Wikipedia

Tourism in Russia

Tourism in Russia plummeted in 2022. Only 200,100 foreigners visited Russia in 2022, a drop of 96.1% from pre-pandemic/pre-Russian invasion of Ukraine years.[1] Earlier, Russia had seen rapid growth since the late Soviet times, first domestic tourism and then international tourism as well.[2] Russia had formerly been among the most popular tourist destinations in the world, though it fell off that list in 2022. Not including Crimea, the country contains 23 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, while more are on UNESCO's tentative lists.[3]

St. Basil's Cathedral in Red Square

Tourist routes in Russia include a travel around the Golden Ring of ancient cities, cruises on the rivers including the Volga, and long journeys on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Diverse regions and ethnic cultures of Russia offer different foods and souvenirs, and show a variety of traditions, including Russian Maslenitsa, Tatar Sabantuy, or Siberian shamanist rituals. In 2013, Russia was visited by 33 million tourists, making it the ninth-most visited country in the world and the seventh-most visited in Europe.[4]

History

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After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, several governments, including the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada have issued travel advisories calling on their nationals to avoid travel to Russia.[5] For the same reason, airline routes between Russia and Western countries were closed, and supply of spare parts for some domestic airline traffic inside Russia became a challenge.[6]

Only 200,100 foreigners visited Russia in 2022, a drop of 96.1 percent from the pre-pandemic period.[1] Most of Europe closed its airspace to Russian planes a few days after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.[1] Foreign-issued Visa and Mastercard cards no longer work in Russia, further impacting tourism.[1]

Cultural tourism

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Kizhi in north-west Russia
 
Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street in Nizhny Novgorod

Tourist destinations in Russia include Saint Petersburg (which appeared in the list of top visited cities of Europe in 2010) and Moscow, the current and the former capitals of the country. Moscow and Saint Petersburg museums such as Hermitage and Tretyakov Gallery, theaters including Bolshoi and Mariinsky, churches such as Saint Basil's Cathedral, Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Saint Isaac's Cathedral and Church of the Savior on Blood, fortifications such as the Kremlin and Peter and Paul Fortress, squares such as Red Square and Palace Square, and streets such as Tverskaya and Nevsky Prospect. Palaces and parks are found in the former imperial residences in the suburbs of Moscow (Kolomenskoye, Tsaritsyno) and Saint Petersburg (Peterhof, Strelna, Oranienbaum, Gatchina, Pavlovsk Palace, Tsarskoye Selo). Moscow contains Soviet-era buildings along with modern skyscrapers, while Saint Petersburg has classical architecture, rivers, channels and bridges.[citation needed]

 
Grand Cascade in Peterhof in Saint Petersburg

Nizhny Novgorod is the capital of the Volga region. Nizhny Novgorod is divided into two parts by the Oka River. The Upper City is its historical part. The Lower City is its industrial and commercial part. Here are the Fair, the old Sormovo and Kanavino, GAZ and Sotsgorod (the so-called "city in the city"), the railway terminal, and the airport.[citation needed]

Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, shows a mix of Christian Russian and Muslim Tatar cultures.[citation needed]

Sakha Republic proposes to use former forced labour camps as a tourist attraction.[7] Poles visit places of Communist crimes, e.g., of the Katyn massacre and Solovetsky Islands.[8][9]

Museums

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Russia is home to museums that include the Tretyakov Gallery, the Kremlin Armoury and the State Historical Museum in Moscow, the Hermitage Museum, and the Russian Museum in St Petersburg, the Kazan Kremlin in Kazan, etc.[citation needed] Russia has museums related to its literary and classical music heritage, such as Yasnaya Polyana associated with Leo Tolstoy, the Mikhaylovskoye Museum Reserve associated with Alexander Pushkin, the Dostoyevsky Museum, the Tchaikovsky State House-Museum, and the Rimsky-Korsakov Apartment and Museum.[citation needed]

Museums related to Russia's military history and military hardware include the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War on Poklonnaya Hill, the Central Naval Museum in St Petersburg, the Battle of Stalingrad Museum in Volgograd.[citation needed] Museums related to science and technology include the Polytechnic Museum of Moscow, and the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics.

