey, which is up 76.1 percent year-on-year and up 81.2 percent compared to the same period of 2019.
And this is not the results of the summer vacation season yet!
