According to Deputy Minister of culture of Russia Alla Manilova: “In 2015, there has been a significant decline in incoming tourism from France to Russia, it made up -15% compared to 2014”. In 2016, it grew by 5-6%.
80% of French tourists are coming to see the sights of Saint-Petersburg, Moscow and several other cities. “Among French tourists there is a growing demand for historical places outside the two capitals, like the global routes: “Russian estate”, “Golden ring” and “Silver necklace”, and also lake Baikal”, – said A. Manilova.
In January 2017 in the direction of France-Russia +64% more tickets were booked than the year before. According to I. Korotkova (NAT. The Agency of France in the CIS, Atout France), it is encouraging.
At the same time at the exhibition “Open your Russia” member of the Federation Council Committee on social policy I. Fomin said that the country is very modest in spending money for promotion of tourism abroad and therefore it is difficult to achieve more tangible results. “For comparison, Berlin spends for the same purpose 6 min euros per year, our neighbours — Finns – spend on promoting their country’s 26 million euros. While our entire Russian Federation spends about 1.5 million euros, and a small Finland — 26 million euros,” — said Fomin.
According to the words of Alla Manilova, the Russian outbound tourism in General showed growth in 2016 at around 10-15%.
Inbound tourism is not very successful too. Experts saw a revival during the last year in the development of domestic tourism, mainly caused by closure of Egypt and Turkey destinations. As said the head of the Federal tourism Agency Oleg Safonov, more than 50 million of our fellow citizens have traveled in 2016 in Russia. The last year the Russians, according to the Association of tour operators of Russia (ATOR), spent $10 billion on travel in the country (+88%). Unfortunately, the travel intentions of the Russians may change in connection with the opening of their favorite Asian destinations.
Sources:
Russian Ministry of Culture, Tourprom, Rianovosti
