Russian fed agency reports record number of Chinese tourists in 2017

CHIANG MAI CITY /Thailand/, January 23. /TASS/. Russia saw a record number of Chinese tourists in 2017 - about 1.5 million, Oleg Safonov, the head of the Russian delegation to the ASEAN Tourism Forum underway here, told TASS on Tuesday. "The flow of tourists between Russia and China is growing rapidly in the inbound and outbound directions simultaneously," Safonov said. "We received about 1.5 million Chinese tourists last year and this is a record big number. The final data will be available somewhat later." He said that, according to the information provided by the Russian federal agency for tourism (Rostourism), as many as 1.3 million Chinese tourists came to Russia in 2016. At present, the inbound flow of tourists from Asia outstrips the inbound flow of tourists from Europe, Safonov said, adding that the influx of travelers from Japan and South Korea was demonstrating growth, too. "Korean tourists never regarded Russia as a tourist destination before 2014 but situation changed radically after the two countries signed an agreement on visa-free traveling," he said. "While previously many more Russians made trips to [South] Korea [than the Koreans to Russia - TASS], now both tourist flows have evened out." Rostourism says the number of tourists from South Korea grew 49 percent from January through September 2017 and reached 206,000 people. Over the period under review, some 169,000 Russians visited South Korea - up 19 percent from the same months in 2016. "We’re doing serious work with our ASEAN counterparts and we can see big prospects in Asia in terms of development of [inbound] tourism," Safonov said. Thailand, too, is showing intensive interest in Russia’s tour products. A 56 percent increase in the number of Thai tourists (33,000 people in all), who visited Russia from January through September 2017, offers an ample proof of this. ASEAN membership embraces Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Russia ASEAN’s dialogue partner. Read more