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International tourist flow from Russia to decline by at least 30% in 2022

Maya Lomidze noted that at the moment, demand reacts very quickly to external factors

MOSCOW, October 15. /TASS/. International tourist flow from Russia will decrease in 2022 by at least 30% year-on-year, while the domestic tourist flow will remain at the level of last year in an optimistic scenario, Executive Director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) Maya Lomidze told reporters.

"I think that, under the most optimistic scenario, [the data for] the domestic market will be on par with last year, and that for the international market, the best-case scenario is a decline of 30%. According to the pessimistic forecast, the international figure would be at least minus 40-50%, and the domestic market's decline in demand would be about 10%," she said.

Lomidze noted that at the moment, demand reacts very quickly to external factors. As a result, the market's average demand for foreign travel has already decreased by almost 30%, while demand for domestic travel rose by 10%.

"But I would like to remind you that last fall we had COVID and a low base, restrictions were introduced in the Krasnodar region in the summer. This year, fall cashback program supported sales. Thus, according on our estimations, the overall increase for domestic destinations has now reached 10%. However, the growth isn't as high as it could be - it could have been over 20% year-on-year," she added.

Earlier, former head of the Federal Tourism Agency Zarina Doguzova said that the tourist flow in Russia in 2022 will reach 61 mln people. Later, the office of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko reported that the tourist flow in Russia in 2022 would amount to at least 58 mln trips. Following the summer season, around 41 mln tourist trips were made in the country.

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