MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/. Spending by foreign tourists in Russia in the first three quarters of 2023 doubled in comparison with the same period in pre-pandemic 2019, amounting to $858 per trip, co-head of the inbound tourism committee of the Russian Union of Travel Industry, Alexey Vengin, said during the union’s strategic session.

"If we divide the export of services (total amount of expenses by foreigners visiting Russia when they make inbound tourist trips - TASS) by the number of trips, it turns out that each foreign tourist spent $435 on a trip to Russia in 2019, and according to the results of the first three quarters of 2023, this amount was $858. <…> The reason, probably, is firstly "that our commuter trips have sharply decreased, especially on the western borders. And secondly, prices for tourist services in Russia are growing to one degree or another," he said.

Vengin noted that the total amount of tourism spending in Russia for the first three quarters of 2023 amounted to $5.1 billion, while for the same period in 2019 it was $8.6 billion.

"The number of trips totaled 19 million in 2019 and almost 6 million in 2023. Here the number of trips is taken based on data from Rosstat (Russia’s statistics service - TASS) in three areas. According to the federal law, these are tourism, business and private visits. As for the number of foreigners - also according to Rosstat - in 2019 there were almost 11 million people in the first three quarters, in the first three quarters of 2023 there were 2.2 million," the expert said.