The GULAG History Museum tells the story about the GULAG camps in Siberia.[10]

 
The State Historical Museum
 
Russian Museum
 
Museum of the Great Patriotic War, Moscow
 
The Hermitage Museum

Nature tourism

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In Russia, Nature Reserves have history and it has its own word of definition Zapovedniks (Russian: заповедник, plural заповедники, ) more than 100 Nature Reserves exist in Russia and more than 50 National Parks. National parks and sanctuaries of Russia include the Baikal Nature Reserve, the Altai Nature Reserve, the Lazovsky Nature Reserve, the Kedrovaya Pad Nature Reserve, the Curonian Spit National Park, the Valdaysky National Park, the Baikal-Lena Nature Reserve, the Ilmen Nature Reserve. The Seven Wonders of Russia include Lake Baikal, Valley of Geysers, Manpupuner rock formations, Kizhi Island, and Mount Elbrus Other areas include Republic of Adygea where Fisht Mountain is located, Chechnya Republic where Lake Kezenoyam is located.[11]

 
The Valley of Geysers in Kamchatka Peninsula
 
Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world and the biggest fresh-water lake by volume
 
Mount Elbrus with its two peaks
 
The Manpupuner rock formations

Health tourism

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Narzan Gallery building in Kislovodsk housing a dozen fountains of both hot and cold mineral-rich water

Mineral spa resorts have been established across Russia in such regions as Kamchatka Krai, Altai Krai, Krasnodar Krai, Stavropol Krai, North Caucasus region of Russia.[12] Some cites have natural hot spring water during winter and some of Russian cities are called Russian Spa town, including Pyatigorsk, Yessentuki, Kislovodsk, Zheleznovodsk and Mineralnye Vody; these towns are jointly known as the Caucasian Mineral Waters.

Russia has one of the largest water borders in world, but only the more Southern regions are suitable for resort tourism. The warm subtropical Black Sea coast of Russia is the site for some seaside resorts such as Sochi and Tuapse.[citation needed]

Winter sport

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A vast part of Russian territory is in Subarctic climate and humid continental climate, and that is why it is cold. In addition, Russia is mountainous in regions like Northern Caucasus, Altai Krai and Kamchatka Peninsula. The Highest peak in Europe, Mount Elbrus, is in Russia, which makes Russia a place for Winter sport. Ski resorts are in Russia. A ski resort in Russia is Sochi and its Krasnaya Polyana. Other ski resorts in Russia are Dombay in Karachay–Cherkessia in Northern Caucasus.[citation needed]

 
The Gornaya Karusel in Sochi
 
Dombay
 
The Sheregesh in Kemerovo Oblast
 
Igora ski resort

Medical tourism

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Russia is a destination for medical tourism. A factor in its popularity was the relatively weak ruble post-2014, which saw the industry grow from some 110 thousand clients in 2017[13] to some 728 thousand clients in the first five months of 2020.[14] Stomatology is the most used (44% of patients), genecology and urology follow (25% taken together), the other services are plastic surgery (10%), ophthalmology (10%), and cardiology (5%).[13] Most clients come from the CIS states, where receiving high-tech medical assistance can be problematic, particularly from Central Asia, which amounts for 62% of all patients; but also from Eastern Europe (32%), South and East Asia (5%).[15] In addition to price and accessibility of complex manipulations, the difference in regulations between Russia and the clients' own nations is a driving factor for receiving care in Russia: for instance, in vitro fertilization is illegal in China, but legal in Russia.[14]

Religious tourism

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Religious tourism has two main subtypes: pilgrimage, as travel done for religious or spiritual purposes, and the viewing of religious monuments and artefacts, as a kind of sightseeing. The former is relatively insignificant for the Russian tourism industry, amounting for approximately 100 thousands pilgrims yearly.[16] The latter is more important.[citation needed] Orthodox Christianity being the most common religion in Russia, it also accounts for most religious monuments across the country.[citation needed]

Multiple pieces of Islamic religious architectural art are scattered across the country, from mosques to maqāms. They are mostly clustered in the historically Muslim regions.[citation needed]

