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Overseas trips by Russian travelers ticked up sharply in 1H 2023 — trade association

Turkey, the UAE, Thailand, Egypt, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, India and Cuba accounted for more than 70% of the incremental growth in annual terms

MOSCOW, August 4. /TASS/. Outbound cross-border travel by Russians for all purposes rose 37.9% year on year to 11.7 mln trips, the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) reports, citing border patrol data.

The Russian Border Guard Service registered 11,657,299 trips abroad by Russians for all purposes. "This figure is 37.9% above the like period in 2022 (8,453,846). However, it is 45% lower than in the first six months of 2019, a record-breaking year for outbound tourism (when 21,212,095 trips were recorded)," ATOR said.

Turkey, the UAE, Thailand, Egypt, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, India and Cuba accounted for more than 70% of the incremental growth in annual terms. Departures to these countries in January-June 2023 soared by 88% year or year and reached 4.58 mln trips, ATOR noted.

The number of trips to China surged by 3.6 times year on year to reach 278,900 in the first half of this year.

Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan accounted for the remaining incremental growth in 1H 2023, with 3.2 mln trips by Russian nationals made to these destination countries.

Meanwhile, travel to Europe plummeted by 23.5% annually in the first half of 2023 to 0.9 mln trips, ATOR reported.

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