MOSCOW, November 7. /TASS/. The number of tourist trips made by Russians abroad climbed by 50.2% in January-September 2023 year-on-year to 7.06 mln visits, the press service of the Russian Tourist Industry Union reported, citing figures provided by the border service of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).

"Russian citizens made 7.06 mln trips abroad for tourism purposes from January to September, which is a 50.2-fold increase compared with the same period in 2022 (4.7 mln), but a two-fold decrease compared with the pre-pandemic 2019 (14.2 mln)," the report said.

Top three destinations did not change compared with 2022, those being Turkey (3.4 mln visits), the UAE (922,600), and Egypt (739,200). All those countries accepted much more Russian tourists than in the previous year - by 24%, 68%, and 50.7%, respectively. There were changes among other top ten countries as Thailand and China returned to leading destinations, with 519,700 and 135,900 visits, respectively, while the Maldives and Servia were no longer on the list.

Four CIS countries rated last year, among them Armenia (335,900), Uzbekistan (121,900), Azerbaijan (116,900), and Kazakhstan (113,300), maintained their positions, while Kyrgyzstan went down to the 13th spot. Cuba with 93,900 visits was among top ten destinations for the first time in the period. Trips to Sri Lanka, India, Oman and Bahrein were also highly demanded, the Union said.