Russia has a Buddhist minority.[citation needed]

Foreign travel statistics

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In 2013, 27 million international tourists arrived in Russia, generating US$11.2 billion in international tourism revenue for the country.[17][failed verification] Including domestic and international tourism, the industry directly contributed RUB860 billion to the Russian GDP and supported 966,500 jobs in the country.[18]

However, only 200,100 foreigners visited Russia in 2022, a drop of 96.1 percent.[1]

This section is transcluded from Visa policy of Russia. (edit | history)

According to the Border Service of the Federal Security Service and the Federal State Statistics Service, most visitors arriving to Russia were from the following countries of nationality:[19]

Nationality Total (includes all types of purposes of visits)
2020 2019 2018 2017 2016
  Ukraine   3,648,972   8,646,295   9,177,272   9,817,008   9,737,405
  Kazakhstan   1,426,727   4,324,856   4,241,244   4,137,613   4,686,059
  Uzbekistan   720,041   2,588,922   2,354,642   2,350,007   2,116,480
  Abkhazia   414,927   600,399   492,310   436,368   415,606
  Tajikistan   401,888   1,557,148   1,340,975   1,350,356   1,293,270
  Kyrgyzstan   299,611   959,130   859,735   836,946   792,042
  Azerbaijan   269,807   1,175,045   1,145,327   1,143,243   1,156,703
  Armenia   209,812   816,454   825,200   857,212   833,577
  Finland   180,110   938,693   994,098   1,063,348   1,376,646
  Belarus   176,601   440,438   403,597   382,022   320,372
  China   155,594   2,257,039   2,030,319   1,780,200   1,565,524
  Moldova   154,766   614,043   698,027   803,916   699,112
  Philippines   133,414   193,031   179,672   172,278   160,734
  Poland   133,014   680,382   728,546   765,544   1,056,013
  Turkey   132,372   187,612   196,061   181,285   120,035
  Estonia   105,584   540,062   496,582   432,803   433,926
  Latvia   93,865   365,783   355,641   330,266   360,603
Stateless persons   74,215   303,851   327,613   318,393   321,383
  South Ossetia   70,470   147,355   143,501   137,427   115,382
  Germany   69,456   744,473   701,576   629,082   613,370
  Lithuania   57,883   253,950   243,190   256,009   281,168
  Mongolia   56,625   394,994   401,485   416,293   542,196
  Georgia   56,266   120,086   123,732   117,204   65,378
  India   46,025   180,567   159,865   130,400   108,498
  South Korea   42,297   453,796   386,413   276,560   181,024
  France   38,391   249,410   236,583   211,673   201,260
  Israel   32,402   260,472   228,530   185,426   182,438
  Italy   28,432   251,751   225,776   206,860   208,689
  Serbia   26,731   84,852   96,730   87,899   79,575
  United Kingdom   22,471   194,956   216,029   193,522   190,278
  Turkmenistan   21,680   92,616   82,675   65,749   56,258
  Vietnam   19,477   90,565   84,612   77,391   66,939
  United States   19,306   300,933   337,395   293,011   248,990
  Japan   16,048   127,696   119,240   114,207   95,675
  Netherlands   14,663   84,651   80,540   73,729   68,017
  Egypt   13,481   28,039   39,402
  Iran   12,725   54,469   61,007   91,862   75,203
  Thailand   12,183   72,031   64,898   52,697   32,222
  Greece   11,732   44,784   42,967   41,205   46,730
  Bulgaria   10,255   41,083   40,836   39,191   41,290
  Austria   9,977   67,429   64,500   59,501   56,663
  Czech Republic   9,874   57,835   53,739   49,232   47,288
  Indonesia   9,671   40,284   31,695   25,425   20,211
  Spain   9,565   140,181   123,652   118,642   116,032
  Romania   9,335   32,779   29,920   26,330   23,684
  Norway   8,506   52,022   51,003   53,197   46,631
  Sweden   8,308   43,198   55,329   32,095   39,153
  Belgium   7,534   42,473   48,270   38,868   37,492
  Croatia   7,480   19,243   36,045
   Switzerland   7,407   55,747   59,828   53,167   52,656
  Cuba   6,631   29,169   27,882   30,711   26,667
  Hungary   5,680   35,541   32,998   25,659   25,313
  Denmark   5,016 24,662   31,308
Total   n/a   32,866,265  32,550,677  32,035,443   31,466,538
Visa statistics

