Tourist flow from Russia to Europe drops by a quarter

MOSCOW, August 20 (Itar-Tass) - Russian tourists are now rarer guests to European coasts and prefer travelling around Russia, executive director of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR) Maya Lomidze said on Wednesday. “Preliminary decline in travelling to Europe is about 25 percent, while Turkey added 15 percent, Egypt - 2-3 percent year-on-year. And Russia - 25 percent,” she said adding this was statistics about organized tourism. Speaking about the sanctions, the expert said “no tours for Parmesan cheese were yet organized”. Fears about Schengen visa issuance also remained unconfirmed, though somewhat influenced the Russian tourists’ preferences. “The sanctions as such did not affect the tourism market but some decline was recorded at the start of the month as some tourists were reluctant, could not decide and finally opted for visa-free countries,” said Lomidze. In 2013, Russia ranked third among European countries by number of trips abroad (32 million). People from Moscow and St. Petersburg firmly maintain leadership, according to World Travel Monitor. Russians’ favourite last year was Turkey visited by 4.3 million. Germany that attracted 2.1 million Russians ranked third followed by China (2 million). 27 million of foreign trips were private; 12.5 million trips were for beach holidays followed by excursions and world trips (3.8 million and 1.3 million respectively). Average trip budget of 51 percent of Russians totaled about 1,200 euros per capita, which is almost similar to that of Europeans. Learn more on itar-tass.com