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Foreign tourist traffic to Russia declining in H1 2023 – association

Outbound tourist flow for this period increased by 15%

MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/. The inbound tourist traffic to Russia dropped by 7.7% year on year in the first half of 2023, President of the Russian Union of Tourist Industry Ilya Umansky said at a press conference in TASS.

"We obviously will not deliver figures before the pandemic. Furthermore, we will even drop below last-year indicators in this year. We are now 7.7% lower in terms of foreigners’ trips to Russia," Umansky said.

A number of measures is needed to restore the inbound tourist traffic, he noted. Among the most important is the launch of electronic visas and a payment card for foreign tourists and the start of visa-free tourist group exchanges with China, Umansky said.

The outbound tourist traffic from Russia surged by 15% year on year in the first half of 2023, the expert said. It may reach about 10 mln trips as of the year-end, he added.

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