Most visas were issued in the following countries:

Location Number of visas issued in
2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015
  Germany 58,953 410,780 360,582 336,423 324,959 299,791
  China 41,280 453,338 406,831 371,489 339,030 357,040
  Turkey 34,162 83,169 81,177 79,898 45,209 33,698
  France 27,059 172,870 146,491 145,576 131,229 119,314
  United Kingdom 20,770 92,573 88,290 96,246 93,169 87,863
  Italy 18,272 162,529 139,797 129,124 129,038 117,123
  United States 16,736 106,250 98,936 95,630 94,682 85,974
  Finland 14,271 110,480 105,157 108,792 116,462 112,655
  Latvia 11,295 78,727 79,082 74,382 77,574 70,328
  Poland 10,535 67,666 62,840 59,187 54,885 43,038
Total 452 161 3,090,538 2,758,893 2,687,146 2,505,457 2,283,850

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "Tourism collapses in Russia following western sanctions". Al Arabiya English. 9 February 2023.
  2. ^ "Number of inbound tourism visits to Russia from 2014 to 2022", Statista, 27 April 2023
  3. ^ "UNESCO World Heritage Centre – Tentative Lists". UNESCO. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  4. ^ "Tourism Highlights 2014" (PDF). E-unwto.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 January 2015. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  5. ^ "Europe: Russia extends flight suspension at multiple southern and central airports until April 19 /update 40". Europe: Russia extends flight suspension at multiple southern and central airports until April 19 /update 40 | Crisis24.
  6. ^ "Sanctions: Russia's commercial airlines face a slow death", Deutsche Welle, 18 November 2022
  7. ^ Luhn, Alec (26 March 2014). "Russia's Sakha Republic proposes 'tourist camps' on former gulag sites". The Guardian.
  8. ^ "Strona domeny katyn.pl". Katyn.pl. Archived from the original on 14 April 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  9. ^ Itaka, Biuro Podróży. "Tajemnice Wysp Sołowieckich – ITAKA". Itaka.pl. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  10. ^ "GULAG History Museum". gmig.ru.
  11. ^ "40 most beautiful places in Russia". Russianblogger.me. Retrieved 30 September 2015.
  12. ^ "Hit the spa Russian style: Mineral springs and hot tub substitutes". 2 March 2016.
  13. ^ a b "Медицинский туризм: почему иностранцы лечатся в России, а россияне — за границей" [Medical tourism: why foreigners seek treatment in Russia, and Russians abroad]. forbes.ru (in Russian). 14 August 2018. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  14. ^ a b "Какое лечение в России выбирают иностранцы" [What kind of medical treatment do foreigners choose in Russia]. ratanews.ru (in Russian). RATA news. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  15. ^ Daykhes, Arkady N.; Jakovljevic, Mihajlo; Reshetnikov, Vladimir A.; Kozlov, Vasily V. (2020). "Promises and Hurdles of Medical Tourism Development in the Russian Federation". Frontiers in Psychology. 11: 1380. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01380. PMC 7324547. PMID 32655455.
  16. ^ "Туристов отделят от паломников с 1 ноября" [Starting November 1, tourists will be separated from pilgrims]. atorus.ru (in Russian). Ассоциация Туроператоров. 23 July 2019. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  17. ^ "Tourism Highlights 2013 edition" (PDF). Dtxtq4w60xqpw.cloudfront.net. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 November 2013. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
  18. ^ "2013 Travel & Tourism Economic Impact Report Russian Federation" (PDF). Wttc.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 27 November 2013.
  19. ^ "Паспорт набора данных "Визы по странам"" (in Russian). Консульский департамент МИД России. Archived from the original on 9 August 2020. Retrieved 15 April 2020.
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Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Russia.
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