NOVO-OGARYOVO, April 21. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin during a videoconference with Primorsky Region’s Governor Oleg Kozhemyako welcomed the idea to discuss measures to boost the domestic tourism industry once the coronavirus pandemic was over.

"We have plans to support this industry, so we will discuss this," the head of state said after the regional governor had emphasized the need to provide additional support to the tourism industry. Kozhemyako pointed out that the tourism industry was growing in the region and the tourist inflow was increasing as new flights to Japan and South Korea had been launched a while ago and various tourism projects were implemented.

The governor noted that given the current situation, Russians would not travel overseas for vacation so it was important to provide them with opportunities to travel around their own country.

Coronavirus pandemic

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus — named COVID-19 by the WHO — have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 2,484,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 170,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 652,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.

To date, a total of 52,763 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 3,873 patients having recovered from the virus. Russia’s latest data indicates 456 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public updated on the coronavirus situation.